Færeyinga Saga
Part 8
[42.] Rightly have wise men written and truly told that King Olave had scot of all the lands that now lie under Norway, save Iceland only, first of the Orkneys and also of Shetland, the Færeys and Greenland. It is also told that, in the ninth year of his kingship, there came out from the Færeys to Norway, at the king's command, Lawman Gille, Laf Ossursson, Thoralf of Dimun, and many other franklins' sons. Thrond of Gate gat him ready to go, but when he was bound the falling sickness took him, so that he could not go, so that he stayed behind. But when the Færey men were come out to King Olave, he called them to him to talk with him and held a meeting of them, where he showed forth his business with them, that was the reason of his bidding them come to him, and spake to this end --- that he would have scot from the Færeys, and also that the Færey people must keep the law that king Olave gave them. At this meeting also it was shown by the king's words that he meant to take surety in this matter of those Færey men that were come thither, so that they should bind themselves with oaths to do these things. And he offered those men that were there these terms --- that the richest of them should set their hands in his and become his men, and take honour and friendship at his hands. The words of the king gave the Færey men an inkling of the way things would go if they would not do as the king wished; and though there were many meetings held on the matter, things went at last as the king wished. Laf, Gille, and Thoralf set their hands in his and became his hench-men, and all the Færey men swore oaths to King Olave that they would keep the law and right in the Færeys that he should set them, and pay the scot that he fixed. Then the Færey men gat them ready to fare home, and when they took leave of him the king gave gifts of friendship to them that had become his men. They went on their way when they were bound, and the king got a ship ready and men, and sent them out to the Færeys to take the scot there which the Færey people were to pay him. They were very soon bound, but of their faring there is nought but this to tell, that they never came back nor the scot either next summer. Men say that they never reached the Færeys, nor asked any man there for the scot. [And when he sent a second ship things went no better.]
Of Sigurd and Thrond at Gate.
[43.] The [next] spring a ship had come out from Norway to the Færeys bearing messenges from King Olave to this end, that one of his house-carles in the Færeys, Laf Ossursson, Lawman Gille, or Thoralf of Dimun, should come to him. And when this bidding was brought to the Færeys and was told to those men, they took counsel among themselves what might be the meaning of it, and they all thought the same about it, namely, that the king must be wanting to know whether, as some men held for truth, any one in the islands had a hand in the ill fate of the king's messengers in those two ships, seeing that none of them had ever come back. They agreed that Thoralf should go, and he made him ready, and fitted out a merchant-ship that he had and manned it. They were ten or twelve on board, and when they were bound and waiting for a fair wind, it happened in Eastrey, one day when the weather was fair, that Thrond went into the hall, and Sigurd and Thord and Geat were lying there on the dais-benches. Then said Thrond, "Many things come about in a man's lifetime. It was a rare thing when we were young for able-bodied men to lie or sit about when it was fair weather, and it would not have seemed likely to your forefathers that Thoralf of Dimun would be a manlier wight than you. The merchant-man, too, which I have standing here in the boat-house, I reckon it is getting so old that it is rotting under the tar. Every house here, too, is full of wool that is turned to no account. Things should not go so if I were only a few years younger." Sigurd leapt up and went out and called Thord and Geat, saying that he would not stand such taunts. They went out, and the housemen with them, and fell to work and launched the merchant-man, and brought up her lading, and loaded the ship and fitted her out in a few days. They were also ten or twelve on board of her. Thoralf and they sailed out with the same wind, and kept in sight of each other all the time they were at sea. They brought up at Hern one day at dark. Sigurd lay farther out from the strand, but there was little space between them. It came to pass that evening when it was quite dark, that Thoralf and his men got ready to sleep, but before he slept he was minded to go ashore, so he landed and another man with him, and they went about their business, and when they were ready to go on board again, the man that was with him said that a cloth was suddenly cast over his head and he was lifted off the ground, and at the same time he heard a blow; then he was taken up and swung round off his feet over the sea beneath him and then thrown into it, and when he got ashore he went up to the place where he had left Thoralf, and found him there cloven down to the shoulders and dead. When Thoralf's crew were ware of this, they bare his body out to the ship and watched the body that night. King Olave was then in guesting at Lyger, and when news of this was brought him an arrow-moot was called, and the king came to the moot. He had summoned all the Færey men from both ships, and they were there at the moot. When the moot was set, the king stood up and spoke: "The tidings which have been brought to us here are such that it is well the like are seldom heard of. Here is a brave man's life taken, a man whom we believe sackless; now is there any man here at this moot who knows the doer of this deed?" But no man came forward. Then the king said, "I will not hide my mind on this matter, namely, that I lay it at these Færey men's doors. And it seems to me that it is most likely that Sigurd Thorlacsson smote the man, and Thord the Low threw the other into the sea; moreover, I should guess that it must have come about through this --- that they did not wish Thorlaf to tell of their wickedness, which they must have known they were guilty of, as indeed we have always thought, in the matter of the murder and evil deeds they wrought when my messengers were murdered out there." When the king had done speaking, Sigurd Thorlacsson stood up and said, "I have never spoken before at a moot, so that I cannot be very ready of speech, but for all that I think that there is need enough now for me to answer something. I can guess well enough that this tale the king has just set forth must have come from under the tongues of more foolish and worse men than he is. It cannot indeed be gainsaid that those men are truly our foes; but it is a very unlikely tale that I should wish to do any harm to Thoralf, who was my foster-brother and very good friend; and were there any other reason for it, or any quarrel between Thoralf and us, I have wit enough to make me choose to do such a deed at home out in the Færeys, rather than here under thy very hands, O king! And here I deny the deed for myself and all of us ship-mates, and I will take such oath on it, as your law wills, or, if it seems fuller proof to thee, I will bear iron, and thou thyself shall be there at the ordeal."
And when Sigurd had finished his speech, there were many that pleaded with the king that he would let Sigurd clear himself, for they thought that Sigurd had spoken well, and that he could not be guilty of the deed that was laid at his hands. The king answered, "There are two ways of looking at this man. If he is belied in this matter, he must be a good man; but, on the other hand, if it is not so, he must be a bolder man than any we have heard of; and that is rather what I think of him; but I guess he will soon bear witness himself to the truth in this matter." Howbeit, at the prayer of men, the king took surety of Sigurd that he would bear the iron: he was to come next morning to Lyger, and the Bishop was to give him his ordeal there; and with that the moot broke up. The king went back to Lyger, but Sigurd and his mates went back to their ship. By this time the night was beginning to fall. Sigurd said to his fellows, "I may truly say that we have got into great danger, having no light deeds laid to our charge; moreover, the king is so crafty that our weird is clear enough if his wishes are to carry it. He first let slay Thoralf, and now he would make us bootless men, for it is a light thing he that risks himself with him will come off worst. There is a breeze from the fells blowing in here down the Sound, and my counsel is that we run our sail up to the truck and stand out to sea. Let Thrond come himself another summer to sell his wool if he likes; but if I get away, I do not think I shall ever come to Norway again." This seemed good counsel to the Færey men, and they set to work to hoist their sail. They ran out to sea that night as fast as they could and never stopped till they got to the Færeys. Thrond showed them that he was not pleased with their cruise, but they answered him roughly enough.
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