Grettir the Outlaw 10

Grettir the Outlaw 10

The fight did not last long. Grettir’s sword cut him that he fell and

died.

 

When the news reached Thorgils, he got ready, and came by boat as fast

as he could to see the earl at Drontheim. He found the earl very angry,

but he said to him:

 

"I am a kinsman of the fallen man, and I know that he treated Grettir

with intolerable insolence, and that he refused every compromise. Then

remember what a benefit has been done to the country by Grettir, who

ridded it of the Red Rovers, Thorir wi’ the Paunch and Ogmund the Bad."

 

Thorfin also came to Drontheim when he heard of the straits into which

Grettir had come through killing Biorn. The earl called a council on

the matter, and said he would not come to a decision till he had heard

what Biorn’s brother Hiarandi had to say on the matter. Hiarandi was a

violent man, and he was very wroth. He would hear of no patching up of

the matter, and he vowed he would not, as he expressed it, "bring his

brother into his purse." As already said, it was customary when a man

had been killed to offer a sum of money to the next of kin, and if he

accepted the money the quarrel was at an end. When we now speak of

"pocketing an injury," reference is made to this same ancient usage, by

which every offence was estimated at so much money, and if the wronged

man took money for the offence committed against him, he was said _to

pocket it_. When the earl went into the matter, and heard how Grettir

had been wronged and outraged by Biorn, he gave his decision that

Grettir had not acted contrary to law, and that Biorn had justly

forfeited his life. Thorfin offered the sum of money which the earl

considered was sufficient to atone to the relations for the death of

Biorn, but Hiarandi refused absolutely to touch it.

 

Then Thorfin knew that Grettir’s life was in danger, for Hiarandi would

certainly try to take it; so he begged his kinsman Arinbiorn to go about

with Grettir, and keep on the look-out against the mischief that

threatened.

 

Now it fell out one day that Grettir and Arinbiorn were walking down a

street in Drontheim when their way led before a narrow lane opening into

it. They did not see any danger in the way, and were unaware of this

lane. But just as they had passed it a man jumped out from behind, in

the shadow, swinging an axe, and he struck at Grettir between the

shoulder-blades. Fortunately, Arinbiorn had looked round at the lane,

and he saw the man leap out, so he suddenly dragged Grettir forward with

such a jerk that Grettir fell on his knee. This saved his life, for the

axe came on his shoulder-blade, made a gash that cut to his armpit, and

then the axe buried itself in the roadway. Instantly Grettir started to

his feet, turned round, and with his short sword smote in the very nick

of time as the man, who was Hiarandi, was pulling up his axe to cut at

Grettir again. Grettir’s sword fell on his upper arm near the shoulder,

and cut it off. Then out rushed some servants of Hiarandi on Arinbiorn

and Grettir, who set their backs against a house-wall and defended

themselves with such valour that they killed or put to flight all who

had assailed them.

 

Now, this had been a base and cowardly attempt on the life of Grettir,

and Hiarandi richly deserved his fate. But the earl was exceedingly

angry when he heard the news, and he called a council together. Thorfin

and Grettir attended, and the earl angrily charged Grettir with having

committed great violence, and being the cause of the death of Hiarandi

and some of his servants.

 

Grettir acknowledged this; but showed his wound, and stated how he had

been attacked from behind; how his life had been saved by the

promptitude of Arinbiorn, and how he had but defended himself against

enemies who sought his life.

 

"I wish you had been killed," said the earl, "and then there would have

been an end to these disorders."

 

"You would not have a man not raise his hands to save his head?" said

Grettir.

 

"I see one thing," exclaimed the earl. "Ill luck attends you, and you

are doomed to commit violences wherever you are."

 

The end of it was that Earl Sweyn said he would not have Grettir to live

in Norway any longer, lest he should be the cause of fresh troubles.

But he remained over the third winter, and next spring sailed for

Iceland, the time of his outlawing being ended.

 

 

 

 

*CHAPTER X.*

 

*OF GRETTIR’S RETURN.*

 

 

_Iceland Once More—Life’s Bitter Lessons—Grettir Pays Audun a

Visit—Some Icelandic Terms—Byres and Sels—A Chief’s Hall—The

Return of Audun—Grettir’s Second Wrestle with Audun—Bard

Interposes—The Cousins Reconciled_

 

 

When Grettir came back to Biarg, he found his father so old and infirm

as to be no more able to stir abroad, and Atli managed the farm for him

along with Illugi, Grettir’s youngest brother, now grown up to be a big

boy. Grettir was now aged eighteen, but he looked and was a man.

Illugi was about fifteen, a gentle, pleasant boy. He and the kindly,

careful Atli were as unlike Grettir as well could be; they avoided

quarrels, they had a civil word for every one, and took pains to make

themselves agreeable, whether to guests in their house, or when staying

anywhere, to their hosts. Grettir never troubled himself to be courteous

or to be obliging to anyone. Now that he was back from Norway he was

rather disposed to think much of himself as a man more brave and

audacious than his fellows, for, had he not killed twelve rovers, broken

into a barrow, slain a bear, and been the death of one man in a duel,

and another who had attempted to assassinate him? Atli did not much

like his manner, and cautioned him not to be overbearing whilst at home,

lest he should involve himself in fresh troubles. But words were wasted

on Grettir. He was not the fellow to listen to advice, but one of those

men who must learn the bitter lessons of life by personal experience.

It is so with men always. Some, who are thoughtful, see what God’s law

is which is impressed on all society, and listen to what others have

found out as the lessons taught them by their lives, so they are able to

go out equipped against the trials and difficulties of life. But others

will neither look nor listen, and such have to go through every sort of

adversity, till they have learned the great truths of social life, and

perhaps they only acquire them when it is too late to put them in

practice.

 

It is with laws and courtesies of life as with the three R’s. A man

will fare badly who cannot read, write, and cipher. If he learns these

accomplishments as a child, he does well; he is furnished for the

struggle of life, and starts on the same footing as other men; but if as

a child he is morose and indifferent, and refuses to learn, then all

through his life he is met with difficulties, owing to his ignorance,

and he finds that he must learn to read, write, and do sums; and he has

to acquire these in after years with much less ease than he might have

learnt as a child, and after he has lost many chances of getting on

which might have been seized, had he known these things before.

 

Grettir’s temper on his return may be judged by one incident that

happened almost directly. He had not forgotten his struggle on the ice

with his cousin Audun, and he was resolved to have another trial of

strength with him. So he had not been home many days before he rode

over the hill to Audunstead in his best harness, and with a beautiful

saddle on his horse that had been given him by Thorfin. The time was

that of hay, and he saw the field round Audun’s farm full of rich grass,

ready to be cut. He took the bridle off his horse and turned it into

Audun’s meadow. This was not out of thoughtlessness, but out of

insolence, and was intended to exasperate Audun. In Iceland grass grows

very little, and only fit to be cut for hay round the farms in what is

called the _tun_, where it is richly dressed with stable-dung.

Consequently hay is very scarce and very precious. The grass never

grows much longer than one’s fingers, and so even in the tun it is not

plentiful. He knocked at the door of the farm and asked for his cousin,

and was told that Audun had gone to the highland _sel_ to fetch curds,

and would be back later. The _sel_ was a farm on the highland, only

occupied in summer, when the cattle were driven to the moors and hills

to feed on the grass there, and to save that in the lowlands against

winter.

 

Here a word or two must be said about Icelandic names of places and

people. When Iceland was colonized, those who first settled in the land

and built farms, called the places after their own names in a great many

cases; they called them so-and-so’s _stead_, or so-and-so’s _by_ or

farm. A _by_ is the Scotch byre, and in Icelandic is _bœr_, pronounced

exactly like the Scotch word. Wherever, in the north and east of

England, Norse settlers came, there we find names of places ending in

the same way, and we know that these were farms and dwellings of old

Norse settlers. Thus in Northumberland, Yorkshire, and Lincolnshire,

are plenty of Norse place-names. Near Thirsk is Thirkelby or

Thorkel’s-byre, near Ripon is Enderby or Andrew’s-byre. Not only so,

but where there are high hills there we find also _sels_, that is

summer-farms, like the Alps to which the cattle are driven in

Switzerland. Next as to the names of people. What is a little puzzling

to remember is the number of persons whose names begin with Thor. Thor,

the god of thunder, was regarded with the highest reverence by the

Icelanders; they thought of him even more than they did of Odin, the

chief god of all, who had one eye, and his one fiery eye was the sun.

Thor was called the Redbeard, and the aurora borealis was thought to be

his waving red-beard in the sky. The thunderbolt they regarded as his

hammer. To show their respect for him, children were named after him:

Thor-grim means Thor’s wrath; Thor-kel, Thor’s kettle, in which the

sacrificial meat was cooked in offering to Thor; Thor-gil was Thor’s boy

or servant; Thor-hall was Thor’s flint spear-head, and so on. The

Northumbrian king, St. Osmund, takes his name from the Hand of God, and

the name is the same as Asmund, the father of Grettir. Oswald means the

elect of the god; in Icelandic the name would be Aswald.

 

When Grettir found that Audun was from home, he went into the hall and

lay down on the bench nearest the door. The hall was dark.

 

The halls of the Icelandic chiefs were like bodies of churches, and were

divided into a nave with side aisles; and were lighted by windows in a

clere-story that were covered with the skin of the lining of a sheep’s

stomach, to let in light and keep out cold, because they had no glass.

In the side aisles were the beds of those who lived in the house, some

with doors and shutters, which could be fastened from within; and a man

in danger of his life would so sleep. He would go to bed, and then

close himself in and lock the shutters, that no one could get at him

when he was asleep. The fires and benches and tables were in the nave,

or middle of the great hall. Over the partitions for the beds were hung

shields and swords and spears, and on grand occasions hangings were put

up all along the sides, hiding the beds and berths in the side aisles.

The arrangement in an Icelandic house at the present day is much the

same, only on a very much reduced scale. The people live and eat and

sleep in the same room, like the saloon-cabin of a ship, with the berths round the walls.