Chapter 58
Uspak Robs Alf The Little.
Thorir Chases Uspak.
Now on a night Uspak and his
men went into Thambardale fifteen in company, and set on the house of Alf
the Little, and drove him and all his men into the hall while they robbed
there, and bore thence four horseloads of goods.
From Firth-horn men had gotten ware of their goings, and therefore was a man sent to Tongue to tell Thorir. Thorir gathered men, and he was eighteen strong, and they went down to the firth-bottom. Then Thorir saw where Uspak and his men had passed him, and went east on the other side of Firth-horn; and when Uspak saw the chase, he said:
"Men are coming after us, and there will Thorir be going," says he; "and now will he be minded to pay me back for my blow wherewith I smote him last winter. They are eighteen, but we fifteen, yet better arrayed. Now it will not be easy to see which of us will be fainest of blows; but those horses which we have taken from Thambardale will be fain of home, yet never will I let that be taken from me which we have laid hands on; so two of us who are the worst armed shall drive the laden horses before us out to Ere, and let those men who are at home come to meet us; but we thirteen will withstand these men even as we may."
So they did as Uspak bade. But when Thorir came up, Uspak greeted him, and asked for tidings, and was soft-spoken, that so he might delay Thorir and his folk. Thorir asked whence they had those goods. Uspak says: "From Thambardale."
"How camest thou thereby?" says Thorir.
Says Uspak: "They were neither given, nor paid, nor sold at a price."
"Will ye let them go, and give them into our hands?" said Thorir.
Uspak said he could not bring himself to that, and therewith they ran each at each, and a fight befell; and Thorir and his men were of the eagerest, but Uspak and his folk defended themselves well and manly, yet some were wounded, and some slain.
Thorir had a bear-bill in his hand, and therewith he ran at Uspak and smote at him, but Uspak put the thrust from him, and whereas Thorir had thrown all his might into the blow, and there was nought before the bill, he fell on his knees and louted forward. Then Uspak smote Thorir on the back with: his axe, and loud rang the stroke; and Uspak said: "That shall stay thy long journeys, Thorir," says he.
"Maybe," says Thorir; "yet methinks a full day's journey may I go for all thee and that stroke of thine."
For Thorir had a chain-knife round his neck, as the fashion then was, and had cast it aback behind him, and the blow had come thereon, and he had but been scratched in the muscles on either side of his spine, and little enough withal.
Then ran up a fellow of Thorir's and smote at Uspak, but he thrust forth his axe, and the blow took the shaft thereof and struck it asunder, and down fell the axe. Then cried out Uspak, and bade his men flee away, and himself fell to running; but as soon as Thorir arose, he cast his bill at Uspak and smote him on the thigh, and cut through it on the outer side of the bone. Uspak drew the bill from the wound and cast it back, and it smote the man in the midst who had erst cut at Uspak, and down he fell dead to the earth.
Thereafter away ran Uspak and his following, and Thorir and his company chased them out along the foreshores well-nigh to Ere. Then came folk from the homestead, both men and women, and Thorir and his folk turned back.
And no more onslaughts were made on either side thenceforth through the winter.
At that meeting fell three of Uspak's men and one of Thorir's, but many were wounded on either side.
Chapter 59
Uspak And His Men At The
Strands.
They Give Up Their Work.
Snorri the Priest took up all
the cases of Alf the Little at the hands of Uspak and his men, and made
all those guilty at the Thorsness Thing; and after the Thing he went home
to Tongue, and sat at home until the time came for the court of forfeiture
to sit; (1) and then he went north
to Bitter with a great company. But when he came there, then was Uspak gone
with all his; and they had gone north to the Strands fifteen in company,
and had five keels. They were at the Strands through the summer, and did
there many unpeaceful deeds.
They set them down north in Wrackfirth, and gathered men to them, and thither came he who is called Raven and was bynamed the Viking. (2) He was nought but an ill-doer, and had lain out north about the Strands. There they wrought great warfare with robbing and slaying of men, and held all together till towards winter-nights.
Then gathered together the Strand-men, Olaf Eyvindson, of Drangar, and other bonders with him, and fell on them. They had there a work once more about their stead in Wrackfirth, and were well-nigh thirty in company. Olaf and his folk sat down before the work, and hard to deal with they deemed it to be. So both sides talked together, and the evil-doers offered to get them gone from the Strands, and do no more unpeaceful deeds there henceforth, while the others should depart from before the work; and whereas they deemed it nowise an easy play to have to do with them, they took that choice, and both sides bound themselves by oath to this settlement, and the bonders fared home withal.
Chapter 60
Uspak Goes Back To Ere In
Bitter:
He Robs And Slays.
Now is it to be told of Snorri
the Priest that he went to the court of forfeiture north in Bitter, as is
written afore, but when he came to Ere, then was Uspak gone. So Snorri held
the court of forfeiture there according to law, and laid hands on all the
forfeit goods, and divided them betwixt those men as had had the most ill
deeds done them, Alf the Little to wit, and the other men who had had harm
from robberies. Thereafter Snorri the Priest rode home to Tongue, and so
wore the summer.
Now Uspak and his men went from the Strands about the beginning of winter-nights, and had two big boats. They went in past the Strands, and then south across the bay to Waterness. There they went up and robbed, and loaded both the boats up to the gunwale, and then stretched north away over the bay into Bitter (3) and landed at Ere, and bore their spoil up into the work. There had Uspak's wife and his son Glum abode the summer through, with but two cows. Now on the very same night that they came home, they rowed both the boats down to the firth-bottom, and went up to the farm at Tongue, and broke into the house there, and took goodman Thorir from his bed, and led him out and slew him. Then they robbed all the goods that were stored there within doors, and brought them to the boats, and then rowed to Thambardale, and ran up and brake open the doors there, as at Tongue.
Alf the Little had lain
down in his clothes, and when he heard the door broken open, he ran out
to the secret door that was at the back of the house, and went out there
through and ran up the dale. But Uspak and his folk robbed all they might
lay hands upon, and brought it to their boats, and then went home to Ere
with both boats laden, and brought both the liftings into the work. They
brought the boats into the work withal, and filled them both with water,
and then closed the work, and the best of fighting-steads it was. So thereafter
they sat there the winter long.
ENDNOTES:
(1) (Snorri) "sat at home until the time came for the court of forfeiture
to sit" -- "sat heima til feransdoms". This court was held fourteen days
after judgment had fallen against the accused; or, if the case had been
decided against him by award, fourteen days after the next following Althing.
As a rule, it was held at the home of the guilty person, but in cases where
his proper domicile or district of amenability to justice were uncertain,
the court was held at the house of the Gothi who was regarded as being most
concerned in the case. The court should be established within an arrow's
shot-reach of the enclosure to the homefield, on that side of the same which
pointed directly towards the home of the plaintiff, if the circumstances
of the locality would allow such spot outside the homefield to be occupied;
but it was also provided, that the seat of the court should be chosen where
there was "neither acre nor ing" (= mowable meadow). The Gothi, within whose
jurisdiction the court was held, should nominate twelve judges for it out
of the nearest neighbours, for which nomination it signified nothing whether
the neighbours were the Gothi's Thingmen or not. The judges could be challenged
by the defendant even as the members of a jury could be. The executor (plaintiff)
should summon, three nights or more before the meet of the court, five of
the nearest neighbours to deliver all verdicts before it. He should likewise
summon thither those who were witnesses to the delivery of the judgment
or the award against the accused in the first instance. The creditors of
the accused should likewise meet before this court, having summoned thither
their witnesses, or, in case they had none such, the proper complement of
nearest neighbours. Every creditor was to have what debt he had against
the accused paid in full, or, in case his means sufficed not, reduced at
a proportionate rate to those of the rest. When all creditors were satisfied,
the Gothi was the next first claimant to his share in the remainder of the
accused's property; he should have a cow or an ox four years old, or, if
so much was not left over, one mark. Of the remainder one half fell to the
share of the plaintiff, the other half to that of the men of the Quarter
or of the Thing, according as the accused, was condemned at the Althing
or the Spring Thing. For the elaborate legislation relating to this court,
see especially Gragas, i. a, 83-96. Back
(2) "Raven was by-named the Viking. He was nought but an evil-doer." "Vikingr"
is frequently used as a synonym for evil-doer, thief, and robber. Thus in
our own saga we read: "Snorri the Priest and Sturla scattered the vikings",
namely, Uspak and his band. So also the term is used of Thorir Thomb and
his companions, who elsewhere are described as the worst of robbers and
evil-doers ("Grettir's saga", xix). The first settler of the bay of Bitter,
Thorbiorn Bitter, is even in "Landnama" said to have been "a viking and
a scoundrel" (ii, ch. 32, p. 159). This sense of the word is supposed to
be due to degeneracy, by lapse of time, from something nobler which once
upon a time was implied by it. That probably is a mere mistake. The viking's
profession, whenever it is mentioned, is chiefly defined as robbery, arson,
and manslaughter. Perpetrated on foreigners = natural enemies, it mattered
not, especially as it served the end of military distinction at home; exercised
on fellow-citizens, living under laws of their own making, its real nature
appeared in its true light; hence, from the first, the viking was -- abroad,
a hero; at home, a scoundrel. Back
(3) "And then stretched north away over the bay into Bitter." The bearing
from Waterness into Bitter is, as nearly as possible, due west. Our text
calls it "north", even as the Waterness people to this day prefer to indicate
the point. The reason of this is, that Bitter lies within the bailiwick
of the Strands, a district the main part of which lies much farther to the
north than Waterness, and thus the bearing of it from that point gives to
every locality within it the same designation of the cardinal point. Back
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