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Page 33
_Kalf_.--You slap me? I who am Kolbein the Young? So you think he will
allow himself to be slapped with impunity by a woman?
_Jorun_.--How does this lion's whelp come among us? I had rather not
live than bring up rovers. Never more play war, Kalf! Protect those that
are weak! (_Embraces_ THORGEIR, _leads the boys to the door, and calls
out_:) Put Kalf into the dark room for a while!
_Broddi_ (_shouts from without_).--I must get to speak with you, Brand
Kolbeinsson! Quick, quick!
_Jorun_.--Broddi here! There comes war incarnate mailed from head to
foot. May God have pity on all wives!
(_Enter_ BRAND _without arms and_ BRODDI _all armed_.)
_Broddi_.--You have collected a good and well-armed body of men?
_Brand_.--I have had great difficulty in gathering troops. I have only
my tenants and my servants, altogether eighty men.
_Broddi_.--And whilst I make the fort at Holar unconquerable, whilst I
break up the frozen ground, whilst I pour water over all the ramparts of
our stronghold so that they become like slippery ice--meanwhile you
have done nothing. You sing hymns in the churches, beat your breast, and
chant 'Miserere.' Your conduct is not becoming a chieftain.
_Jorun_.--You speak harshly to my husband because he wants peace before
all things.
_Broddi_.--Peace! Whoever heard of peace after violent dissensions,
except the battles be won or--lost?
_Brand_.--You know, Broddi, that I egged on neither you nor others to
take Thorolf Bjarnason's life. And yet have I done all in my power to
collect many men. I sent Deacon Sigurd and Helgi Skaftason----
_Broddi_.--The priest and the executioner?--and, of course, only these
two?
_Brand_.--Yes, I had but few men at home, at that time.
_Broddi_.--You do not know how to get a body of men together! You send
the priest with the crucifix in his hand. All know that he wishes peace,
and no one rises for him. You send the hangman with the axe on his
shoulder to remind people of his business, but you forget that with such
a fellow no one will speak. In such wise you will not get a pack of dogs
to follow you. But if you want to raise a great host you will have to
go out yourself with sixty men and kill two or three of the first that
refuse to follow you. Thus did Kolbein the Young collect his troops at
first, and because Kalf Guttormsson would not bear arms against Sighvat,
his good friend, both he and his son were slain.
_Jorun_.--How often the murder of my father and brother is mentioned,
and no one cares though I hear it.
_Brand_.--I have been heavily oppressed with care. I have been summoned
before the tribunal of God because of having violated a pledged truce;
and my kinswoman Helga will be intent on making me follow that summons.
And now the priest in my house has dreamed thrice in the same night that
I stood by his bedside and prayed God to receive my soul.
_Broddi_.--Dreams signify nothing. The summons you talk about I think
nothing but old women's notions. The tribunal of arms is the one I
believe in; they are to decide between us and Kolbein the Young.
_Brand_.--Is it your opinion that we can overcome my kinsman Kolbein
with less force than he has himself?
_Broddi_.--The fortifications at Holar are impregnable now. Together
with your men we have more than three hundred men, and I have moved
victuals into the fort from the bishop's residence which ought to last
us for three weeks.
_Brand_.--You have robbed the bishop's see!
_Broddi_.--No, I have come by the victuals in an honest manner. You know
that warriors may take as their own all food they find. I should like
to see my brother-in-law Kolbein attack us by scaling these ramparts of
ice, and see his men tumble down from above, and the ice coloring red
under them.
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