Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval LiteratureKer, W. P. (William Paton)
History
Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval Literature
Ker, W. P. (William Paton)
Epic poetry -- History and criticism; Literature, Medieval -- History and criticism; Romances -- History and criticism
Then he felt his way through the house, and with him went
Gudmund the Headstrong, his kinsman, who did not wish to
lose sight of him. They came to the doors of the ladies'
room; and Gizur was going to make his way out there. Then he
heard outside the voices of men cursing and swearing, and
turned back from there.
Now in the meantime Groa and Ingibjorg had gone to the door.
Groa asked for freedom for Ingibjorg. Kolbein heard that,
her kinsman, and asked Ingibjorg to come out to him. She
would not, unless she got leave to take some one out along
with her. Kolbein said that was too much to ask. Groa
besought her to go.
"I have to look after the lad Thorlak, my sister's son,"
says she.
Thorlak was a boy of ten, the son of Thorleif the Noisy. He
had jumped out of the house before this, and his linen
clothes were all ablaze when he came down to the ground: he
got safe to the church. Some men say that Thorstein Genja
pushed Groa back into the fire; she was found in the porch
afterwards. Kolbein dashed into the fire for Ingibjorg, and
carried her out to the church.
Then the house began to blaze up. A little after, Hall
Gizur's son [the bridegroom] came to the south door, and
Arni the Bitter, his henchman, with him. They were both very
hard put to it, and distressed by the heat. There was a
board across the doorway, half-way up. Hall did not stop to
look, but jumped straight out over the hatch. He had a sword
in one hand, and no weapon besides. Einar Thorgrimsson was
posted near where he leapt out, and hewed at his head with a
sword, and that was his death-wound. As he fell, another man
cut at his right leg below the knee and slashed it nearly
off. Thorleif the monk from Thverá, the brewer, had got out
before, and was in the yard; he took a sheepskin and put it
under Hall when Einar and the others went away; then he
rolled all together, Hall and the sheepskin, along to the
church when they were not looking. Hall was lightly clad,
and the cold struck deep into his wounds. The monk was
barefoot, and his feet were frostbitten, but he brought
himself and Hall to the church at last.
Arni leapt out straight after Hall; he struck his foot on
the hatch (he was turning old) and fell as he came out. They
asked who that might be, coming in such a hurry.
"Arni the Bitter is here," says he; "and I will not ask for
quarter. I see one lying not far away makes me like it well
enough if I travel the same road with him."
Then said Kolbein: "Is there no man here remembers Snorri
Sturluson?"[62]
[Footnote 62: Arni Beiskr (the Bitter) in company with Gizur
murdered Snorri Sturluson the historian at his house of
Reykholt, 22nd September 1241.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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