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Page 28
_Kalf_.--I want to become a great chieftain!
_Helga_.--What chieftain would you most want to be like?
_Kalf_.--The one who commands the greatest army.
_Helga_.--You want to command a great army, foster-son?
_Kalf_.--Yes, and be victorious in many battles.
_Helga_ (_placing_ KALF _on her knee_).--I think as before about my
foster-son Half. In him you will bring up a man fit to be a chieftain,
Jorun, though I know not how fit you are for that task.
_Jorun_.--My sons will have to be satisfied with such bringing up as I
am able to give them.
_Helga_,--Which chieftain would you most like to be?
_Kalf_.--Kolbein the Young.
_Helga_.--Older people ought to say that! (_To_ THORGEIR.) But what do
you most like to become, little tot? (THORGEIR _comes up to her_.)
_Thorgeir_.--Like father. (_Puts a finger into his mouth_.)
_Helga_.--Do you want to be a priest?
_Thorgeir_.--I want to be like my papa. (HELGA _gazes at him; he retires
behind his mother, concealing his face in her gown, and cries_.)
_Jorun_.--You must not make my boy cry, lady.
_Helga_--You may keep that boy yourself. But give me your boy Kalf along
to Flugumyr, for that would further reconciliations. I wish to be the
mother of a chieftain.
_Kalf_.--Will you give me sword and helmet, and shield, then?
_Helga_.--Yes, my boy, a shield with an eagle on it.
_Jorun_.--A woman who herself has no children is not destined to be
mother to a chieftain. My son Kalf shall never come into your hands
whilst I live. I wish him to learn works of peace, and not warfare and
slaughter.
_Helga_.--Let your Thorgeir be ordained priest, as kinsmen of yours have
done. (_Stands_ KALF _on the floor, getting up herself and stroking him
on his head_.) But be careful to raise Kalf in such a manner that he
become a successor to my husband and his father.
_Jorun_.--Go now, boys! (_The boys leave the room_.) You say that Kalf
will be the successor of your husband and of his father?
_Helga_.--You know about the ill health of my husband Kolbein, which
may take him away earlier than one might suspect. And yet it may be that
Brand Kolbeinsson will not live even as long as he.
_Jorun_.--What is that you say? As a fact I know that Hjalti, the son of
the bishop, is not coming from the South to settle our differences!
_Helga_ (_laughs_).--He, the cod-biter! His men were all at the
fishing-stations when Asbjorn arrived in the South. Hjalti is coming by
no means, and my husband is raging at him.
_Jorun_.--You must have stirred up Kolbein the Young in this matter as
never before. Did you not drive home with the corpse of Thorolf, saying
to him that there was life in him still; but when he took Thorolf out
of your sleigh his head rolled about Kolbein's feet. Nor was that to be
wondered at, considering the love that was between you and Thorolf.
_Helga_.--The slayers of Thorolf themselves incited me most.
_Jorun_.--And now it may appear to you as though not only Thorolf was to
be avenged. Asbjorn fared South with eleven men and returned alone. He
lost all men in the winter storms that have been raging now for some
time. At last there were only six who returned over the Kjol, without
food and worn out. Man after man threw himself down on the frozen ground
to die; they cursed the wars that will not let men die in peace with
God and men, they cursed Brand Kolbeinsson, and Broddi, and Kolbein the
Young, because it is they who are the cause of this war.
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