Burnt Njal 126-129
CHAPTER CXXVI.

OF PORTENTS AT BERGTHORSKNOLL.


Now we must take up the story, and turn to Bergthorsknoll, and say that
Grim and Helgi go to Holar. They had children out at foster there, and
they told their mother that they should not come home that evening. They
were in Holar all the day, and there came some poor women and said they
had come from far. Those brothers asked them for tidings, and they said
they had no tidings to tell, "but still we might tell you one bit of
news".

They asked what that might be, and bade them not hide it. They said so
it should be.

"We came down out of Fleetlithe, and we saw all the sons of Sigfus
riding fully armed--they made for Threecorner ridge, and were fifteen in
company. We saw, too, Grani Gunnar's son and Gunnar Lambi's son, and
they were five in all. They took the same road, and one may say now that
the whole country-side is faring and flitting about."
"Then," said Helgi Njal's son, "Flosi must have come from the east, and
they must have all gone to meet him, and we two, Grim, should be where
Skarphedinn is."

Grim said so it ought to be, and they fared home.

That same evening Bergthora spoke to her household, and said, "Now shall
ye choose your meat to-night, so that each may have what he likes best;
for this evening is the last that I shall set meat before my household".

"That shall not be," they said.

"It will be though," she says, "and I could tell you much more if I
would, but this shall be a token, that Grim and Helgi will be home ere
men have eaten their full to-night; and if this turns out so, then the
rest that I say will happen too."

After that she set meat on the board, and Njal said, "Wondrously now it
seems to me. Methinks I see all round the room, and it seems as though
the gable wall were thrown down, but the whole board and the meat on it
is one gore of blood."

All thought this strange but Skarphedinn, he bade men not be downcast,
nor to utter other unseemly sounds, so that men might make a story out
of them.
"For it befits us surely more than other men to bear us well, and it is
only what is looked for from us."

Grim and Helgi came home ere the board was cleared, and men were much
struck at that. Njal asked why they had returned so quickly, but they
told what they had heard.

Njal bade no man go to sleep, but to beware of themselves.




CHAPTER CXXVII.

THE ONSLAUGHT ON BERGTHORSKNOLL.


Now Flosi speaks to his men--

"Now we will ride to Bergthorsknoll, and come thither before
supper-time."

They do so. There was a dell in the knoll, and they rode thither, and
tethered their horses there, and stayed there till the evening was far
spent.
Then Flosi said, "Now we will go straight up to the house, and keep
close, and walk slow, and see what counsel they will take".

Njal stood out of doors, and his sons, and Kari and all the serving-men,
and they stood in array to meet them in the yard, and they were near
thirty of them.

Flosi halted and said--"Now we shall see what counsel they take, for it
seems to me, if they stand out of doors to meet us, as though we should
never get the mastery over them".

"Then is our journey bad," says Grani Gunnar's son, "if we are not to
dare to fall on them."

"Nor shall that be," says Flosi; "for we will fall on them though they
stand out of doors; but we shall pay that penalty, that many will not go
away to tell which side won the day."

Njal said to his men, "See ye now what a great band of men they have".

"They have both a great and well-knit band," says Skarphedinn; "but this
is why they make a halt now, because they think it will be a hard
struggle to master us."

"That cannot be why they halt," says Njal; "and my will is that our men
go indoors, for they had hard work to master Gunnar of Lithend, though
he was alone to meet them; but here is a strong house as there was
there, and they will be slow to come to close quarters."

"This is not to be settled in that wise," says Skarphedinn, "for those
chiefs fell on Gunnar's house, who were so noble-minded, that they would
rather turn back than burn him, house and all; but these will fall on us
at once with fire, if they cannot get at us in any other way, for they
will leave no stone unturned to get the better of us; and no doubt they
think, as is not unlikely, that it will be their deaths if we escape
out of their hands. Besides, I am unwilling to let myself be stifled
indoors like a fox in his earth."

"Now," said Njal, "as often it happens, my sons, ye set my counsel at
naught, and show me no honour, but when ye were younger ye did not so,
and then your plans were better furthered."

"Let us do," said Helgi, "as our father wills; that will be best for
us."

"I am not so sure of that," says Skarphedinn, "for now he is 'fey';
but still I may well humour my father in this, by being burnt indoors
along with him, for I am not afraid of my death."

Then he said to Kari, "Let us stand by one another well, brother-in-law,
so that neither parts from the other".

"That I have made up my mind to do," says Kari; "but if it should be
otherwise doomed,--well! then it must be as it must be, and I shall not
be able to fight against it."

"Avenge us, and we will avenge thee," says Skarphedinn, "if we live
after thee."

Kari said so it should be.

Then they all went in, and stood in array at the door.

"Now are they all 'fey,'" said Flosi, "since they have gone indoors, and
we will go right up to them as quickly as we can, and throng as close as
we can before the door, and give heed that none of them, neither Kari
nor Njal's sons, get away; for that were our bane."

So Flosi and his men came up to the house, and set men to watch round
the house, if there were any secret doors in it. But Flosi went up to
the front of the house with his men.

Then Hroald Auzur's son ran up to where Skarphedinn stood, and thrust at
him. Skarphedinn hewed the spearhead off the shaft as he held it, and
made another stroke at him, and the axe fell on the top of the shield,
and dashed back the whole shield on Hroald's body, but the upper horn of
the axe caught him on the brow, and he fell at full length on his back,
and was dead at once.

"Little chance had that one with thee, Skarphedinn," said Kari, "and
thou art our boldest."

"I'm not so sure of that," says Skarphedinn, and he drew up his lips and
smiled.

Kari, and Grim, and Helgi, threw out many spears, and wounded many men;
but Flosi and his men could do nothing.

At last Flosi said, "We have already gotten great manscathe in our men;
many are wounded, and he slain whom we would choose last of all. It is
now clear that we shall never master them with weapons; many now there
be who are not so forward in fight as they boasted, and yet they were
those who goaded us on most. I say this most to Grani Gunnar's son, and
Gunnar Lambi's son, who were the least willing to spare their foes. But
still we shall have to take to some other plan for ourselves, and now
there are but two choices left, and neither of them good. One is to turn
away, and that is our death; the other, to set fire to the house, and
burn them inside it; and that is a deed which we shall have to answer
for heavily before God, since we are Christian men ourselves; but still
we must take to that counsel."




CHAPTER CXXVIII.

NJAL'S BURNING.


Now they took fire, and made a great pile before the doors. Then
Skarphedinn said.

"What, lads! are ye lighting a fire, or are ye taking to cooking?"

"So it shall be," answered Grani Gunnar's son; "and thou shalt not need
to be better done."

"Thou repayest me," said Skarphedinn, "as one may look for from the man
that thou art. I avenged thy father, and thou settest most store by that
duty which is farthest from thee."

Then the women threw whey on the fire, and quenched it as fast as they
lit it. Some, too, brought water, or slops.

Then Kol Thorstein's son said to Flosi--

"A plan comes into my mind; I have seen a loft over the hall among the
crosstrees, and we will put the fire in there, and light it with the
vetch-stack that stands just above the house."

Then they took the vetch-stack and set fire to it, and they who were
inside were not aware of it till the whole hall was ablaze over their
heads.

Then Flosi and his men made a great pile before each of the doors, and
then the women folk who were inside began to weep and to wail.

Njal spoke to them and said, "Keep up your hearts, nor utter shrieks,
for this is but a passing storm, and it will be long before ye have
another such; and put your faith in God, and believe that He is so
merciful that He will not let us burn both in this world and the next."

Such words of comfort had he for them all, and others still more strong.

Now the whole house began to blaze. Then Njal went to the door and
said--

"Is Flosi so near that he can hear my voice?"

Flosi said that he could hear it.

"Wilt thou," said Njal, "take an atonement from my sons, or allow any
men to go out?"

"I will not," answers Flosi, "take any atonement from thy sons, and now
our dealings shall come to an end once for all, and I will not stir from
this spot till they are all dead; but I will allow the women and
children and house-carles to go out."

Then Njal went into the house, and said to the folk--

"Now all those must go out to whom leave is given, and so go thou out
Thorhalla Asgrim's daughter, and all the people also with thee who may."

Then Thorhalla said--

"This is another parting between me and Helgi than I thought of a while
ago; but still I will egg on my father and brothers to avenge this
manscathe which is wrought here."

"Go, and good go with thee," said Njal, "for thou art a brave woman."

After that she went out and much folk with her.

Then Astrid of Deepback said to Helgi Njal's son--

"Come thou out with me, and I will throw a woman's cloak over thee, and
tire thy head with a kerchief."

He spoke against it at first, but at last he did so at the prayer of
others.

So Astrid wrapped the kerchief round Helgi's head, but Thorhilda,
Skarphedinn's wife, threw the cloak over him, and he went out between
them, and then Thorgerda Njal's daughter, and Helga her sister, and many
other folk went out too.

But when Helgi came out Flosi said--

"That is a tall woman and broad across the shoulders that went yonder,
take her and hold her."

But when Helgi heard that, he cast away the cloak. He had got his sword
under his arm, and hewed at a man, and the blow fell on his shield and
cut off the point of it, and the man's leg as well. Then Flosi came up
and hewed at Helgi's neck, and took off his head at a stroke.

Then Flosi went to the door and called out to Njal, and said he would
speak with him and Bergthora.

Now Njal does so, and Flosi said--

"I will offer thee, master Njal, leave to go out, for it is unworthy
that thou shouldst burn indoors."

"I will not go out," said Njal, "for I am an old man, and little fitted
to avenge my sons, but I will not live in shame."

Then Flosi said to Bergthora--

"Come thou out, housewife, for I will for no sake burn thee indoors."

"I was given away to Njal young," said Bergthora, "and I have promised
him this, that we would both share the same fate."

After that they both went back into the house.

"What counsel shall we now take?" said Bergthora.

"We will go to our bed," says Njal, "and lay us down; I have long been
eager for rest."

Then she said to the boy Thord, Kari's son--

"Thee will I take out, and thou shalt not burn in here."

"Thou hast promised me this, grandmother," says the boy, "that we should
never part so long as I wished to be with thee; but methinks it is much
better to die with thee and Njal than to live after you."

Then she bore the boy to her bed, and Njal spoke to his steward and
said--

"Now shalt thou see where we lay us down, and how I lay us out, for I
mean not to stir an inch hence, whether reek or burning smart me, and so
thou wilt be able to guess where to look for our bones."

He said he would do so.

There had been an ox slaughtered and the hide lay there. Njal told the
steward to spread the hide over them, and he did so.

So there they lay down both of them in their bed, and put the boy
between them. Then they signed themselves and the boy with the cross,
and gave over their souls into God's hand, and that was the last word
that men heard them utter.

Then the steward took the hide and spread it over them, and went out
afterwards. Kettle of the Mark caught hold of him, and dragged him out,
he asked carefully after his father-in-law Njal, but the steward told
him the whole truth. Then Kettle said--

"Great grief hath been sent on us, when we have had to share such
ill-luck together."

Skarphedinn saw how his father laid him down, and how he laid himself
out, and then he said--

"Our father goes early to bed, and that is what was to be looked for,
for he is an old man."

Then Skarphedinn, and Kari, and Grim, caught the brands as fast as they
dropped down, and hurled them out at them, and so it went on a while.
Then they hurled spears in at them, but they caught them all as they
flew, and sent them back again.

Then Flosi bade them cease shooting, "for all feats of arms will go hard
with us when we deal with them; ye may well wait till the fire overcomes
them".

So they do that, and shoot no more.

Then the great beams out of the roof began to fall, and Skarphedinn
said--

"Now must my father be dead, and I have neither heard groan nor cough
from him."

Then they went to the end of the hall, and there had fallen down a
cross-beam inside which was much burnt in the middle.

Kari spoke to Skarphedinn, and said--"Leap thou out here, and I will
help thee to do so, and I will leap out after thee, and then we shall
both get away if we set about it so, for hitherward blows all the
smoke."

"Thou shalt leap first," said Skarphedinn; "but I will leap straightway
on thy heels."

"That is not wise," says Kari, "for I can get out well enough elsewhere,
though it does not come about here."

"I will not do that," says Skarphedinn; "leap thou out first, but I will
leap after thee at once."

"It is bidden to every man," says Kari, "to seek to save his life while
he has a choice, and I will do so now; but still this parting of ours
will be in such wise that we shall never see one another more; for if I
leap out of the fire, I shall have no mind to leap back into the fire to
thee, and then each of us will have to fare his own way."

"It joys me, brother-in-law," says Skarphedinn, "to think that if thou
gettest away thou wilt avenge me."

Then Kari took up a blazing bench in his hand, and runs up along the
cross-beam, then he hurls the bench out at the roof, and it fell among
those who were outside.

Then they ran away, and by that time all Kari's upper-clothing and his
hair were ablaze, then he threw himself down from the roof, and so crept
along with the smoke.

Then one man said who was nearest--

"Was that a man that leapt out at the roof?"

"Far from it," says another; "more likely it was Skarphedinn who hurled
a firebrand at us."

After that they had no more mistrust.

Kari ran till he came to a stream, and then, he threw himself down into
it, and so quenched the fire on him.

After that he ran along under shelter of the smoke into a hollow, and
rested him there, and that has since been called Kari's Hollow.




CHAPTER CXXIX.

SKARPHEDINN'S DEATH.


Now it is to be told of Skarphedinn that he runs out on the cross-beam
straight after Kari, but when he came to where the beam was most burnt,
then it broke down under him. Skarphedinn came down on his feet, and
tried again the second time, and climbs up the wall with a run, then
down on him came the wall-plate, and he toppled down again inside.

Then Skarphedinn said--"Now one can see what will come;" and then he
went along the side wall. Gunnar Lambi's son leapt up on the wall and
sees Skarphedinn; he spoke thus--

"Weepest thou now, Skarphedinn?"

"Not so," says Skarphedinn, "but true it is that the smoke makes one's
eyes smart, but is it as it seems to me, dost thou laugh?"

"So it is surely," says Gunnar, "and I have never laughed since thou
slewest Thrain on Markfleet."

Then Skarphedinn said--"He now is a keepsake for thee;" and with that
he took out of his purse the jaw-tooth which he had hewn out of Thrain,
and threw it at Gunnar, and struck him in the eye, so that it started
out and lay on his cheek.

Then Gunnar fell down from the roof.

Skarphedinn then went to his brother Grim, and they held one another by
the hand and trode the fire; but when they came to the middle of the
hall Grim fell down dead.

Then Skarphedinn went to the end of the house, and then there was a
great crash, and down fell the roof. Skarphedinn was then shut in
between it and the gable, and so he could not stir a step thence.

Flosi and his band stayed by the fire until it was broad daylight; then
came a man riding up to them. Flosi asked him for his name, but he said
his name was Geirmund, and that he was a kinsman of the sons of Sigfus.

"Ye have done a mighty deed," he says.

"Men," says Flosi, "will call it both a mighty deed and an ill deed, but
that can't be helped now."

"How many men have lost their lives here?" asks Geirmund.

"Here have died," says Flosi, "Njal and Bergthora and all their sons,
Thord Kari's son, Kari Solmund's son, but besides these we cannot say
for a surety, because we know not their names."

"Thou tellest him now dead," said Geirmund, "with whom we have gossipped
this morning."

"Who is that?" says Flosi.

"We two," says Geirmund, "I and my neighbour Bard, met Kari Solmund's
son, and Bard gave him his horse, and his hair and his upper clothes
were burned off him."

"Had he any weapons?" asks Flosi.

"He had the sword 'Life-luller,'" says Geirmund, "and one edge of it was
blue with fire, and Bard and I said that it must have become soft, but
he answered thus, that he would harden it in the blood of the sons of
Sigfus or the other Burners."

"What said he of Skarphedinn?" said Flosi.

"He said both he and Grim were alive," answers Geirmund, "when they
parted; but he said that now they must be dead."

"Thou hast told us a tale," said Flosi, "which bodes us no idle peace,
for that man hath now got away who comes next to Gunnar of Lithend in
all things; and now, ye sons of Sigfus, and ye other Burners, know
this, that such a great blood feud, and hue and cry will be made about
this burning, that it will make many a man headless, but some will lose
all their goods. Now I doubt much whether any man of you, ye sons of
Sigfus, will dare to stay in his house; and that is not to be wondered
at; and so I will bid you all to come and stay with me in the east, and
let us all share one fate."

They thanked him for his offer, and said they would be glad to take it.

Then Modolf Kettle's son sang a song.

But one prop of Njal's house liveth,
All the rest inside are burnt,
All but one,--those bounteous spenders,
Sigfus' stalwart sons wrought this;
Son of Gollnir[72] now is glutted
Vengeance for brave Hauskuld's death,
Brisk flew fire through thy dwelling,
Bright flames blazed above thy roof.

"We shall have to boast of something else than that Njal has been burnt
in his house," says Flosi, "for there is no glory in that."

Then he went up on the gable, and Glum Hilldir's son, and some other
men. Then Glum said, "Is Skarphedinn dead, indeed?" But the others said
he must have been dead long ago.

The fire sometimes blazed up fitfully and sometimes burned low, and then
they heard down in the fire beneath them that this song was sung--

Deep, I ween, ye Ogre offspring!
Devilish brood of giant birth,
Would ye groan with gloomy visage
Had the fight gone to my mind;
But my very soul it gladdens
That my friends[73] who now boast high,
Wrought not this foul deed, their glory,
Save with footsteps filled with gore.

"Can Skarphedinn, think ye, have sung this song dead or alive?" said
Grani Gunnar's son.

"I will go into no guesses about that," says Flosi.

"We will look for Skarphedinn," says Grani, "and the other men who have
been here burnt inside the house."

"That shall not be," says Flosi, "it is just like such foolish men as
thou art, now that men will be gathering force all over the country; and
when they do come, I trow the very same man who now lingers will be so
scared that he will not know which way to run; and now my counsel is
that we all ride away as quickly as ever we can."

Then Flosi went hastily to his horse and all his men.

Then Flosi said to Geirmund--

"Is Ingialld, thinkest thou, at home, at the Springs?"

Geirmund said he thought he must be at home.

"There now is a man," says Flosi, "who has broken his oath with us and
all good faith."

Then Flosi said to the sons of Sigfus--"What course will ye now take
with Ingialld; will ye forgive him, or shall we now fall on him and slay
him?"

They all answered that they would rather fall on him and slay him.

Then Flosi jumped on his horse, and all the others, and they rode away.
Flosi rode first, and shaped his course for Rangriver, and up along the
river bank.

Then he saw a man riding down on the other bank of the river, and he
knew that there was Ingialld of the Springs. Flosi calls out to him.
Ingialld halted and turned down to the river bank; and Flosi said to
him--

"Thou hast broken faith with us, and hast forfeited life and goods. Here
now are the sons of Sigfus, who are eager to slay thee; but methinks
thou hast fallen into a strait, and I will give thee thy life if thou
will hand over to me the right to make my own award."

"I will sooner ride to meet Kari," said Ingialld, "than grant thee the
right to utter thine own award, and my answer to the sons of Sigfus is
this, that I shall be no whit more afraid of them than they are of me."

"Bide thou there," says Flosi, "if thou art not a coward, for I will
send thee a gift."

"I will bide of a surety," says Ingialld.

Thorstein Kolbein's son, Flosi's brother's son, rode up by his side and
had a spear in his hand, he was one of the bravest of men, and the most
worthy of those who were with Flosi.

Flosi snatched the spear from him, and launched it at Ingialld, and it
fell on his left side, and passed through the shield just below the
handle, and clove it all asunder, but the spear passed on into his
thigh just above the knee-pan, and so on into the saddle-tree, and there
stood fast.

Then Flosi said to Ingialld--

"Did it touch thee?"

"It touched me sure enough," says Ingialld, "but I call this a scratch
and not a wound."

Then Ingialld plucked the spear out of the wound, and said to Flosi--

"Now bide thou, if thou art not a milksop."

Then he launched the spear back over the river. Flosi sees that the
spear is coming straight for his middle, and then he backs his horse out
of the way, but the spear flew in front of Flosi's horse, and missed
him, but it struck Thorstein's middle, and down he fell at once dead off
his horse.

Now Ingialld tuns for the wood, and they could not get at him.

Then Flosi said to his men--

"Now have we gotten manscathe, and now we may know, when such things
befall us, into what a luckless state we have got. Now it is my counsel
that we ride up to Threecorner ridge; thence we shall be able to see
where men ride all over the country, for by this time they will have
gathered together a great band, and they will think that we have ridden
east to Fleetlithe from Threecorner ridge; and thence they will think
that we are riding north up on the fell, and so east to our own country,
and thither the greater part of the folk will ride after us; but some
will ride the coast road east to Selialandsmull, and yet they will think
there is less hope of finding us thitherward, but I will now take
counsel for all of us, and my plan is to ride up into Threecorner-fell,
and bide there till three suns have risen and set in heaven."