|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 15
The rest had no mind to let the affair create discord among them,
and the brothers Kalf and Thorvald tried to reconcile them.
Audun and Grettir were distantly related to each other. The
games went on and there was no further disturbance.
CHAPTER XVI
GRETTIR KILLS SKEGGI AND IS OUTLAWED FOR THREE YEARS
Thorkell Krafla now began to grow very old. He was a great
chieftain and held the Vatnsdal Godord. He was a close friend of
Asmund Longhair, as befitted the near relations in which they
stood to each other. He had, therefore, been in the habit of
riding every year in the spring to Bjarg to visit his kinsmen
there, and he did so in the spring which followed the events just
related. Asmund and Asdis received him with both hands. He
stayed there three nights and many a matter did the kinsmen
discuss together. Thorkell asked Asmund what his heart told him
about his sons, and what professions they were likely to follow.
Asmund said that Atli would probably be a great landowner, very
careful and wealthy.
"A useful man, like yourself," said Thorkell. "But what can you
tell me of Grettir?"
"I can only say," he replied, "that he will be a strong man; but
headstrong and quarrelsome. A heavy trial has he been to me."
"That does not look very promising, kinsman!" said Thorkell.
"But how are we to arrange our journey to the Thing in the
summer?"
"I am getting difficult to move," he said. "I would rather stay
at home."
"Would you like Atli to go for you?"
"I don't think I can spare him," Asmund said, "because of the
work and the provisioning. Grettir will not do anything. But he
has quite wit enough to carry out the duties at the Thing on my
behalf under your guidance."
"It shall be as you please," said Thorkell.
Then Thorkell made himself ready and rode home; Asmund dismissed
him with presents.
A little later Thorkell journeyed to the Thing with sixty men.
All the men of his godord went with him. They passed through
Bjarg, where Grettir joined them. They rode South through the
heath called Tvidaegra. There was very little grazing to be had
in the hills, so they rode quickly past them into the cultivated
land. When they reached Fljotstunga they thought it was time to
sleep, so they took the bits from their horses and turned them
loose with their saddles. They lay there well on into the day,
and when they woke began to look for their horses. Every horse
had gone off in a different direction and some had been rolling.
Grettir could not find his horse at all. The custom was at that
time that men should find their own provisions at the Thing, and
most of them carried their sacks over their saddles. When
Grettir found his horse its saddle was under its belly, and the
sack of provisions gone. He searched about but could not find
it. Then he saw a man running very fast and asked him who he
was. He said his name was Skeggi and that he was a man from Ass
in Vatnsdal in the North.
"I am travelling with Thorkell," he said. "I have been careless
and lost my provision-bag."
"Alone in misfortune is worst. I also have lost my stock of
provisions; so we can look for them together."
Skeggi was well pleased with this proposal, and so they went
about seeking for a time. Suddenly, when Grettir least expected
it, Skeggi started running with all his might along the moor and
picked up the sack. Grettir saw him bend and asked what it was
that he had picked up.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|