Chapter 24

Of Thorarin's Arraying.

"A place for guesting have I gotten you," saith he, "in Nipsdale, (1) which ye shall take. The bonder whereas ye shall harbour to-night is one Nial. So it is told," said he, "that, as to other men, he is no great thane with his wealth, though he hath enough; but this I wot that he will take you in at the bidding of my word. But now is the man come hither who last night rode from Burgfirth and the south, he whom I sent south this week to wot tidings of the country-side. And this he knoweth clearly as a true tale, that Hermund Illugison will be at the market the beginning of this week with many other men of the country-side. This also ye will have heard, that those brethren, the sons of Thorgaut, have a business on their hands this summer, to wit, to mow the meadow which is called Goldmead; and now is the work well forward, so that it will be done on Wednesday of this week; so that they must needs be at home. Now I have heard that which they are wont to fall to speech of, those Gislungs, when there is any clatter or noise; then say they, 'What! Will Bardi be come?' and thereof make they much jeering and mocking for the shaming of you. Now it is also told north here, and avouched to be thoroughly true, that this have the men of the country-side agreed to, that if any tidings befall in the country such as be of men's fashioning, then shall all men be bound to ride after them, the reason thereof being that Snorri the Priest and his folk slept but a short way from the steads after that slaying and big deed of his. And everyone who is not ready hereto shall be fined in three marks of silver, if he belong to those who have 'thingfare-pay' (2) to yield, from Havenfells to North-water, whereas there dwelleth the greatest number of the Thingmen of the Sidefolk and those of Flokis-dale. So ride ye on the Monday from Nial's, and fare leisurely and have night-harbour on the Heath" (thence gat it the name of Two-day's Heath), "and ye shall come to those two fighting-steads which be on the Heath, as ye go south, and look to it if they be as I tell you. There is a place called the Mires on the Heath, whence the fall of water is great; and in the northern Mire is a water whereinto reacheth a ness, no bigger at its upper part than nine men may stand abreast thereon; and from that mere waters run northward to our country-sides; and thither would I bid you to. But another fighting-stead is there in the southern Mire, which I would not so much have you hold as the other, and it will be worse for you if you shall have to make a shift there for safeguard. There also goeth a ness into the water. Thereon may eighteen men stand abreast, and the waters fall thence from that mere south into the country.

"But ye shall come south on Wednesday to the fell-bothies whenas all men are gone from the bothies all up and down Copsedale; for all the Sidemen have mountain business there, and there hitherto have tarried. Now meseemeth that ye will come thither nigh to nones of the day. Then shall two of your company ride down into the country-side there, and along the fell, and so to the Bridge, and not come into the peopled parts till ye are south of the river. Then shall ye come to the stead called Hallward-stead, and ask the goodman for tidings, and ask after those horses which have vanished away from the North-country. Ye shall ask also of tidings from the market. Then will ye see on Goldmead, whereas ye fare down along the river, whether men be a mowing thereon, even as the rumour goes.

"Then shall ye ride up along to the ford, and let the goodman show you the way to the ford; and so ride thence up towards the Heath and on to the Heath, whence ye may look down on Goldmead whereas ye fare along the river. Now on Wednesday morning shalt thou fare down on to the bridge, whence ye may see what may be toward in the country-side; and thou shalt sunder thy company for three places, to wit, the eighteen all told; but the nineteenth shall abide behind to heed your horses, and that shall be Kollgris, and let them be ready when ye need to take to them.

"Now six men shall be up on the bridge; (3) and I shall make it clear who they shall be, and why it shall be arrayed that way. There shall be those kinsmen Thorgisl of Middleham and Arngrim, and Eric Wide-sight, and Thorliot, Yeller's fosterling, and Eyolf of Asmund's-nip; and for this reason shall they sit there, because they would be the stiffest to thee and the hardest to sway whenas ye come into the country-side, and it behoveth you not that ye lack measure and quieting now and again.

"But midway shall sit other six: the brethren Thorod and Thorgisl of Ternmere" (the sons of the brother of Bardi's father), "then the third man who came instead of Haldor; therewithal shall be the sons of thy mother's sister, Hun and Lambkar; and Eyolf, thy brother-in-law, for the sixth; they shall be somewhat more obedient to thy counsel, and not fare with suchlike fury. And for this reason shall they sit there, that they may look on the goings of men about the country-side.

"But ye six shall fare down (into the country), to wit, thou and Stein and Steingrim, thy brethren, and Olaf and Day and Thord. They will be the most obedient to thy word; yet shall ye have strength enough for those on the Mead.

"Now shall ye fare away forthright after ye have done them a scathe whereas the chase will not fail you, and less labour will they lay thereon, if there be but seen six men of you, and there will not be a great throng at your heels if so ye go on.

"Now shall ye ride away at your swiftest (4) until ye are come to the northern fighting-stead upon the Heath; because that thence all verdicts go to the north, and therein is the greatest avail to you that so things should turn out.

"And yet I misdoubt me that thou wilt not bring this about, because of the frowardness of them that follow thee.

"Now must we sunder for this while, and meet we hail hereafter."

Chapter 25

Of Bardi's Two Spies.

Bardi asked the lad if he had ever a whetstone. "I wot," saith he, "of a hard-stone which my father owns, but I durst not take it."

"I will buy it of thee," saith Bardi, "and give thee a whittle therefor."

"Yea," said the lad, "why then should I not strike a bargain with thee;" and goeth and findeth the hard-stone, and giveth it to Bardi. Bardi handles it, and taketh the whittle from his neck, and therewith was somewhat shifted the pair of beads which the carline had done about his neck, whereof is told sithence.

Now they whet their weapons, and the lad thinketh he hath done them a good turn, whereas they have what they needed. So there they abide the night through, and have good cheer.

They ride their ways on the Monday in good weather, and go not hard. Bardi asks of Eric Wide-sight what wise he deemed things would go. He answereth:

"O Lime-tree, upbearer of board of the corpses, We nineteen together have gone from the Northland; All over the Heath have we wended together, And our will is to nourish the bloodfowl with victual. But, O lad of the steed that is stalled on the rollers, The steed of the sea-rover Heite, well wot we That fewer shall wend we our ways from the Southland. Now the mind of the singer is bent on the battle."

They asked what tidings there might be from the market, and what kind of a throng was there. He said he had not clearly heard what had betid there, and that he deemed it no matter either way. Then they bade him show them the way up along the river to the ford. So did he; and they parted therewith, and they went to meet their fellows and tell them how matters stood; and there they sleep the night away.

Chapter 26

Portents At Walls.

Now that was early, just at the sun's uprising. Thorbiorn called for their breakfast, and nought is told of what of things was brought forward, but that the goodwife set a bowl on the board. Thorbiorn cried out that he was nought well served, and he drave the bowl betwixt the shoulders of her. She turned about thereat, and cried out aloud, and was shrewish of tongue, and either was hard on the other.

"Thou hast brought that before me," said he, "wherein there is nought save blood, and a wonder it is that thou seest nothing amiss therein."

Then she answereth calmly: "I brought nought before thee which thou mightest not well eat; and none the worse do I think of the wonder thou seest, whereas it betokens that thou shalt be speedily in hell. For assuredly this will be thy fetch."

He sang a stave:

"The wealth-bearing stem that for wife we are owning, The black coif of widowhood never shall bear For my death; though I know that the field of the necklace All the days of my life neath the mould would be laying: She who filleth the ale round would give for my eating The apples of hell-orchard. Evil unheard of! But that wealth-bearing board now will scarcely meseemeth Have might for the bringing this evil about."

"Yea, he who spurs onward the steed of the drift Of the fair-bestroked courser of sea-roving Ati, Hath nothing of thanks for the wife that bewails him, While yet he fares quick on the face of the earth. For she, the fair isle of the wrist-flame, meseemeth, Will think it o'er irksome to have, when she flitteth The friend of the heath-prowlers under the earth, To speed him with heavy rain over the cheek."

Therewith they spring up from the board, and go to their horses and leap aback, and ride out from the garth.

Then Thorbiorn took up the word: "Dreamed have I in the night," saith he.

The house-carle asked: "What dreamedst thou?"

He said: "Methought I was standing there whereas folk were not all of one mind. And I thought I had that sword which I was wont to bear in my hand, but which as now is not at home; and straightway it brake asunder when I hewed forth with it. Methought also that I sang two staves in my sleep; and both of them I remember:

"O grove of the mote of the maidens of battle, A dream have I dreamed me, and now will I duly Make hard and hard woven my song-tale the noble; 'Twas the white wand of shields, of the holme of the helm-wolf, The buckler, there brake it asunder, so deemed I, In the place where the blood-reeds clashed bickering together, At a meeting most seemly of him who is wonted To seek out the haunts of the hanged for a gossip.

"O Balder, that heeds the dear lair of the dale-fish, O how well it were if I then had been bearing A wound-wand unflawed in the din of the welter, Where light leaps the keel of the rim of the war-board; And I with my head-bone unhurt in the battle. If I bore but the brand that will bring unto death Of the warriors of menfolk not few, but a many. And e'en such might I hold it until my life's ending."

Now Thorbiorn peers about him. "Yea," saith he, "at home lieth now the smithying stuff, or else it hath fallen down. Go thou back again and seek it; and if thou find it on the way, then fare thou to the stithy; but I will ride on ahead. But if thou find it not on the road, then fare thou to thy work."

So they sunder, but the house-carle found not the smithying stuff.

Now Thorbiorn rideth to Thorgaut his kinsman, to his stithy, and meeteth him before daymeal-tide; each greeted the other and asked for tidings, and neither had aught to tell the other.

Now it is said that those sons of Thorgaut rise up all of them, and go to the mowing of Goldmead, and they spake between themselves how fair-like the weather looked, and that Goldmead would be mown that same day; they go to the meadow, and doff their clothes and weapons.

Gisli went over the meadow awhile, and looked on that which they were minded to mow, and he took his stand and sang a stave.

He told of a dream of his, that him thought they were standing on Goldmead, and there came on them many wolves and dealt with them there, and great was the work there: "And methought I woke therewith, that I ran home to the stead."

Then they fall to work and mow a while.


ENDNOTES:

(1) The Nipsdale here mentioned need not necessarily be the name of Nial's house, but rather that of the valley in which it was situated, its name not being given. The valley is still called Nipsdale (Nupsdalr), in which two farmsteads bear the name of Nip (Nupr), distinguished by "upper" and "nether". A name Nialstead (Njalsstathir) is still given to the ruins of an old crofter-dwelling further up the valley, possibly pointing to Nial's eleventh-century habitation. Back

(2) "Thingfare-pay," Thingfarar-kaup, a term signifying both the pay that everyone who attended the Althing received, and especially the tax which was imposed for this purpose, but the standard amount of which is not stated. It was levied on everyone who, free of debt, possessed, for every servant, and every person whom it was his duty to maintain, a "cowgild" (a cow's worth), or a milking cow (havfot ku), or a net, or a boat, and besides all such furniture and appointments as were necessary for the needs of the household. He who had no servants (einvirki) should pay at a double rate, i.e., at the rate of two "cow-gilds" per servant. But it was paid only by those who did not attend at the Althing, while those who did were not only exempt from it, but had their travelling expenses paid out of what the collection from non-attendants amounted to, provided they arrived on the Thursday the Thing assembled, the first day of the session. Many minute rules were prescribed relating to this tax, which was practically a property census, and on which the social status of the taxed depended. See Gragas, Finsen, .s.v. Thingfararkaup. Back

(3) "Now six men shall be up on the Bridge," &c., but only five are mentioned, while to the second reserve of six seven are allowed, one of whom figures oddly enough as the one "who came instead of Haldor," no substitute for Haldor having been mentioned before in the story, nor having any place in it at all. The confusion here is curious. Gefn's-Odd has evidently been the sixth man of the Bridge reserve, for his name does not appear either in the middle watch or among Bardi's attacking party of six. We imagine this may have come about in the following way. In some copy of the saga Odd's name had been left out by inadvertence. A later transcriber of that copy saw the mistake first when he got into the enumeration of the second watch, and not being able to remember by name the person omitted, nor inclined to lose time in looking him up, replaced him by "the man" who, he thought, must have been secured "instead of Haldot", when he backed out of the expedition. Back

(4) "Now shall ye ride away at your swiftest," &c. The point of this whole clause is evidently that, if Bardi and his manage to cross over to the northern side of the mountain water-shed between south and north, then the verdict or jury of neighhours would have to be summoned from their own country, instead of from the country-sides of the enemy. One cannot see whether Thorarin's statement proceeds from the law-principle of "nearest" neighbourship, or from a customary tradition that the verdict in a suit for manslaughter committed on this side of the water-shed of a Quarter should be summoned from the same, irrespective of the distance to nearest neighbours. On this latter point we are not aware that the Gragas contains any provisions. Back