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Page 8
CHAPTER VIII
ONUND AND ASMUND SAIL TO ICELAND
Onund and Asmund set sail directly when they were ready and their
ships kept together. Onund said:
"Hallvard and I were aforetime deemed
worthy in storm of swords to bear us.
With one foot now I step on the ship
towards Iceland. The poet's day is o'er."
They had a rough passage with cross winds, mostly from the south,
so that they drifted away to the north. They made Iceland right
in the North, at Langanes, where they regained their reckonings.
The ships were near enough to each other for them to speak
together. Asmund said they had better make for Eyjafjord, and
this was agreed to. They kept under the land and heavy weather
set in from the south-east. Just as Onund was tacking, the yard
was carried away; they lowered the sail and were driven out to
sea. Asmund got under the lee of Hrisey, where he waited until a
fair wind set in which took him up to Eyjafjord. Helgi the Lean
gave him the whole of Kraeklingahlid, and he lived at South-Glera.
A few years later his brother Asgrim came to Iceland and took up
his residence at North-Glera. His son was Ellidagrim the father
of Asgrim.
CHAPTER IX
ONUND SETTLES IN KALDBAK
Onund Treefoot was driven away from the shore for several days,
after which the wind shifted and blew towards the land. Then
they made land again, which those of them who had been there
before recognised as the western coast of the Skagi peninsula.
They sailed in to Strandafloi, almost to Sudrstrandir. There
came rowing towards them a ten-oared boat with six men on board,
who hailed the sea-going ship and asked who was their captain.
Onund told them his name and asked whence they came. They said
they were the men of Thorvald from Drangar. Then Onund asked
whether all the land round that coast was occupied; they answered
there was very little left at Sudrstrandir and none at all in the
North. So Onund asked his men whether they would seek some land
further to the West or take that of which they had just been
told. They said they would first explore a little further. They
sailed in along the coast of the bay and anchored off a creek
near Arnes, where they put off in a boat to the shore.
Here dwelt a wealthy man named Eirik Snare, who had taken the
land between Ingolfsfjord and Ofaera in Veidileysa. On hearing
that Onund had arrived in those parts, he offered to let him have
such portion as he needed from his own lands, adding that there
was little land which had not already been taken up. Onund said
he would first like to see what there was.
Then they went further into the bay past some fjords and came to
Ofaera, where Eirik said: "Here is what there is to see. From
here down to the lands of Bjorn is unoccupied." A high range of
mountains, on which snow had fallen, rose from beside the river.
Onund looked at the mountains and spoke a verse:
"My lands and my might have drifted away
as drifts the ship on the ocean.
My friends and my home I have left behind me,
and bartered my acres for Kaldbak."
"Many a man," answered Eirik, "has lost so much in Norway that
it may not be mended. I expect too that nearly all the lands in
the main districts have been taken, so that I will not urge you
to leave these parts and seek elsewhere. I will keep to my word
and let you have whatever lands of my own you may require."
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