That night Hiarandi was laid in his cairn, which they made of stones,
by the edge of the cliff where all mariners could see it. And he was
remembered as the first man in Iceland who lighted beacons against
shipwreck, so that those who sailed by prayed for his soul.
CHAPTER XI
OF ROLF'S SEARCH FOR ONE TO SURPASS HIM WITH THE BOW
Two vows Rolf made before he slept that night: the first was that he
would yet show his father's slaying unlawful; the second was that, so
long as he might, he would neither stand, sit, nor lie, without weapon
within reach of his hand. For Hiarandi might have saved himself had he
but had his sword. Asdis and Frodi, who stood by and heard the vows,
might not blame him; for such was the custom of those days. Then Rolf
begged Frodi to stay with him to help finish the sowing, and that was
done. And when the spring work was finished on the farm, then it was
within six weeks of the sitting of the Althing. But Rolf felt that the
work had to be done, for his mother's sake.
Then Rolf set forth on that quest of his, to find a man to beat him at
the bow. First he went to Surt of Ere, and begged him to try skill
with him. Then it was seen that Rolf's strength had so waxed during
the winter, that Surt overshot him by no more than two yards. Next
Rolf went to Thord of Laxriver, but that failed completely, for by now
Rolf could shoot even as far as Thord. After that he went about in the
dales, to find men who were good at archery; but though he heard of
many with great names, those men proved to be nothing helpful to Rolf,
for none could surpass him at all. So he began to learn how much is a
little distance, even so much as a palm's breadth, at the end of a
race or of the fling of a weapon. And time drew on toward the sitting
of the Althing, so that Rolf feared that he should be able to make out
no case against Einar. At last, after wide wanderings, he got himself
back to Cragness, and sat wearily at home for three days, with little
to say or to do.
That third morning Asdis said to him: "Leave, my son, thy brooding,
and let this matter rest for a while. Over-great are our enemies, yet
mayhap in time our deliverance will come."
Rolf answered nothing but: "Little comes to those who seek not."
Now Frodi had gone for one night to his smithy, which was ten miles
from Cragness, beyond Helgafell, at the head of Hvammfirth, where
there was a ferry by a little river. When he came back quoth he:
"Yesterday crossed at the ferry those two men who are most famous in
all the South Firths, and they had a great company with them."
"Who were they?" asked Rolf at once, "and what kind was their
following, whether fighting-men or not?"
"Fighting-men were they," answered Frodi, "but on a journey of peace.
For Kari and Flosi were on their way to visit Snorri the Priest at his
hall at Tongue. Great would have been thy pleasure at seeing the brave
array."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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