At Froda there was a large hall with a fireplace in the midde, and a
bed-closet at the inner end of it, as was then the custom. At the
outer end were two store-closets, one on each side; dried fish were
piled in one of these, and there was meal in the other. In this hall
fires were kindled every evening, as was the custom, and folk sat
round these fires for a long while before they went to supper. On
that evening on which the funeral party came home, while the folk at
Froda were sitting round the fires, they saw a half-moon appear on the
panelling of the hall, and it was visible to all those who were
present. It went round the room backwards and against the sun's
course, nor did it disappear so long as they sat by the fires.
Thorodd asked Thorir Wooden-leg what this might portend. "It is the
Moon of Fate," said Thorir, "and deaths will come after it." This
went on all that week that the Fate-Moon came in every evening.
The next tidings that happened at Froda were that the shepherd came in
and was very silent; he spoke little, and that in a frenzied manner.
Folk were most inclined to believe that he had been bewitched, because
he went about by himself, and talked to himself. This went on for
some time, but one evening, when two weeks of winter had passed, the
shepherd came home, went to his bed, and lay down there. When they
went to him in the morning he was dead, and was buried at the church.
Soon after this there began great hauntings. One night Thorir Wooden-
leg went outside and was at some distance from the door. When he was
about to go in again, he saw that the shepherd had come between him
and the door. Thorir tried to get in, but the shepherd would not
allow him. Then Thorir tried to get away from him, but the shepherd
followed him, caught hold of him, and threw him down at the door. He
received great hurt from this, but was able to reach his bed; there he
turned black as coal, took sickness and died. He was also buried at
the church there, and after this both the shepherd and Thorir were
seen in company, at which all the folk became full of fear, as was to
be expected.
This also followed upon the burial of Thorir, that one of Thorodd's
men grew ill, and lay three nights before he died; then one died after
another, until six of them were gone. By this time the Christmas fast
had come, although the fast was not then kept in Iceland. The store-
closet, in which the dried fish were kept, was packed so full that the
door could not be opened; the pile reached nigh up to the rafters, and
a ladder was required to get the fish off the top of it. One evening
while the folk were sitting round the fires, the fish were torn, but
when search was made no living thing could be found there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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