Автор литература - Njal's Saga

earth.

After that he hewed at Hallbjorn and caught him on the shield,

and the blow passed through the shield, and so down and cut off

his great toe. Holmstein hurled a spear at Kari, but he caught

it in the air, and sent it back, and it was a man’s death in

Flosi’s band.

Thorgeir Craggeir came up to where Hallbjorn the Strong was

in front, and Thorgeir made such a spear-thrust at him with his

left hand that Hallbjorn fell before it, and had hard work to get

on his feet again, and turned away from the fight there and then.

Then Thorgeir met Thorwalld Kettle Rumble’s son, and hewed at him

at once with the axe, “the ogress of war,” which Skarphedinn had

owned. Thorwalld threw his shield before him, and Thorgeir hewed

the shield and cleft it from top to bottom, but the upper horn of

the axe made its way into his breast, and passed into his trunk,

and Thorwalld fell and was dead at once.

Now it must be told how Asgrim Ellidagrim’s son, and Thorhall his

son, Hjallti Skeggi’s son, and Gizur the White, made an onslaught

where Flosi and the sons of Sigfus and the other burners were; —

then there was a very hard fight, and the end of it was that they

pressed on so hard, that Flosi and his men gave way before them.

Gudmund the Powerful, and Mord Valgard’s son, and Thorgeir

Craggeir, made their onslaught where the Axefirthers and

Eastfirthers, and the men of Reykdale stood, and there too there

was a very hard fight.

Kari Solmund’s son came up where Bjarni Broddhelgi’s son had the

lead. Kari caught up a spear and thrust at him, and the blow

fell on his shield. Bjarni slipped the shield on one side of

him, else it had gone straight through him. Then he cut at Kari

and aimed at his leg, but Kari drew back his leg and turned short

round on his heel, and Bjarni missed him. Kari cut at once at

him, and then a man ran forward and threw his shield before

Bjarni. Kari cleft the shield in twain, and the point of the

sword caught his thigh, and ripped up the whole leg down to the

ankle. That man fell there and then, and was ever after a

cripple so long as he lived.

Then Kari clutched his spear with both hands, and turned on

Bjarni and thrust at him; he saw he had no other chance but to

throw himself down sidelong away from the blow, but as soon as

ever Bjarni found his feet, away he fell back out of the fight.

Thorgeir Craggeir and Gizur the White fell on there where

Holmstein the son of Bersi the Wise, and Thorkel Geiti’s son were

leaders, and the end of the struggle was, that Holmstein and

Thorkel gave way, and then arose a mighty hooting after them from

the men of Gudmund the Powerful.

Thorwalld Tjorfi’s son of Lightwater got a great wound, he was

shot in the forearm, and men thought that Halldor Gudmund the

Powerful’s son had hurled the spear, but he bore that wound about

with him all his life long, and got no atonement for it.

Now there was a mighty throng. But though we here tell of some

of the deeds that were done, still there are far many more of

which men have handed down no stories.

Flosi had told them that they should make for the stronghold in

the Great Rift if they were worsted, “For there,” said he, “they

will only be able to attack us on one side.” But the band which

Hall of the Side and his son Ljot led, had fallen away out of the

fight before the onslaught of that father and son, Asgrim and

Thorhall. They turned down east of Axewater, and Hall said,

“This is a sad state of things when the whole host of men at the

Thing fight, and I would, kinsman Ljot, that we begged us help

even though that be brought against us by some men, and that we

part them. Thou shalt wait for me at the foot of the bridge, and

I will go to the booths and beg for help.”

“If I see,” said Ljot, “that Flosi and his men need help from our

men, then I will at once run up and aid them.”

“Thou wilt do in that as thou pleasest,” says Hall, “but I pray

thee to wait for me here.”

Now flight breaks out in Flosi’s band, and they all fly west

across Axewater; but Asgrim and Gizur the White went after them

and all their host. Flosi and his men turned down between the

river and the Outwork booth. Snorri the Priest had drawn up his

men there in array, so thick that they could not pass that way,

and Snorri the Priest called out then to Flosi, “Why fare ye in

such haste, or who chase you?”

“Thou askest not this,” answered Flosi, “because thou dost not

know it already; but whose fault is it that we cannot get to the

stronghold in the Great Rift?”

“It is not my fault,” says Snorri, “but it is quite true that I

know whose fault it is, and I will tell thee if thou wilt; it is

the fault of Thorwalld Cropbeard and Kol.”

They were both then dead, but they had been the worst men in all

Flosi’s band.

Again Snorri said to his men, “Now do both, cut at them and

thrust at them, and drive them away hence, they will then hold

out but a short while here, if the others attack them from below;

but then ye shall not go after them, but let both sides shift for

themselves.”

The son of Skapti Thorod’s son was Thorstein gapemouth, as was

written before, he was in the battle with Gudmund the Powerful,

his father-in-law, and as soon as Skapti knew that, he went to

the booth of Snorri the Priest, and meant to beg for help to part

them; but just before he had got as far as the door of Snorri’s

booth, there the battle was hottest of all. Asgrim and his

friends, and his men were just coming up thither, and then

Thorhall said to his father Asgrim, “See there now is Skapti

Thorod’s son, father.”

“I see him kinsman,” said Asgrim, and then he shot a spear at

Skapti, and struck him just below where the calf was fattest, and

so through both his legs. Skapti fell at the blow, and could not

get up again, and the only counsel they could take who were by,

was to drag Skapti flat on his face into the booth of a turf-cutter.

Then Asgrim and his men came up so fast that Flosi and his men

gave way before them south along the river to the booths of the

men of Modruvale. There there was a man outside one booth whose

name was Solvi; he was boiling broth in a great kettle, and had

just then taken the meat out, and the broth was boiling as hotly

as it could.

Solvi cast his eyes on the Eastfirthers as they fled, and they

were then just over against him, and then he said, “Can all these

cowards who fly here be Eastfirthers, and yet Thorkel Geiti’s

son, he ran by as fast as any one of them, and very great lies

have been told about him when men say that he is all heart, but

now no one ran faster than he.”

Hallbjorn the Strong was near by then, and said, “Thou shalt not

have it to say that we are all cowards.”

And with that he caught hold of him, and lifted him up aloft, and

thrust him head down into the broth-kettle. Solvi died at once;

but then a rush was made at Hallbjorn himself, and he had to turn

and fly.

Flosi threw a spear at Bruni Haflidi’s son, and caught him at the

waist, and that was his bane; he was one of Gudmund the

Powerful’s band.

Thorstein Hlenni’s son took the spear out of the wound, and

hurled it back at Flosi, and hit him on the leg, and he got a

great wound and fell; he rose up again at once.