Автор литература - Njal's Saga

fled, and tied his shoe-string. Then Kerthialfad asked why he

ran not as the others.

“Because,” said Thorstein, “I can’t get home to-night, since I

am at home out in Iceland.”

Kerthialfad gave him peace.

Hrafn the Red was chased out into a certain river; he thought he

saw there the pains of hell down below him, and he thought the

devils wanted to drag him to them.

Then Hrafn said, “Thy dog (2), Apostle Peter! hath run twice to

Rome, and he would run the third time if thou gavest him leave.”

Then the devils let him loose, and Hrafn got across the river.

Now Brodir saw that King Brian’s men were chasing the fleers, and

that there were few men by the shieldburg.

Then he rushed out of the wood, and broke through the shieldburg,

and hewed at the king.

The lad Takt threw his arm in the way, and the stroke took it off

and the king’s head too, but the king’s blood came on the lad’s

stump, and the stump was healed by it on the spot.

Then Brodir called out with a loud voice, “Now let man tell man

that Brodir felled Brian.”

Then men ran after those who were chasing the fleers, and they

were told that King Brian had fallen, and then they turned back

straightway, both Wolf the Quarrelsome and Kerthialfad.

Then they threw a ring round Brodir and his men, and threw

branches of trees upon them, and so Brodir was taken alive.

Wolf the Quarrelsome cut open his belly, and led him round and

round the trunk of a tree, and so wound all his entrails out of

him, and he did not die before they were all drawn out of him.

Brodir’s men were slain to a man.

After that they took King Brian’s body and laid it out. The

king’s head had grown fast to the trunk.

Fifteen men of the burners fell in Brian’s battle, and there,

too, fell Halldor the son of Gudmund the Powerful, and Erling

of Straumey.

On Good-Friday that event happened in Caithness that a man whose

name was Daurrud went out. He saw folk riding twelve together to

a bower, and there they were all lost to his sight. He went to

that bower and looked in through a window slit that was in it,

and saw that there were women inside, and they had set up a loom.

Men’s heads were the weights, but men’s entrails were the warp

and weft, a sword was the shuttle, and the reels were arrows.

They sang these songs, and he learnt them by heart:

THE WOOF OF WAR.

“See! warp is stretched

For warriors’ fall,

Lo! weft in loom

‘Tis wet with blood;

Now fight foreboding,

‘Neath friends’ swift fingers,

Our grey woof waxeth

With war’s alarms,

Our warp bloodred,

Our weft corseblue.

“This woof is y-woven

With entrails of men,

This warp is hardweighted

With heads of the slain,

Spears blood-besprinkled

For spindles we use,

Our loom ironbound,

And arrows our reels;

With swords for our shuttles

This war-woof we work;

So weave we, weird sisters,

Our warwinning woof.

“Now Warwinner walketh

To weave in her turn,

Now Swordswinger steppeth,

Now Swiftstroke, now Storm;

When they speed the shuttle

How spearheads shall flash!

Shields crash, and helmgnawer (3)

On harness bite hard!

“Wind we, wind swiftly

Our warwinning woof

Woof erst for king youthful

Foredoomed as his own,

Forth now we will ride,

Then through the ranks rushing

Be busy where friends

Blows blithe give and take.

“Wind we, wind swiftly

Our warwinning woof,

After that let us steadfastly

Stand by the brave king;

Then men shall mark mournful

Their shields red with gore,

How Swordstroke and Spearthrust

Stood stout by the prince.

“Wind we, wind swiftly

Our warwinning woof.

When sword-bearing rovers

To banners rush on,

Mind, maidens, we spare not

One life in the fray!

We corse-choosing sisters

Have charge of the slain.

“Now new-coming nations

That island shall rule,

Who on outlying headlands

Abode ere the fight;

I say that King mighty

To death now is done,

Now low before spearpoint

That Earl bows his head.

“Soon over all Ersemen

Sharp sorrow shall fall,

That woe to those warriors

Shall wane nevermore;

Our woof now is woven.

Now battlefield waste,

O’er land and o’er water

War tidings shall leap.

“Now surely ‘tis gruesome

To gaze all around.

When bloodred through heaven

Drives cloudrack o’er head;

Air soon shall be deep hued

With dying men’s blood

When this our spaedom

Comes speedy to pass.

“So cheerily chant we

Charms for the young king,

Come maidens lift loudly

His warwinning lay;

Let him who now listens

Learn well with his ears

And gladden brave swordsmen

With bursts of war’s song.

“Now mount we our horses,

Now bare we our brands,

Now haste we hard, maidens,

Hence far, far, away.”

Then they plucked down the Woof and tore it asunder, and each

kept what she had hold of.

Now Daurrud goes away from the Slit, and home; but they got on

their steeds and rode six to the south, and the other six to the

north.

A like event befell Brand Gneisti’s son in the Faroe Isles.

At Swinefell, in Iceland, blood came on the priest’s stole on

Good-Friday, so that he had to put it off.

At Thvattwater the priest thought he saw on Good-Friday a long

deep of the sea hard by the altar, and there he saw many awful

sights, and it was long ere he could sing the prayers.

This event happened in the Orkneys, that Hareck thought he saw

Earl Sigurd, and some men with him. Then Hareck took his horse

and rode to meet the earl. Men saw that they met and rode under

a brae, but they were never seen again, and not a scrap was ever

found of Hareck.

Earl Gilli in the Southern isles dreamed that a man came to him

and said his name was Hostfinn, and told him he was come from

Ireland.

The earl thought he asked him for tidings thence, and then he

sang this song:

“I have been where warriors wrestled,

High in Erin sang the sword,

Boss to boss met many bucklers,

Steel rung sharp on rattling helm;

I can tell of all their struggle;

Sigurd fell in flight of spears;

Brian fell, but kept his kingdom

Ere he lost one drop of blood.”

Those two, Flosi and the earl, talked much of this dream. A week

after, Hrafn the Red came thither, and told them all the tidings

of Brian’s battle, the fall of the king, and of Earl Sigurd, and

Brodir, and all the Vikings.

“What,” said Flosi, “hast thou to tell me of my men?

“They all fell there,” says Hrafn, “but thy brother-in-law

Thorstein took peace from Kerthialfad, and is now with him.”

Flosi told the earl that he would now go away, “For we have our

pilgrimage south to fulfil.”

The earl bade him go as he wished, and gave him a ship and all

else that he needed, and much silver.

Then they sailed to Wales, and stayed there a while.

ENDNOTES:

(1) “Shieldburg,” that is, a ring of men holding their shields

locked together.

(2) “Thy dog,” etc. Meaning that he would go a third time on a

pilgrimage to Rome if St. Peter helped him out of this

strait.

(3) “Helmgnawer,” the sword that bites helmets.

157. THE SLAYING OF KOL THORSTEIN’S SON