grettir the outlaw 28

grettir the outlaw 28

Now, hardly had the men withdrawn, carrying their dead and wounded, than

up came the third detachment under Arnor and Biarni, on the other side

of the river. There can be no question but that, had they crossed and

fallen on Grettir, he could not have defended himself longer, so

overcome was he with weariness; but Arnor knew that his father had

entered on the matter reluctantly, and he was discouraged by the

ill-success of the other companies. Consequently, he neither waded

through the river at the ford, a little higher, nor did he maintain his

ground and cut off Grettir’s retreat. Instead, he withdrew with all his

men, and left Grettir to recover his strength, and cross and escape to

the Fell. This conduct of Arnor provoked much comment; and he was

accused of cowardice, an accusation that clung to him through life.

Even his father rebuked him, for the father saw what discredit he had

brought upon himself.

 

The point on the river Hit where this affray took place is still shown;

and is called Grettir’s-point to this day.

 

When the fight was over Grettir and the two men went to the Fell, and as

they passed the farm the farmer’s daughter came out of the door, and

asked for tidings.

 

Then Grettir sang:—

 

"Brewer of strong barley-corn,

Pourer forth of drinking-horn,

Lo! to-day the Stonewolf fell,

Ne’er again his head be well.

Many more have got their bane,

Many in their blood lie slain;

Little life has Thorgils now,

After that bone-breaking blow.

Eight upon the river’s bank

In their gore expiring sank."

 

 

 

 

*CHAPTER XXX.*

 

*A MYSTERIOUS VALE.*

 

 

_The Dome of Snow—Cold Dale—A Fair Valley—The Mottled Ewe—With

Thorir and his Daughters—The Stone on Broad-shield—Thorir’s

Cave_

 

 

In the spring of 1024 Grettir went away from Fairwood Fell; for he had

been there so long, and had preyed for such a time on the bonders of the

marshes, that he himself saw that it would be best for him to remove

into quite another part of the island. So he visited his friend

Hallmund once more, under the ice of Ball-jokull, and Hallmund advised

him where to go. He could not give him hospitality himself that winter,

because his stock of goods was run so short that it would hardly suffice

for his daughter and himself; but he told him of a valley unknown to

anyone, save a friend of his called Thorir and himself. And he informed

him how it was to be reached.

 

Now, as already said, there are passes in Iceland between the several

blocks of ice mountains, and such a pass exists between Goatland-jokull

and a curious domed snowy mountain called Ok. The pass is called the

Cold Dale, because it lies for many hours ride between ice mountains,

and under the precipitous Goatland-jokull, whose rocks are crowned with

green ice that falls over incessantly in great avalanches. It is seven

hours’ ride from one blade of grass to another through that dale. I

went through it on midsummer-day, and saw the bones of horses lying

about that had died unable to get through; perhaps becoming lame or

exhausted on the way.

 

Half through this long trough of the Cold Dale stands up a buttress of

rock, or rather a sort of ness, projecting from Goatland-jokull, so

precipitous that hardly any snow rests on it, and this is called the

Half-way Fell.

 

Now, Hallmund told Grettir he must go through the Cold Dale till he

reached the Half-way Fell, and there he must strike up over the snow and

glaciers of Goatland-jokull, due south, and he would all at once drop

into a valley known to few.

 

So Grettir went up the moor till he struck the White River, that flowed

out of the Eagle Lakes he knew so well, and under the cliffs and icy

crown of Erick’s-jokull, then he climbed over broken trachyte rocks for

several hundreds of feet, till he found himself in the Cold Dale, and

along that he trudged till he had reached Half-way Fell, standing up

like a wall as though to stop the pass. There he turned to the left,

and as at this point Goatland is no longer precipitous, but slopes in a

series of steps to the Cold Dale, he climbed up through the snow, a long

and tedious ascent, till he stood on the neck of the mountain, and there

he saw that the snow slopes fell away rapidly to the south, and he

descended and soon beheld before him a valley in which were a great many

boiling springs that threw up clouds of steam, and he saw also, what

greatly pleased him, that there was rich and abundant grass in this

valley. This is what the saga says: "The dale was long and somewhat

narrow, locked up by glaciers all round, in such a manner that the ice

walls overhung the dale. He scrambled down into it, as best he could,

and there he saw fair hillsides grass-grown and set with bushes. Hot

springs were there, and it appeared to him that it was the earth-fires

which prevented the ice walls from closing in on the valley. A little

river ran down the dale, with level banks. The sun rarely shone into

the valley; but the number of sheep there could hardly be reckoned, they

were so many; and nowhere had he seen any so fat and in such good

condition."

 

Grettir did not see Thorir, Hallmund’s friend, at first; so he built

himself a hut of such wood as he could get, and with turf. He killed

the sheep he wanted, and found that there was more meat on one of them

than on two elsewhere.

 

The Saga says:—

 

"There was one ewe there, brown mottled, with a lamb, and she was a

beauty. Grettir killed the lamb, and took three stone of suet off it,

the meat was some of the best he had ever eaten. But when the mottled

ewe missed her lamb, she went up on Grettir’s hut every night, and

bleated so plaintively as to trouble his sleep, and made Grettir quite

troubled that he had killed her lamb."

 

Now Grettir noticed that at evening the sheep ran in one direction, and

once or twice he heard a call; so he went after the sheep one evening,

and was led by them to the hut where Thorir dwelt. He was a strange

man, who had spent so many years away from the society of his fellow-men

as not to care any more to meet them, so he did not welcome Grettir very

warmly. However he had three daughters, and they were glad to have

someone to talk to, and as the winter crept on Thorir himself became

more amiable, and so the winter did not pass as drearily as Grettir had

feared it would. He sang his songs and related stories, and the party

played draughts with knuckle-bones of sheep.

 

When spring came, however, he was fain to go; and he did not leave by

the way he came, but followed the little river, and it led him out

between rock and glaciers into a piece of desert, covered with lava beds

that have poured out of a volcano, or rather two that stand opposite

this entrance to Thorir’s valley. These two volcanoes are quite unlike

each other, though side by side, one, called Hlothu-fell has upright

walls, like Erick’s-jokull, and a crater filled up and brimming over

with ice; but the other Skialdbreith, or the Broad-shield, is like a

conical round silver shield laid on the ground. The entrance to Thorir’s

Dale is completely hidden by a round snowy mountain that blocks it, and

then a second snowy mountain stands further out in front of the opening,

so that not a sign of any valley can be seen from anywhere.

 

So difficult did Grettir think it would be to find it, that he ascended

on Broad-shield and set up a stone there with a hole in it, so that

anyone looking through this hole would see directly into the narrow

entrance of Thorir’s Dale. This stone still stands where Grettir had

placed it; but has sunk on one side, so that by looking through the hole

the eye is no longer directed to the entrance.

 

No one had ever visited Thorir’s Dale since Grettir left it till the

year 1654, when it was explored by two Icelandic clergymen, and an

account of their expedition in Icelandic is to be found in the British

Museum.[#] The valley as far as I know has not been explored since. It

is marked on the map of Iceland, but apparently from the description

left by the two clergymen, not from any visit made to it by the

map-maker.

 

 

[#] I have given a translation of it in my _Curiosities of Olden Times_,

London, Hayes, 1869.

 

 

When the two men visited the valley they went to it in the same way as

did Grettir. They found no hot springs, and the valley was utterly

barren; but then they had no time to descend it, they only looked down

on it from above. They found the cave with a door, and a window to it,

which was probably the habitation of Thorir and his daughters.

 

 

 

 

*CHAPTER XXXI.*

 

*THE DEATH OF HALLMUND.*

 

 

_Grim’s Fish Disappear—The Thief Wounded and Tracked—Death of

Hallmund_

 

 

Now, there was a man called Grim, who was an outlaw for his ill-deeds,

and he thought that as Grettir no longer abode in his hut on the Eagle

Lake, he might go there and occupy it. This did not please Hallmund,

for Grettir had left him his nets, and he was wont to fish in the lake.