grettir the outlaw 31

grettir the outlaw 31

Grettir remained in the cave, standing across the giant, till he had

killed him. Then he took up a flaming brand and searched the cave

through. He found nothing more than dead men’s bones, and these he put

together into a bag, threw that over his shoulder, and went again into

the water.

 

He rose beyond the foss and looked up, but could see nothing of the

priest; so he caught the rope, and by means of that he swarmed up to the

top of the cliff.

 

Then he sat down, and with a sharp knife he cut runes on a staff. And

what he wrote was this:

 

"Down into the gulf I went,

Where the rocks are widely rent;

Where the swirling waters fall

O’er the black basaltic wall;

Where, with voice of thunder, leap

In the foaming darkling deep.

There the stream with icy wave

Washes the grim giant’s cave."

 

He had cut as much as he could on one stick, so now he took another, and

on that he cut:

 

"Dreadful dweller in the cave

Underneath the falling wave,

Fierce at me he brandished glaive;

Full of rage at me he drove,

Desperate we together strove.

Lo! I smote his halft in twain,

Lo! I smote and he was slain,

Bleeding from each riven vein."

 

 

Then Grettir carried the bag of bones and the staves to the church, and

laid them in the porch.

 

Next morning when the priest came to the church he found the bag of

bones and the staves.

 

Such is the story.

 

Now, it is clear that a good bit of it is simply transferred from the

story of Grettir going down into the cairn of Karr the Old.

 

The real truth of the tale is no more than what has been stated, that

Grettir went under the waterfall and found nothing. It is, of course,

possible that he may have hoaxed the priest; but I think it more

probable that all this marvellous matter is simply tacked on to one

simple fact, and that it was taken, partly from the story of Grettir in

the barrow of Karr, and partly from that of his struggle with Glam.

 

What the saga writer does admit is that the versions of the story do not

quite agree, and that—in spite of this wonderful achievement, folks did

not know that Grettir was at Sandheaps that winter.

 

 

 

 

*CHAPTER XXXIV.*

 

*HOW GRETTIR WAS DRIVEN ABOUT.*

 

 

_Thorir comes too Late—The Needle of Basalt—The Island of

Drangey—The Terrors of the Dark—Brother holds to Brother_

 

 

After a while rumours reached Thorir of Garth that either Grettir, or

someone very like Grettir,—a tall, powerful man with reddish hair, and

one who gave no account of whence he came,—was lodging at Sandheaps, and

Thorir made ready to go there after him. Fortunately Grettir, or rather

the housewife Steinvor, heard of his intention, and so Grettir made off

out of the valley of the Quivering Flood before Thorir came there in

quest of him.

 

He escaped to Maddervales, in the Horg-river Dale. This is a noble

valley of the Horg River, with chains of snowy peaks on each side, of

peculiar shape, barred with precipices of basalt, on which lie slopes of

snow.

 

Some way up this valley are some very remarkable spires of basaltic

rock, one of which that is like a needle is said to have been climbed by

Grettir whilst staying in this valley. It is not so said in the saga,

but I was told so on the spot, and the tale goes that when he climbed to

the top he slipped his belt round the needle, and there it hangs round

it still—but no one has been up since to find if it be there where he

left it.

 

He could not remain long there, for Gudmund the Rich, who was farmer at

Maddervales, was afraid to house him for long. Thorir of Garth would

come and burn his house if he harboured Grettir. However, he kept him

for some little while, and then he gave him advice what he should do.

 

It had come to such a pass with Grettir now that no one dared to shelter

him for long, and Thorir had spies everywhere to inform him where

Grettir was.

 

Gudmund the Rich said to Grettir: "You can find no safety anywhere that

men dwell; for if there be not treachery, yet the news flies about that

you are there. So I advise you to go where you shall be alone."

 

"Where shall I go?" asked Grettir. "I am hunted like a dog."

 

"There is an island," answered Gudmund, "lying in the Skagafirth, called

Drangey. It is a place excellent for defence, as no one can reach it

without a ladder. If you could get upon Drangey, no one could come on

you unawares. You would see anyone who came by boat to the island, and

you could pull up a rope-ladder, without which no one would be able to

ascend."

 

"I will try that," said Grettir; "but I have become so fearsome in the

dark that not even at the risk of my life can I endure to be alone."

 

"Well," said Gudmund, "that is my counsel. Trust none but yourself.

Treachery lies where least expected."

 

Grettir thanked him for his advice, and went away west to see his

mother. And he was most joyfully welcomed by her and his young brother

Illugi at Biarg. There he remained some nights—not many; for Ramsfirth

was only over a brow of hill, and the tidings of his return home was

sure in a few days to reach the relatives of Oxmain, when he would again

be set on.

 

I said, after giving an account of Grettir’s adventure at

Thorhall’s-stead with Glam, that there must have been something of fact

in that story, and not pure fiction; and now it has been seen how that

event coloured and affected his whole after life, leaving his nerves so

shaken, that he could not drive off the impression then made on him, and

he was ready to run serious risks rather than be subject to the terrors

that came on him in the dark when alone.

 

He told his mother and Illugi how it was with him, and how that he had

been advised to go to Drangey, but that he could not; he dare not, in

the long winter night, be on that lonely islet by himself.

 

Then Illugi his brother said, "Grettir, I will be with you."

 

"Brother holds to brother as hand clasps hand," answered Grettir, and so

they parted. All that summer he wandered about in wild places, shifting

his quarters repeatedly, and living how he could.

 

 

 

 

*CHAPTER XXXV.*

 

*ON THE ISLE.*

 

 

_Illugi will go to Drangey—Asdis gives Consent—Asdis prophesies

Woe—Within Sight of Drangey—Glaum becomes Grettir’s

Servant—Thorwald rows Grettir to Drangey—Thorbiorn Hook—The

Bonders visit the Island—Grettir in Possession—An Inaccessible

Spot_

 

 

When summer was now over, and the first snow of winter began to fall,

when the days were rapidly shortening, and the sun had gone out of the

north to the south, where it began to move in a rapidly narrowing arc,

Grettir returned to Biarg and remained there a while. "But," says the

saga, "so great grew his fear in the dark that he durst go nowhere as

soon as dusk set in." We can see that the many years strain on his

nerves had broken them. Hunted about as a wild beast, always forced to

be on his guard, never able to sleep without fear of being murdered in

his sleep, the trial had told on him. This was now the winter of 1028.

He was aged but thirty-one; his strength of body was not abated, only

his nervous force. He had been in outlawry altogether fifteen years,

three for the slaying of Skeggi, then he had been outlawed by King Olaf

in 1016. On his return to Iceland he had been outlawed in 1017; this

was the eleventh year of his outlawry at the suit of Thorir of Garth, an

outlawry not only unjust, but according to general opinion illegal,

because he had been tried and sentenced in his absence, and without any

witnesses having been called to establish his guilt—condemned on hearsay

evidence, and he never allowed to defend himself.

 

Now Illugi, Grettir’s sole surviving brother, was aged fifteen, and was