Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales
"What thinkest thou is most talked of in the countryside?" saith she.
"I wot not," saith Biarni: "many men are unnoteworthy of their words," saith he.
"Well," says she, "this is oftenest in men's mouths, 'What will Thorstein Staff-smitten do that thou wilt think thou must needs avenge?' He hath now slain three of thy house-carles: and thy Thingmen think that there is no upholding in thee if this be unavenged; and the hands laid on knee are ill-laid for thee."
Biarni answereth: "Now it comes to that which is said: 'None will be warned by another's woe;' yet will I hearken to what thou sayest. Few men though hath Thorstein slain sackless."
Therewith they drop this talk and sleep away the night.
On the morrow wakeneth Rannveig as Biarni took down his shield, and asked him what he would?
He answereth: "We shall shift and share honour between us in Sunnudale today, Thorstein and I."
"How many in company?" saith she
"I will not drag a host against Thorstein," saith he. "I shall fare alone."
"Do it not," saith she, "to risk thyself alone under the weapons of that man of Hell!"
Said Biarni: "Yea, dost thou not after the fashion of women, bewailing now what ye egged on to then? A long while oft I bare the taunts both of thee and of others, but it will not avail to stay me when I will be afoot."
So fareth now Biarni to Sunnudale, where stood Thorstein in the door, and certain words went between them. Said Biarni: "Today shalt go with me, Thorstein, to the single-fight on yonder knoll amidst the home-mead."
"All is lacking to me," said Thorstein, "that I might fight with thee: but I will get me abroad so soon as a ship saileth: for I know of thy manliness, that thou wilt get work done for my father if I fare from him."
"It availeth not to cry off," said Biarni.
"Give me leave then to see my father first," said Thorstein.
"Yea, sure," saith Biarni.
So Thorstein went in and told his father that Biarni was come thither, who bade him to single-fight. Old Thorarin answered---
"A man must look for it if he have to do with one mightier than he, and abide in the same countryside with him, and hath done him some dishonour, that he will not live to wear out many shirts. Nor may I mourn for thee, for meseemeth thou hast earned it: so take thy weapons and do thy manliest. Time has been when I would not have budged before such as Biarni: yet is he the greatest of champions. Now would I rather lose thee than have a coward son."
So Thorstein went out, and then they went to the Knoll, and fell a-fighting eagerly, smiting the armour sorely from each other. And when they had fought a long while, Biarni said to Thorstein: "I am athirst, for I am more unwont to the work than thou."
"Go thou to the brook and drink, then," said Thorstein.
That did Biarni, and laid his sword down beside him. Thorstein took up the sword and looked on it, and said: "This sword thou wilt not have had in Bodvarsdale."
Biarni answered not, and they went up again on to the Knoll, and fought for an hour's space; and Biarni deemed the man skilled of fight, and faster on foot than he had looked for.
"Many haps hinder me today," said Biarni: "now is my shoe-tie loose."
"Bind it up, then," said Thorstein.
So Biarni stoops down; but Thorstein went in and brought out two shields and a sword, and went to the Knoll to Biarni, and said to him----
"Here is a shield and a sword which my father sendeth thee, and the blade will not dull more in smiting than that which thou hast had heretofore. And for me, I am loth to stand shieldless any longer before thy strokes; nay, I were fain to leave this play, for I fear me that thy luck will go further than my lucklessness: and every lad listeth to live if he may rule the rede."
"It availeth not to beg off," said Biarni; "we shall fight on yet."
"I will not smite first," said Thorstein.
Then Biarni smote away all the shield from Thorstein, and after Thorstein smote the shield from Biarni.
"A great stroke," said Biarni.
Thorstein answered: "Thine was no less."
Biarni said: "Better biteth now that same weapon of thine which thou hast borne all day afore."
Thorstein said: "I would spare myself an illhap if I might; and with thee I fight afeard: I will let all the matter lie under thy dooming."
And now it was Biarni's turn to smite, and they were both shieldless. So Biarni said: "It will be an ill bargain to take a crime to one instead of a good-hap: I shall deem me well paid for my three house-carles by thee alone if thou wilt be true to me."
Thorstein answereth: "Time and place served me today that I might have bewrayed thee, if so be my haplessness had been mightier than thy good hap: I will not bewray thee."
"I see of thee," said Biarni, "that thou art peerless among men. Give me leave to go in to thy father, and tell him such things as I will."
"Go thou in as for me," said Thorstein, "but fare thou warily."
So Biarni went in, and to the shut-bed wherein lay the carle Thorarin. Thorarin asked who went there; and Biarni named himself.
"What tidings tellest thou me, my Biarni?" said Thorarin.
"The slaying of Thorstein thy son," said Biarni.
"Made he any defence?" said Thorarin.
"I think no man hath been better man at arms than was Thorstein thy son."
"Nought woundrous," said the old man; "though thou wert hard to deal with in Bodvarsdale if thou hast overcome my son."
Then said Biarni: "I bid thee to Hof, and thou shalt sit in the second high-seat whiles thou livest, and I will be to thee in a son's stead."
"So it fareth with me," said the old man, "as with them who have no might, that: 'Oft is the fool fain of promise.' But such are the promises of you great men, when ye will appease a man after such haps as this, that it is a month's rest to us, and thereafter are we held even as worthy as other poor wretches, and no sooner for all that do our sorrows wear out. Nevertheless, he who taketh handsel of such a man as thee may be well content with his lot, when matters are to be doomed on; and this handsel will I take of thee. So come thou on to my shut-bed floor, and draw very nigh, for the old carle tottereth on his feet now with eld and feebleness; nor deem it so but my dead son yet runneth in my head."
So Biarni went up on to the shut-bed floor, and took old Thorarin by the hand, and found him fumbling with a sax which he had a mind to thrust into Biarni. So he drew aback his hand and said: "Wretchedest of old carles! now shall it go as meet is betwixt us! Thorstein thy son lives, and shall home with me to Hof: but I will get thee thralls to work for thee, nor shalt thou want for aught while thou livest."
So Thorstein fared home to Hof with Biarni, and served him till his death-day, and was deemed peerless of any man for manhood and courage.
Biarni kept his honour still, and waxed ever in friendship and good conditions the older he grew; and was the best proven of all men, and was a man of great faith in his latter days. He fared abroad and went south, and in that journey died, and resteth in the burg called Valeri, a little way hitherward from Rome-town. Biarni was a man happy of kin: his son was Skeggbroddi, much told of in tale, a man peerless in his days.
So here an end of telling of Thorstein Staff-smitten.
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