Icelandic Sagas Vol. 3
90. These men made ready to go with earl Rognvald: Magnus, son of Havard Gunni's son, and Sweyn Hroald's son. They were captains of ships both of them. These fared of the lesser men, so far as they are named: Thorgeir Scotpoll, Oddi the little, Thorbjorn the swarthy, and Armod. These were the earl's skalds. Then there were also these men: Thorkell crook-eye, and Grimkel of Glettness, and Blian, son of Thorstein of Flydruness. --- And when those two winters were spent which they were to have to get ready, earl Rognvald fared out of the Orkneys east to Norway early in the spring, and wished to know how those liegemen got on with their outfit. And when the earl came to Bergen, he found there Erling wryneck and John limp-leg the earl's brother-in-law. There too had come Aslak, but Gudorm came a little after. There too was that ship off the wharf which John had got made for the earl; it had five-and-thirty seats for rowers, and was a very careful piece of work, and the figure-head and taffrail and weather-vanes were all overlaid with gold, and she was carved and painted in many other places; the ship was the greatest treasure of her kind. Eindrid came also from time to time to the town that summer, and always says that he would be boun the week after; but men were ill-pleased when they had to wait so long. Some wished that he should not be waited for, and said that men had sailed on such voyages before though Eindrid were not with them. And a little while after Eindrid came to the town and gave out that he was then boun, and then the earl bade him set sail as soon as ever he thought he was like to get a fair wind. And when that day came that they thought they had a good chance, they pulled out of the town and took to their sails. The wind was rather light, and the earl's ship made little way, for she needed a good breeze. The other chiefs slackened sail, and would not sail away from the earl. But as they drew away from among the isles, the wind began to get sharp, and then it grew so high that they had to reef sail on board the smaller ships, but the earl's ship began to walk fast. Then they saw two big ships sailing after them and at once by and beyond them. One of those ships was a work of much pains, it was a drake; both the head forward and the coils aft were much gilded. It was gay and gaudy, and painted all above the water-line wherever it seemed to look well. The earl's men said that there must Eindrid be sailing, “and he has kept little to that which was laid down, that no one should have a carved or gilded ship but thou, lord.” The earl says: “Great is Eindrid's pride. But now there is this excuse for his refusing to be equal with us that we have been so far wrong in our opinion as to him; but it is hard to see whether luck goes before him or after him; we will not shape our course after his haste.” Then Eindrid bore speedily away from them in that big ship, but the earl kept in company with his ships, and they had a good passage. They came about autumn to the Orkneys safe and sound. Then it was thought best that they should sit there that winter; some sat at their own cost, but some were with the householders, and many with the earl. --- In the isles there was great stir that winter, and the Easterlings and the Orkneyingers fell asunder about bargains and love-matters, and many quarrels sprang up. The earl took great pains to keep watch on those on both sides who thought they wre bound to repay him for all the good he had done them, and that they were worthy of all good from him. --- Of Eindrid and his messmates that is to be told that they came to Shetland; and he dashed there that good ship to splinters and lost much goods, but the lesser ship was saved. Eindrid was that winter in Shetland, and sent men east to Norway to let them build him a ship for his voyage abroad.
There was a man named Arni spindleshanks, a messmate of Eindrid's; he fared south into the Orkneys that winter and nine of his companions with him. Arni was a very unfair man and bold and strong. He and his companions sat at his own cost in one of the isles that winter. Arni buys malt and cattle for slaughter from a tenant of Sweyn Asleif's son; but when he asked for the price, Arni put him off. And a second time, when he asked for it, he was paid with threats, and ere they parted Arni gave him a blow with the back of his axe and said this: “Go now and tell that champion Sweyn with whom thou art ever threatening us, and let him set thy lot straight; thou wilt not need more than this.” The husbandman went and told Sweyn and bade him set his lot straight. Sweyn answers shortly about it, and said he could make no promise about it. It was one day about spring that Sweyn fared to get in his rents; they were four of them in an eight-oared boat. Their course lay by that isle in which Arni and his men sat. Sweyn told his men to pull in towards the land, but there was a strong ebb tide on. Sweyn went on shore alone, and had his hand-axe in his hand and no other weapons. He bade them watch the boat so that the ebb did not leave it high and dry. Arni and his men sat in an outhouse a short way from the sea. Sweyn went up to the outhouse and into it. Arni and five of his men were inside and hailed Sweyn; he took their greeting, and spoke to Arni, and told him that he must pay up his debt to the husbandman. Arni said there was good time still for that. Sweyn bade him do as he asked him, and pay up the debt. Arni said he would not do so for all that. Sweyn said he would only ask him for a little more, and with that he struck his axe against Arni's head, so that it went up to the back of the blade, and he lost his hold of the axe. Sweyn sprang out, but Arni's messmates looked to him, but some ran after Sweyn down into the mud. So they ran along the shore and one was fleetest; Sweyn and his pursuer were then at very close quarters. Great sea-weed tangles lay on the shore in the mud. Sweyn caught up one of the tangles and dashed it into the face of him who was nearest to him, sand and all. This man took to rubbing his eyes with both hands, and wiped the sand out of them. But Sweyn got clear off to his boat, and fared home to Gairsay to his house. A little while after Sweyn fared over to the Ness on an errand of his own; he sent word to earl Rognvald that he should take an atonement for the slaying of Arni spindleshanks. And as soon as these words came to him, he [the earl] summoned to him all those who had the blood feud for the slaying of Arni, and made matters up with them, so that they were pleased, and he paid up the fine himself. Much other mischief the earl made good with his own money that was wrought that winter both by the Easterlings and Orkneyingers, for they had pulled very ill together. In the spring very early the earl summoned a crowded Thing in Hrossey; thither came all the chiefs who were in his realm. Then he made it bare to them that he meant to go out of the land to Jewry, and says that he would give over his realm into the hands of Harold Maddod's son, his kinsman. He begged this that all would follow him like true men in whatever he might need while he was away. Earl Harold was then nearly a man of twenty. (18) He was a tall man of growth, and stout and strong, an ugly man and wise enough, and men thought him a likely man for a chief. Thorbjorn clerk had then most share in ruling the land with him when earl Rognvald first fared out of the Orkneys.
Notes:
18. man of twenty] He was then between eighteen and nineteen. [Back]
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