The Story of Burnt Njal: The Great Icelandic Tribune, Jurist, and CounsellorDasent, George Webbe, Sir
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The Story of Burnt Njal: The Great Icelandic Tribune, Jurist, and Counsellor
Dasent, George Webbe, Sir
Njáll Þorgursson, approximately 930-1011
"Then mind the advice given thee," says Gunnar, "for thou art
sure to be sore tried; and go along always with me, and lean upon
my counsel."
After that they were in Gunnar's company. Hallgerda was good to
Sigmund; and it soon came about that things grew so warm that she
loaded him with money, and tended him no worse than her own
husband; and many talked about that, and did not know what lay
under it.
One day Hallgerda said to Gunnar, "It is not good to be content
with that hundred in silver which thou tookest for my kinsman
Brynjolf. I shall avenge him if I may," she says.
Gunnar said he had no mind to bandy words with her, and went
away. He met Kolskegg, and said to him, "Go and see Njal; and
tell him that Thord must be ware of himself though peace has been
made for, methinks, there is faithlessness somewhere."
He rode off and told Njal, but Njal told Thord, and Kolskegg rode
home, and Njal thanked them for their faithfulness.
Once on a time they two were out in the "town," Njal and Thord; a
he-goat was wont to go up and down in the "town," and no one was
allowed to drive him away. Then Thord spoke and said, "Well,
this is a wondrous thing!"
"What is it that thou see'st that seems after a wondrous
fashion?" says Njal.
"Methinks the goat lies here in the hollow, and he is all one
gore of blood."
Njal said that there was no goat there, nor anything else.
"What is it then?" says Thord.
"Thou must be a `fey' man," says Njal, "and thou must have seen
the fetch that follows thee, and now be ware of thyself."
"That will stand me in no stead," says Thord, "if death is doomed
for me."
Then Hallgerda came to talk with Thrain Sigfus' son, and said, "I
would think thee my son-in-law indeed," she says, "if thou
slayest Thord Freedmanson."
"I will not do that," he says, "for then I shall have the wrath
of my kinsman Gunnar; and besides, great things hang on this
deed, for this slaying would soon be avenged."
"Who will avenge it?" she asks; "is it the beardless carle?"
"Not so," says he, "his sons will avenge it."
After that they talked long and low, and no man knew what counsel
they took together.
Once it happened that Gunnar was not at home, but those
companions were. Thrain had come in from Gritwater, and then he
and they and Hallgerda sat out of doors and talked. Then
Hallgerda said, "This have ye two brothers in arms, Sigmund and
Skiolld, promised to slay Thord Freedmanson; but Thrain thou hast
promised me that thou wouldst stand by them when they did the
deed."
They all acknowledged that they had given her this promise.
"Now I will counsel you how to do it," she says: "Ye shall ride
east into Homfirth after your goods, and come home about the
beginning of the Thing, but if ye are at home before it begins,
Gunnar will wish that ye should ride to the Thing with him. Njal
will be at the Thing and his sons and Gunnar, but then ye two
shall slay Thord."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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