Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales
Thorgrim wooeth Olof Sunbeam
Thorgrim waxed wroth at his words, and drew his sword and thrust him through, and men pulled him dead from under the board. Then Sigurd called on his men and bade them stand up and lay hands on Thorgrim: but the king said: “Nay, Sigurd, do it not! for Grim should fall unatoned because of his word; yet will I atone him with a full weregild, if thou wilt that I deal with the matter as I will: for thus will our friendship be better holden.”
So it must be as the king would, and he paid so much money that Sigurd was well content; and the feast wore away, and there is nought more to tell of it.
Then the king went his way home: and now he bade the great men to him, and first of these Earl Thorir, and Master Ketil of Raum-realm; who now lacked a wife, because Ingibiorg had died in child-bed, when she had born a daughter, who was called Ingibiorg after her mother: but after these the king bade many men and a great company, for there was no lack of all things needful.
So men came as they were bidden to the feast; and Olof Sunbeam came thereto with her father. So men were marshalled to their seats and noble drink was borne forth.
Thorgrim went a-serving, and folk heeded much what a sprightly and goodly man he was: he was seemly clad, for the king honoured him exceedingly, and that misliked many of his men, and they hated Thorgrim therefor; and a byname was given him, and he was called Thorgrim the Proud.
But when Thorgrim saw Olof his heart yearned toward her, and even so it fared with her toward him, for she loved him; but folk noted it not, though as time served them they met together, and either was well-liking to other: so Thorgrim asked her how she would answer if he bade her in wedlock; and she said that for her part she would not gainsay it, if her father would have it so. So at the end of the feast Thorgrim set forth his wooing and craved Olof Sunbeam. Earl Thorir was not swift in assenting thereto, and they parted with so much done.
The wedding of Olof Sunbeam
Then again Thorgrim fell to his wooing, and would now know for sure what answer the earl would give; but the earl said he would not wed his daughter to him.
Thorgrim was there three nights, and he and Olof met lovingly; and some folk say that at that tide they plighted their troth. And so Thorgrim went back to the king for that time.
Now he went on warfare, and was fully come to man's estate; so he was a-warring through the summer, and was accounted the stoutest of men in all dangers, and he gat to him in this journey both riches and renown.
But after these things it befell that Ketil of Raumarik came a-riding to Earl Thorir's with thirty men, and King Harald also was a-guesting there. Then Ketil fell a-wooing Olof Sunbeam to wed her, and with the furtherance of the king Earl Thorir gave his daughter Olof to Ketil: but Olof neither said yea thereto nor thought it in her heart: and when the betrothals were to be fulfilled she sang a stave:---
“Sure glad ring-warder singeth
Sweeter than any other;
O Voice amid Earth's voices
Henceforth but woe unto me!
No ring-warder so white is
That he may win look from me:
One man have I made oath for,
And well beloved is he.”
Now most men held it for sooth that Olof had been fain to wed Thorgrim, but it behoved to go the other way.
So the day was appointed whereon the wedding was to be, and that was at winter-nights in the house of Earl Thorir: so wore away the summer.
But in the autumn came Thorgrim back from warfare, and heard that Olof was betrothed; so he went straightway to the king, and craved help of him to get the woman, whether Earl Thorir liked it better or worse, or Ketil either. But the king utterly gainsayed all help to Thorgrim, saying that Ketil was his best friend.
“And I will give thee this counsel,” said the king, “that thou raise no strife with Ketil: I will woo Ingibiorg his daughter for thee, and in such wise shall ye make good peace between you!”
Thorgrim said he would not have it so: “I will hold,” says he, “to my words, and the oaths that Olof and I swore betwixt us; and her will I have or no woman else. And since thou wilt help me not, I will serve thee no longer.”
Said the king: “Thou must even rule the matter as thou wilt; but methinks it is most like that thy honour shall wax no greater in another place than with me.”
So Thorgrim took leave of the king, and the king gave him a gold ring at parting which weighed a mark; and so he went to his own men.
Now it lacked three nights of the wedding-day; so Thorgrim went up a-land alone for any of his own men, and went till he came to the house of Earl Thorir.
Thither he came by then that the bride was set on the bench, and all the drinking-hall was full of men, and the king was set in the highseat, and the feast was at its full height.
So Thorgrim went into the drinking-hall, yea, unto the midst of the floor, and stood there; and so many lights were there in the hall, that no shadow fell from aught. All men knew Thorgrim, and to many, forsooth, he was no unwelcome guest.
So he spake: “Hast thou, Ketil, wooed and won Olof?”
Ketil said that so it was.
“Was it aught with her assent?” said he.
Says Ketil: “I am minded to think that Earl Thorir might give his daughter away himself, and that the match so made would be lawful forsooth.”
“This is my word,” says Thorgrim, “that Olof and I have sworn oath each to each that she should have no man but me. Let her say if it be so.”
And Olof said it was true.
“Then meseemeth the woman is mine,” said Thorgrim.
“Thou shalt never have her,” said Ketil. “I have striven with greater men than thou, and prevailed against them.”
Said Thorgrim: “Well, meseems thou dost these things in trust of the king's furtherance; so here I bid thee to holm. Let us fight it out and he shall have the woman who winneth her on holm.”
“Nay, I am minded to make the most of it that I have more men than thou,” said Ketil.
But lo, while they were a-talking thus, all lights died out throughout the hall, and there was a mighty uproar and jostling; but when lights were brought again the bride was gone, and Thorgrim withal; and all men deemed it clear that he had brought it about: and true it was that Thorgrim had taken the bride and brought her to his ship. His men had made all ready even as he had aforetime appointed them, and now they were arrayed for sea; so they hoisted sail as soon as Thorgrim was ready, for the wind blew from off the land.
These things befell in the thick of the land-settling-time of Iceland; and Thorgrim thought sure enough that he might not hold himself in Norway after this business: so he made for Iceland. They put forth into the sea and had a fair wind, and made Snowfellness, and went a-land at Hraunhaven.
But the king and the earl heard of Thorgrim's journey, and Ketil was deemed to have won the greatest shame, in that he had lost his wife, and it was not well seen that he would have right of Thorgrim. The king made Thorgrim an outlaw for this deed at Ketil's urging: but turn we from these a while.
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