He was heard in the early morning on the hills, but not as the day
wore on; then a snowstorm came, and Glam returned not that night nor
yet the day following, so search parties were sent out, who found the
sheep scattered wide about in fens, beaten down by the storm, or
strayed up into the mountains. Then they came to a great beaten place
high up in a valley, where it seemed as though there had been
wrestling, stones and earth torn up, and signs of a severe struggle;
looking closer, they found Glam dead, his body blue and swollen to the
size of an ox. They tried to bring the body down to the church, but
could only move it a very little way; they returned, therefore, and
told how they had tracked steps as great as if a cask bottom had been
stamped down, leading from the beaten place up to beneath sheer rocks
high up the valley, and along the track great stains of blood. From
this men thought that the evil wight which had killed Glam had got
such wounds as had sufficed for him, but none ever could say for
certain.
The second day after Christmas men were sent again to bring Glam's
body to the church, but though horses were put to drag it, they could
not move the corpse except down hill, so Glam was buried where he lay.
Now within a little time men became aware that Glam lay not quiet; he
walked well-nigh night and day, and took to riding the house roofs at
night, so much so that he nearly broke them in. The folk were
exceedingly afraid thereat; many fainted or went mad, while others
incontinently fled there and then. Another shepherd, big and strong,
came to take Glam's place; he was nowise dismayed by the hauntings,
but deemed it good sport rather than not when Glam rode the
house-roofs. But when another Christmas came the shepherd was missed;
search was made, and he was found on the hill-side by Glam's cairn,
his neck broken, and every bone in his body smashed. Then Glam waxed
more mighty than ever; the cattle bellowed and roared, and gored each
other; the byre cracked, and a cattle-man who had been long in
Thorhall's service was found dead, his head in one stall and feet in
another. None could go up the dale with horse or hound, because it was
straightway slain, and it was no easy task to get servants to remain
at the steading.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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