Part #5

        Ketilbjorn was so wealthy in loose goods that he bade his sons forge a cross beam of silver for the temple they were building, and when they would not do that, he took the silver by a yoke of oxen up to the top of the mountain, he and his thrall Haki and his bondwoman Bot, and there they hid the treasure so that it cannot be found. Thereupon he killed Haki in Hakiskard and Bot in Botskard. Teit had for wife Alof, the daughter of Bodvar of Vors, who was the son of Viking-Kari; their son was Gizur the White, the father of Bishop Isleif, the father of Bishop Gizur. Another son of Teit was Ketilbjorn, the father of Kol, the father of Thorkel, the father of Kol, the Bishop of the men in Wick (Norway). From Ketilbjorn and his wife many distinguished men have sprung.
        There was a man named Asgeir, the son of Ulf, to whom Ketil gave his daughter Thorgerd, and bestowed upon her as a dowry from home all the Lithe-lands above Hagagarth; he dwelt at Lithe the westernmost; their son was Geir the godi, and Thorgeir, the father of Bard of Mossfell. Eilif the Wealthy, the son of Onund Bill, got for wife Thorkatla, the daughter of Ketilbjorn, and as a dowry from home the lands of the Head were bestowed upon her; they abode at Head; their son was Thorir, the father of Thorarin "Sæling" (the Luxurious).
        Vethorm, the son of Vemund the Old, was a mighty hersir; he fled away from King Harald east into Jamta land and there cleared the woods for an abode. His son was called Holmfast, but Grim was the name of a sister's son of his; they were out in the western Viking raid and in the Hebrides they slew Earl Asbjorn Skerryblaze, and took there for war booty Alof, his wife, and Arneid, his daughter, who fell to Holmfast's lot, and by him was handed over to his father to be a bondmaiden of his. Grim got for wife Alof, the daughter of Thord the Wagging whom the Earl had had for wife before. Grim went to Iceland and took to him all Grimness up to Swine-water and abode at Onwardness (Ondurtunes) for four winters, and afterwards at Bowerfell; his son was Thorgils, who married Æsa, the sister of Gest, and their sons were Thorarin of Bowerfell and Jorund of Middlemead.
        Hallkel, the brother of Ketilbjorn by the same mother, came to Iceland and stayed with Ketilbjorn through the first winter; Ketilbjorn offered to give him land, but Hallkel deemed it the way of a mannikin to take gift land, so he challenged Grim either to give up his lands or to accept a Holmgang-fight. Grim fought on the Holm with Hallkel beneath Hallkell's-hillocks and fell there, and there Hallkel abode ever after. His sons were these: Otkel, whom Gunnar, the son of Hamundi slew, and Odd of Kidberg, the father of Hallbjorn, who was slain at Hallbjorn's-beacons, and also Hallkel, the father of Hallvard, the father of Thorstein, whom Einar the Shetlander slew. A son of Hallkel Oddson was Bjarni, the father of Hall, the father of Orm, the father of Bard, the father of Valgerd, the mother of Haldora, whom Bishop Magnus, the son of Gizur, had for wife. Now we come to the landtake of Ingolf, and the men who hereafter are told have taken up lands within his landtake.

Thorgrim Bill settles Bills-fell, and Steinraud, his freedman, gets the Waterlands. Hrolleif settles lands on the western side of the Axe-river, which flows across the Thingwall. Orm settles land east of the Warm-river (Hita). Alf of Agdir, from Norway, brings his ship into Alf's-os Inlet. Settles lands to west of Warm-river; resides at Gnupar.

Chapter XIII. Thorgrim Bill, the brother of Onund Bill, settled all lands above Thvera and abode at Bills-fell. A freedman of his was Steinraud, the son of Melpatrick in Ireland; he got for his own all the Waterlands and abode at Steinraud's-stead. Steinraud was the goodliest of men; his son was Thormod, the father of Kar, the father of Thormod, the father of Brand, the father of Thorir, who had for wife Helga, the daughter of Jon.
        Hrolleif, the son of Einar, the son of Olvir Bairncarle, came into Miry Creek at a time when all was settled along the sea. He took all lands up towards those of Steinmod on the western side of the Axe-river which flows across the Thingwall (Thing Vellir) and abode at Heathby for sundry winters. Then he challenged Eyvind in Kvigu-vagar (Heifer-creek) to choose between Holmgang or exchange of land with him, and Eyvind chose rather that they should exchange the lands. For some winters afterwards Eyvind abode at Heathby and went afterwards out to Walrusness to By-Skerries, but Hrolleif abode afterwards at Kvigu-vagar and there he is laid in how. His son was Sverting, the father of Grim the Speaker-at-law at Moss-fell.
        Orm the Old was the son of Earl Eyvind, the son of Earl Armod, the son of Earl Nereid the Old. Orm took land to the east of Warm-river unto Thvera and round about all Ingolf's-fell, and abode at Hvamm; his son was Darri, the father of Orn. Earl Eyvind was with Kjotvi the Wealthy against King Harald in Hafur's-firth.
        Alf of Agdir ran away before King Harald out of Agdir in Norway, and went to Iceland, and brought his ship into an inlet which is named after him, being called Alf's-os. He took to himself all lands to the west of Warm-river, and abode at Gnupar. Thorgrim, the son of Grimolf, was a brother's son of Alf, and went west to Iceland with him and took heritage after him, Alf having no children. A son of Thorgrim was Eyvind, the father of Thorodd the godi, and of Ozur, who had to wife Bera, the daughter of Egil Skallagrimsson. The mother of Thorgrim was Kormlöd, the daughter of Kearbhal, the King of the Irish. The daughter of Thorodd the godi was Helga, the mother of Grim the Babbler, the father of Ingjald, the father of Grim, the father of Bork, the father of Ragnhild, the father of Valgerd, the mother of Lord Erlend, the father of Hauk.

Note to Chapter XIII. The Plain of Thing Vellir. The Axe-river (Oxara) and the Althing.

        In connection with the Plain of Thing Vellir and the Axe-river, the following extract will be of interest: ----
        "Independently of its natural curiosities, Thing Vellir was most interesting on account of the historical associations connected with it. Here long ago, at a time when feudal despotism was the only government known throughout Europe, free Parliaments used to sit in peace and regulate the affairs of the young Icelandic Republic; and to this hour the precincts of its Commons House of Parliament are as distinct and unchanged as on the day when the high hearted fathers of the Settlement first consecrated them to the service of a free nation. By a freak of nature, as the subsiding plain of lava (with a centre area of 50 square miles) cracked and shivered into twenty thousand fissures, an irregular oval mass of about two hundred feet by fifty was left almost entirely surrounded by a crevice so deep and broad as to be utterly impassable; at one extremity alone a scanty causeway connected it with the adjoining level and allowed of access to its interior. It is true just at one point the encircling chasm grow so narrow as to be within the possibility of a jump; and an ancient worthy named Flosi, pursued by his enemies, did actually take it at a fly, but as leaping an inch short would have entailed certain drowning in the bright green waters that sleep forty feet below, you can conceive there never was much danger of this entrance becoming a thoroughfare. This spot then, erected by nature almost into a fortress, the founders of the Icelandic Constitution chose for the meetings of their Althing or Parliament, armed guards defended the entrace, while the grown bonders (bondi) deliberated in security within, to this day at the upper end of the place of meeting, may be seen three hummocks, where sat in state the Chiefs and Judges of the land.
        From the Althing we strolled over to the Almanna Gja (chasm) visiting the Pool of Execution on our way. The river from the plateau leaps over the precipice into the bottom of the Gja, and flows for a certain distance between its walls. At the foot of the fall the waters linger for a moment in dark, deep, brimming pool, hemmed in by a circle of ruined rocks, and to this pool in ancient days all women convicted of capital crimes were immediately taken and drowned. Witchcraft (15) seems to have been the principal weakness of ladies in those days throughout the Scandinavian countries.
        A walk of about twenty minutes brought us to the borders of the lake --- a glorious expanse of water fifteen miles long by eight miles broad, occupying a basin formed by the same hills, which must have arrested the further progress of the lava torrent. A lovelier scene I have seldom witnessed. In the foreground lay huge masses of rock and lava, tossed about like the ruins of a world, and washed by waters as bright and green as polished maluchite. Beyond a bevy of distant mountains, robed by transparent atmosphere in tints unknown to Europe, peeped over each other's shoulders into the silver mirror at their feet, while here and there from among their purple ridges, columns of white vapour rose like altar smoke toward the tranquil heaven." ---- Lord Dufferin's Letters from High Latitudes.

Thorir Harvestmirk settles Sealcreek (Selvag) and Creasy-wick. Steinun the Old buys from Ingolf, her kinsman, Walrusnes for a spotted cloak; gives land to her kinsman Eyvind. Herjolf, (16) mentioned before, gets land from Ingolf between Reekness and Veg. Herjolf, his grandson, fares to Greenland and is drawn into the ocean-whirl. In his ship a man from the Hebrides writes the Poem of "The Ocean Whirl."

Chapter XIV. Thorir Harvestmirk took to him Seal-creek (Selvag) and Krysuvik (Creasywick) but his son Hegg abode at Vag. Another son of his, Bodmod, was father of Thorarin, the father of Sugandi, the father of Thorvard, the father of Thorhild, the mother of Sigurd, the son of Thorgrim. The sons of Moldagnup settled Grindavik (Porpoise Bay) as is written before.
        Steinun the Old, a kinswoman of Ingolf, went out to Iceland, and was with Ingolf the first winter; he offered to give her the whole of Walrusnes west of Sharp-lava (Hvassahraun), but she gave for it a spotted cloak (17) and desired that that should pass for a bargain, as thus she would be more secure against disputes as to her title to the land. Herlaug, the brother of Skallagrim, had had Steinun for wife formerly, and their sons were Nial and Arnor.
        There was a man named Eyvind, a kinsman and foster son of Steinun, to him she gave land between Heifsr-creek-fell and Sharp-lava; his son was Egil, the father of Thorarin, the father of Sigmund, the father of Thorarna, the mother of Thorbjorn in Krysuvik, and of Alof, the mother of Finn the Speaker-at-Law, and of Freygerd, the mother of Lopt, the father of Gudlaug the smith. Herjolf, he of whom the story is before recorded, was a kinsman and a foster brother of Ingolf, hence Ingolf gave him land between Reekness (Reykjanes) and Vag; his son was Bard, the father of that Herjolf who went to Iceland and got into the ocean-whirl; on his ship was a man hailing from the Hebrides, who wrote the Ocean-whirl-drapa, a poem, whereof this is the beginning:

                Let all listen to our skaldship
                (The drink of the dwarf's hall).

        Asbjorn, the son of Ozur, a brother's son of Ingolf, took land between Lavaholt-brook (Hraunsholts-lækr) and Sharplava, the whole of Swansness, and abode at Skuli's-stead; his son was Egil, the father of Ozur, the father of Thorarin, the father of Olaf, the father of Svein-bjorn, the father of Styrkar, the father of Goatbjorn, the father of Thorstein and Gizur of Sealtarnness (Seltjarnarness).

Names of the noblest landtakemen. The land completely settled in sixty years. Names of the greatest Chieftains in the four Quarters at the end of 120 years. Most settlers from the west (British Islands) were baptised Christains. Relapse of their descendants into heathenism for about 120 years.

Chapter XV. Now have been gone over the landtakes which we have heard of as having taken place in Iceland.
        Of landtake men these have been the noblest in the Quarter of the Southlanders: Hrafn the Foolish, Ketil Salmon, Sighvat the Red, Hastein Atli's son, Ketilbjorn the Old, Ingolf, Orlyg the Old, Helgi Bjola, Kolgrim the Old, Bjorn Goldbearer, Onund Broadbeard.
        So many men of lore aver, that the whole land was settled in the course of sixty winters, so that since it has not been further peopled. (18) Then there were still alive many of the landtake men and their wives. But when the land had been peopled for sixty years (more) these were the greatest Chiefs of the land: ----
        In the Southlanders Quarter: Mord Gig, Jorund the godi, Geir the godi, Thorstein Ingolf's son, Tongue-Odd.
        In the Westfirthers Quarter: Egil Skallagrimsson, Thorgrim Kjallak's son, Thord the Yeller.
        In the North: Midfirth-Skeggi, Thorstein Ingimund's son, the Goddale men, the sons of Hjalti, Eyjolf, the son of Valgerd, Askel the godi.
        In the Eastfirthers Quarter: Thorstein the White, Hrafnkel the godi, Thorstein the father of Hall-o'-Side, Thord Freysgodi; Hrafn, the son of Salmon, had at that time the Chief Speakership-at-law. (19)
        Wise men say that sundry of the landtake men who took up their abode in Iceland were baptised, most indeed, of those who came from west beyond the sea; among these are mentioned Helgi the Lean, Orlyg the Old, Helgi Bjola, Jorund the Christian, Aud the Deep-minded, Ketil the Foolish, and yet some more of those who came from the west beyond the sea. Some of these held faithfully to their belief unto the day of their death, but in few cases did this pass on from parents to progeny, for the sons of some of these men reared Temples and did sacrifices, and wholly heathen the land remained for well-night a hundred winters. (20)

Notes:
15. It would seem from II, 9, page 44, that witches were at times tried by durádom or Court held at the door of the defendant, a sort of Court of the "first instance." [Back]
16. The adventures and Settlement of Ingolf and his companions are related in Part I, Chapter V, page 7. [Back]
17. Hecla = cloak or hood, hence Mount Hecla = the cloaked or hooded mountain; its hood is mist or vapour. [Back]
18. For census estimating bondi or landowners see III, 20; Page 162 note. Population in Iceland in A.D. 1801 was 46, 240. Population in Iceland in A.D. 1880 was 72, 442. Population in Iceland in A.D. 1888 was 69,224. Since 1870 there has been very great emigration to America, especially to the far northwest of Canada where an Icelandic community is formed and a newspaper issued in Icelandic. [Back]
19. Some of the names given in this list mark the time of the Sagas in whose events they took a very prominent part, e.g. Mord Gig in "Burnt Nial," and Egil the hero of the Egil Saga. [Back]
20. The Icelandic has a duodecimal system of notation, so one hundred as herementioned is equivalent to one hundred and twenty. --- Translator. [Back]