Part #5

Baug settles Fleet-Lithe. Fatal fight at Sandholar-ferry between the followers of Sigmund and followers of Stein the Snell. Sons of Stein outlawed from Lithe. Many and fatal blood suits result therefrom between Stein, Onund, and their families.

Chapter IV. There was a man named Baug, who was the foster-brother of Salmon, he went to Iceland and was the first winter at Baug-stead, and the next with Salmon; he settled the whole of Fleet-Lithe (Fljotshlid) by the counsel of Salmon, down from Broad-lairstead to the boundary of Salmon and abode at Lith-end. His sons were Gunnar at Gunnarsholt and Eyvind at Eyvind Mull, a third son was Eyvind the Snell, and a daughter he had called Hild, whom Orn in Væla-garth had for wife. Stein the Snell and Sigmund the son of Sighvat the Red, were journeying together from the west from Eyrar (3) and came to Sandholar-ferry all at one and the same time, that is to say, Sigmund and the travelling company of Stein, and each party wished to cross the river first; Sigmund and his party butted off the housecarles of Stein, and drove them away from the ferry-boat, and therewith Stein came up and dealt Sigmund forthwith a death blow. For this manslaughter all the sons of Baug were made outlaws from the Lithe, (4) and Gunnar went away to Gunnar's-holt, and Eyvind went east to the fells, Isle Fells (Eyjafjöll) to Eyvind's-holar, but Snell-Stein to Snell-Stein's-head. The daughter of Sigmund was grieved that her father's murderer should go out thither, and she egged on Onund, her husband, to avenge Sigmund. So Onund went with thirty men unto Snell's-head and set fire to the abode there, and Snell-Stein went out and gave himself up, and they took him to the Head and slaughtered him there, and the blood suit for that slaughter was taken up by Gunnar, who at that time had for wife Hrafnhild, the daughter of Storolf, and sister to Orm the Strong. Their son was Hamund, and they were both men of exceeding great mettle as to strength and prowess.
        Onund was found guilty of the murder of Snell-Stein, and abode at home with a large company of men for two winters. Orn of Væla-garth kept spies upon Onund. The third winter, past yule-tide, Gunnar went with thirty men upon Onund at the suggestion of Orn; Onund happening to be going from some sports with his horses accompanied by eleven men, and both parties met in Battledale (Orrostudal) where Onund and three men fell, while there fell one of Gunnar's band. Gunnar had on a blue cape and rode up along the Holts unto Steer's-river, and a short way from the river he fell off his horse dead from his wounds. When the sons of Onund, Sigmund Kleykir, and Eilif the Wealthy grew up they besought their kinsman, Mord the Gig, to take up the blood suit; but Mord said it was no easy matter seeing that the man was a guilty outlaw; but they answered that of Orn, who was their nearest neighbour they had the greatest dislike, so Mord advised that they should set afoot against Orn a suit whereby to saddle him with the guilt of outlawry, and get him driven out of the countryside. So the sons of Onund undertook a suit against Orn for unlawful grazing and the verdict of guilt against him came to this that he should fall, unatoned, at the hands of the sons of Onund, anywhere but within Vælagarth and within an arrowshot's range outside his own land. The sons of Onund were continually laying ambush for him, but he took good heed to himself. But in this manner they got an opportunity of Orn, that he was driving cattle out of his land and thus they slew him, and those concerned were disposed to think that he had fallen an unhallowed man. (5)
        Thorleif Spark, the brother of Orn, made a bargain with Thormod, the son of Thiostar, that he should hallow Orn; Thormod had then just come out to Eyrar from abroad and he shot an arrow from a hand bow so far that the fall of Orn was within such bounds as the range of his bowshot hallowed. Then Hamund Gunnar's son and Thorleif took up the blood suit after Orn but Mord backed up the brothers, the sons of Onund; they had no fine to pay but had to quit the countryside of Floi. Then Mord wooed, on behalf of Eilif, Thorkatla, the daughter of Ketilbjorn, and as dowry from home there went with her the lands of Head, and there Eilif took up his abode; but on behalf of Sigmund, Mord wooed Arngunn, the daughter of Thorstein Drang-carle, and he betook himself east into those countrysides; then also Mord wedded Rannveig, his sister, to Hamund, the son of Gunnar, who thereon betook himself back to the Lithe (Fleet-lithe, Fljóts-hlíd) and their son was Gunnar of Lithe-end.
        Hildir and Hallgeir and their sister Ljot were all descended from a stock in the Western Islands, (6) they came to Iceland and took up land between the Fleet and the Rang-river, the whole of the countryside of Eyjar up to Thvera. Hildir abode at Hildisey; he was the father of Moeid; Hallgeir dwelt in Hallgeirsey, and his daughter was Mabil, whom Helgi, the son of Salmon, had for wife, but Ljot had her dwelling at Ljotstead.

Remarkable combat of Dufthak and Storolf in Oldugrof. Orm the Enthralled first to settle Westman-Isles. Eilif from Sogn settles land up to Troutwater and Viking-brook. Bjorn from Sogn lives at Svinhagi and settles land along Rang-river. Kol, son of Ottar Ball, settles land east of Troutwater and Stot-brook with Troll-wood. Fatal fight of Egil, his son, with Gunnar; other fatal fights with Gunnar. Hrolf Redbeard settles land of Holm between Fish-river and Rang-river; resides at Force (the Falls); he worships the Force; his remarkable power of distinguishing his sheep; fortells his own death and destruction of his flocks.

Chapter V. Dufthak of Dufthaksholt was a freedman of those brothers, he was a man of exceeding great strength, as was also Storolf the son of Salmon, who then abode at Hvol. Between them there befell a dispute about grazing rights. A second-sighted man saw one evening nigh to nightfall, that a great bear went out from Hvol and a bull likewise out from Dufthaksholt, and they met on Storolf's-wold and set in anger on each other, and the bear got the best of it. In the morning it was seen that a dell was left where they had encountered each other, and the soil looked as if it had been turned inside out and there the place is now called Alda-grove; both of them were hurt. (7)
        Orm the Enthralled, the son of Bard, the son of Barek, the brother of Hallgrim Singed-balk, was the first to people the Westman-Isles, where heretofore there had only been a fishing station, and which few or none had made a winter abode of. The daughter of Orm was Haldora, whom Eilif, the son of Wall-Brand, had for wife.
        Two brothers, Eilif and Bjorn, went away from Sogn to Iceland. Eilif settled Oddi-the-little up to Troutwater and Viking-brook; he had for wife Helga, the daughter of Onund Bill; their son was Eilif the Young, who had for wife Oddny, the daughter of Odd the Slender; their daughter was Thurid, whom Thorgeir of Oddi had for wife; their daughter again was Helga.
        Bjorn abode at Svinehagi, and took land up along Rang-river; his children were these: Thorstein, the father of Grim Holt-scull and Hallveig, the mother of Thorun, who was the mother of Gudrun, the mother of Sæmund, the father of Bishop Brand.
        There was a man named Kol, the son of Ottar Ball, who took up land to the east of Troutwater and Stot-brook west of Rang-river, together with Troll-wood, and abode at Sandgill; his son was Egil, who lay in ambush for Gunnar, the son of Hamund, at Knave-hills, and fell there himself, together with two Norwegians who were with him, and his house-carle Ari, while of Gunnar's company there fell Hjort, his brother. The sons of Gunnar were Hrani and Hamund. Gunnar had also a fight with Otkel from Kirkby near the home-field enclosure at Hof, where fell both Otkel and Skamkel. Geir the godi and Gizur the White, Asgrim the son of Ellida-grim and Starkad from Three-corner, who was the son of Bork the Bluetooth-beard, the son of Thorkel Bandaged-leg, who had for wife Thurid, the daughter of Egil of Sandgill. All these went by the road called Leet-race and came by night with thirty men to Lithe-end, where Gunnar had to face them with only one man of ripe age; two men fell out of the company of Geir; but sixteen were wounded ere ever Gunnar was laid low.
        There was a man called Hrolf Redbeard, he took all the land of Holm, between Fish-river and Rang-river, and abode at Force; his children were these: Thorstein Redneb, who abode there afterwards, and Thora, the mother of Thorkel Moon, and Æsa, the mother of Thorun, the mother of Thorgeir of Lightwater, and Helga, the mother of Odd from Mjosyndi. The daughter of Odd was Asbjorg, who was the wife of Thorstein godi, the father of Bjarni the Sage, the father of Skeggi, the father of Markus Speaker-at-Law. Thorstein Redneb was a great man at blood-offerings, he worshipped the force, and all leavings of blood-offerings he commanded to be thrown into the force; he was also a man of keen sight into things to come. Thorstein caused to be counted out of a fold two thousand and four hundred sheep of his, whereupon all the remainder in the fold rushed out (uncounted); although his sheep were so many yet in autumn he could tell which of them looked likely to die (in the winter) and them he slaughtered. But the last autumn he lived, he spoke at the sheepfold: "Cut ye now down whichever sheep ye like, for now, either I am a death-doomed man or else all my sheep are doomed, or all of us together." But that winter on the same night that he died all his sheep were driven into the force (by tempest). (8)

Harald Fairhair causes Asgrim to be killed by Thororm. Thorstein Asgrim's son burns Thororm in, and then with Thorgeir, his brother, sails for Iceland. By advice of Flosi he settles the Rang-river plains above Viking-brook. Buried treasure at Tent-stead.

Chapter VI. Ulf the Gilder was the name of a mighty hersir in Thelamark and he lived at Fiflavellir (Dandelion-field); his son was Asgrim, who there abode afterwards. King Harald Fairhair sent Thororm of Thruma, his kinsman, to claim taxes from Asgrim, but he yielded none; so the King sent Thororm a second time for his head, and then he slew Asgrim. At that time Thorstein, the son of Asgrim, was out on Viking journeys and Thorgeir, another son of his, was but ten winters old. Some time aftewards Thorstein came back from the wars and laid his ship against Thruma, and burnt (9) Thororm in his house, together with all his household; the stock he cut down and stole all the chattels; whereupon he went to Iceland, together with Thorgeir his brother and a mother-sister of theirs called Thorun, who settled all the Thorun Haws (necks).
        Thorgeir bought the land of Oddi, from Hrafn, the son of Salmon, both the strands and Warmdale, and all the land between Rang-river (10) and Hroar's-brook; he abode first at Oddi, and then wedded Thordis, the daughter of Eilif.
        By the advice of Flosi, who had already made all Rang-river plains his own, Thorstein took up land above Viking-brook unto the boundary of Bjorn of Svinhagi, and he abode in Skard the easternmost; in his day there came a ship into Rang-river-mouth, on board which there was much sickness, and men would lend them no help. So Thorstein went to them and brought them to the place which is now called Tent-stead, and put up a tent over them and tended them himself while they were still alive, but they all died at last; but the longest lived of them buried a great treasure which has never been yet found. From these things Thorstein was called Tent-steading; his sons were called Gunnar and Skeggi.

Notes:
3. Now Eyrar-bakki. [Back]
4. Lithe = Hlid = The Slope. [Back]
5. Oheilagr. [Back]
6. That is from Scotland or Ireland. [Back]
7. Dufthak and Storolf were hurt --- who by their magical power of shape-changing had contended in the assumed forms of a bull and a bear. [Back]
8. The power of knowing and distinguishing sheep is very extraordinary amongst mountain shepherds at present, and the Translator knows a case in his own district in which a farmer passing a field more than twenty miles from his home, recognised and picked out from the sheep amongst which they were feeding, a number of sheep that had been stolen from him. He identified them in a Court of Justice, and they were eventually satisfactorily proved to have belonged to his farm, though since he had lost them they had been sheared and every mark had been removed that seemed likely to lead to their identity. The face of the sheep is that to which the shepherd chiefly looks for recognition, and to th9e practised shepherd the face of a sheep seems to be as easily distinguishable from that of others as that of one man from another. Of course the shepherds of Iceland had at a very early period to adopt some more definite means of the recognition of their sheep than by the face and general appearance as implied here in the case of Thorstein, and it appears from the Grágás or collection of the Laws of the Icelandic Commonwealth, that a general system of ear-marking (lög-mark) was adopted from very early times on Icelandic farms and that each farm had an hereditary mark of its own. These marks were called hamar (hammer) and were often cut on the top of the sheep's ears and belonged originally to the heathen age denoting the Holy Mark of the Hammer of Thor. The marking known in Lakeland as key-bitting seems most closely allied to it in form. Close cropping or cutting off the whole of the sheep's ears was forbidden under penalty of the lesser outlawry, unless the matter had first been proclaimed at the Lögretta or Public Court of Law. [Back]
9. These "burnings in" though recognised in blood feuds, were the most barbarous cruelties practised by the northmen. The doors and windows of the house were fastened from the outside, hay was placed against the house round about, and set on fire, and the inmates when trying to escape were butchered or driven back into the flames. The earliest mention of a "burning in" is in Heimskringla at Upsala; see Chapter 40; see also Egil's Saga 22 for "burning in" of Thorolf by Harald Fairhair. [Back]
10. Rang-ring, literally the wrong or "crooked" water probably takes its name from the angle or bend near Oddi. [Back]