Grettir the Outlaw 8

Grettir the Outlaw 8

Now, you must know that in heathen times what was often done with old

warriors was to draw up a boat on the shore, and to seat the dead man in

the cabin, with his horse slain beside him, sometimes some of his slaves

or thralls were also killed and put in with him, and his choicest

treasures were heaped about him. This men did because they thought that

the dead man would want his weapons, his raiment, his ornaments, his

horse and his servants in the spirit world. Of late years such a mound

has been opened in Norway, and a great ship found in it, well preserved,

with the old dead chief’s bones in it. When a ship was not buried, then

a chamber of strong planks was built, and he was put in that, and the

earth heaped over him. Into such a chamber had Grettir now dug.

 

He soon reached the bottom, and was in darkness, only a little light

came in from above, through the hole he had broken in the roof of the

cabin or chamber. His feet were among bones, and these he was quite

sure were horse bones. Then he groped about.

 

As his eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, he discerned a

figure seated in a throne. It was the long-dead Karr the Old. He was

in full harness, with a helmet on his head with bull’s horns sticking

out, one on each side; his hands were on his knees, and his feet on a

great chest. Round his neck was a gold torque or necklet, made of bars

of twisted gold, hooked together behind the head. Grettir in the dark

could only just make out the glimmer of the gold, but it seemed to him

that a phosphorescent light played about the face of the dead chief.

 

So little light was left, that Grettir hasted to collect what he could.

There stood a brazen vessel near the chair, in which were various

articles, probably of worth, but it was too dark for Grettir to see what

they were. He brought the vessel to the rope and fastened the end of

the cord to its handle. Then he went back to the old dead man and drew

away a short sword that lay on his lap, and this he placed in the brass

vessel. Next he began to unhook the gold torque from his neck, and as

he did this the phosphorescent flame glared strangely about the dead

man’s face.

 

Then, all at once, as both his hands were engaged undoing the hook

behind Karr’s neck, he was clipped. The dead man’s arms had clutched

him, and with a roar like a bull Karr the Old stood up, holding him

fast, and now all the light that had played over his features gathered

into and glared out of his eyes.

 

When Audun heard the roar, he was so frightened that he ran from the

barrow, and did not stay his feet till he reached home, feeling

convinced that the ghost or whatever it was that lived in the tomb had

torn Grettir to pieces.

 

Then began in the chamber of the dead a fearful wrestle. Grettir was at

times nigh on smothered by the gray beard of the dead chief, that had

been growing, growing, in the vault, ever since he had been buried.

 

How long that terrible struggle continued no one can tell. Grettir had

to use his utmost force to stand against Karr the Old. The two wrestled

up and down in the chamber, kicking the horse bones about from side to

side, stumbling over the coffer, and the brass vessel, and the horse’s

skull, striking against the sides, and when they did this then masses of

earth and portions of broken plank fell in from above.

 

At last Karr’s feet gave way under him and he fell, and Grettir fell

over him. Then instantly he laid hold of his sword, and smote off Old

Karr’s head and laid it beside his thigh.

 

This, according to Norse belief, was the only way in which to prevent a

dead man from walking, who had haunted the neighbourhood of his tomb,

and in the Icelandic sagas we hear of other cases where the same

proceeding was gone through. The Norsemen held to something more

dreadful than ghosts walking; they thought that some evil spirit entered

into the bodies of the dead, that when this happened the dead no longer

decayed, but walked, and ate, and drank, and fought, very much like

living ruffians, but with redoubled strength. Then, when this happened,

nothing was of any avail save the digging up of the dead man, cutting

off his head and laying it at his thigh.

 

When Grettir had done this, he despoiled Karr the Old of his helm, his

breast-plate, his torque, and he took the box on which the feet had

rested. He fastened all together to the rope, and called to Audun to

haul up. He received no answer, so he swarmed up himself, and finding

that his friend had run away he pulled up what he had tied together, and

carried the whole lot in his arms to the house of Thorfin. Thorfin and

his party were at supper; and when Grettir came in, the bonder looked

up, and asked why he did not keep regular hours, and be at the table

when the meal began. Grettir made no other answer than to throw all he

carried down on the supper-table before the master. Thorfin raised his

eyebrows when he saw so much treasure.

 

"Where did you get all this?" he asked.

 

Then Grettir answered in one of his enigmatical songs:

 

"Thou who dost the wave-shine shorten,

My attempt has been to find

In the barrow what was hidden,

Deep in darkness black and blind.

Nothing of the dragon’s treasure

With the dead is left behind."

 

 

By the wave-shine shortener he meant Thorfin; the dragon’s treasure

meant gold, because dragons were thought to line their lairs with that

metal.

 

Thorfin saw that Grettir’s eye looked longingly at the short sword that

had lain on the knees of Karr. He said: "It was a heathen custom in old

times to bury very much that was precious along with the dead. I do not

blame you for what you have done; but this I will say, that there is no

one else about this place who would have ventured to attempt what you

have done. As for that sword on which you cast your eyes so longingly,

it has ever been in our family, and I cannot part with it till you have

shown that you are worthy to wear it."

 

Then that sword was hung up over Thorfin’s bed. You have heard how

Grettir did show that he was worthy to wear it, and also how Thorfin

gave it him.

 

Now, this tale about the sword will very well illustrate what was said

at the beginning, that the history of Grettir contains, in the main,

truth; but that this substance of truth has been embroidered over by

fancy. What is true is, that during the winter in which he was with

Thorfin he did dig into the mound in which Karr was buried, and did take

thence his treasures and his sword. But all the story of his fight with

the dead man was added. The same story occurs in a good many other

sagas, as in that of Hromund Greip’s son, who also got a sword by

digging into a barrow for it. When the history of Grettir was told, and

this adventure of his was related, those who told the story imported

into it the legend of the fight of Hromund in the grave with the dead

man, so as to make the history of Grettir more amusing. As you will see

by the tale, no one else was present when it happened, for Audun had run

away, and it was not like Grettir to boast of what he had done. This

was an embellishment added by the story-teller, and from the storyteller

the incident passed into the volume of the story-writer.

 

Grettir had now two good swords; one long, which he called Jokull’s

Gift, that he had received from his mother, and this short one that he

wore at his girdle, which he had taken out of the grave of Karr the Old,

and which he had won fairly by his bravery in the defence of the house

and family of Thorfin.

 

 

 

 

*CHAPTER VIII.*

 

*OF THE BEAR.*

 

 

_Grettir goes North—Biorn the Braggart—The Bear’s Den—Biorn’s

Feat—A Hunting Party—The Lost Cloak—Grettir Seeks the Bear

Alone—Grettir’s Hardest Tussle—The Fall Over the Cliff—Thorgils

Acts as Peacemaker—Grettir Restrains Himself_

 

 

When spring came, then Grettir left his friend Thorfin, and went north

along the Norwegian coast, and was everywhere well received, because the

story of how he had killed twelve rovers, he being as yet but a boy, was

noised through all the country, and every one who had anything to lose

felt safer because that wicked gang was broken up. Nothing of

consequence is told about him during that summer. For the winter he did

not return to Thorfin as asked, but accepted the invitation of another

bonder, named Thorgils.

 

Thorgils was a merry, pleasant man, and he had a great company in his

house that winter. Among his visitors was a certain Biorn, a distant

cousin, a man whom Thorgils did not like, as he was a slanderous-tongued

fellow, and moreover he was a braggart. He was one of those persons we

meet with not infrequently who cannot endure to hear another praised;

who, the moment a good word is spoken of someone, immediately puts in a

nasty, spiteful word, and tells an unkind story, so as to drag that

person down in the general opinion. At the same time, concerning

himself he had only praiseworthy and wonderful feats to relate about his

wit, his wisdom, his craft, his knowledge of the world, about his

strength and courage.

 

Thorgils knew how much, or rather how little, to believe of what Biorn

said, and he did not pay much regard to his talk. But now Grettir had

an opportunity of seeing and of feeling how mistaken had been his

conduct on board the ship upon which he had come to Norway, when he made

lampoons on the sailors and chapmen, and stung them with sharp words.

He saw how disagreeable a fellow Biorn was, how much he was disliked,

and by some despised; and he kept very greatly to himself and out of

Biorn’s way. He did not wish to quarrel with him, because he was the

relative of his host, and he was afraid that his anger would get the

better of him if he did come to words with the braggart.

 

Grettir had grown a great deal since he left Iceland, and he was now a

strapping fellow, broad built but not short. He was not handsome, but

his face was intelligent.

 

It fell out that a bear gave much trouble that winter to Thorgils and

the neighbouring farmers. It was so strong and so daring that no folds

were secure against it, and Thorgils and the other farmers endured severe losses through the depredations of Bruin. Before Yule, a party was formed to go in search of and kill the bear, but all that was done was to find the lair.