The Viking Age. Volume 2 (of 2): The early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nationsDu Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
History
The Viking Age. Volume 2 (of 2): The early history, manners, and customs of the ancestors of the English-speaking nations
“When Egil returned from his last journey to Norway and Vermland,
Bödvar, his son, was full grown. He was a most promising man; handsome,
tall, and strong as Egil or Thorol had been at his age. Egil loved him
greatly, and Bödvar also was fond of him. One summer a ship came into
Hvita (white river), where there was a large gathering for trade. Egil
had bought much wood there, and had it brought home. The _huskarls_ went
in an eight-oared boat which Egil owned. Bödvar begged to go with them,
and this they granted him; he went to Vellir with the huskarls, who were
six in number, in an eight-oared boat. At the time fixed for their
departure the high tide was late in the day, so they waited for it and
left late in the evening. Then came a violent south-west gale, and the
ebb tide was opposed to it; the sea rose high in the fjord, as often
happens there, and the boat was swamped in the heavy sea, and all were
drowned; the bodies were thrown ashore the next day. That of Bödvar came
ashore in Einarsnes, but others on the southern shore of the fjord,
where the boat was driven, and were found at Reykjarhamar. Egil heard of
it the same day, and forthwith rode to search for the bodies. He found
that of Bödvar outstretched: he took it up, and put it on his knee, and
rode with it out to Digranes to the mound of Skallagrim. He had the
mound opened, and laid Bödvar at the side of Skallagrim, the mound was
then closed, but this was not done until sunset. Egil rode home to Borg
(his farm), and there went at once to the locked bed-closet where he was
wont to sleep; he laid himself down and locked himself up, and nobody
dared talk to him. When they laid Bödvar down in the mound, Egil wore
hose fitting tight to the leg; a fustian-kirtle, red, narrow, small at
the upper end, and laced on the side, but he swelled so much from grief
that the kirtle as well as the hose were rent. The next day Egil did not
unlock the door, nor did he take any food or drink. He lay there that
day, and the night following it; nobody dared speak to him. The third
morning at dawn Asgerd made a man take horse and ride as swiftly as he
could west to Hjardarholt, and tell Thorgerd (daughter of Egil, wife of
Olaf Höskuldsson) all these tidings. He arrived there about noon, and
said that Asgerd asked her to come as soon as possible to Borg. Thorgerd
at once had a horse saddled, and two men followed her. They rode that
evening and all night till they reached Borg. Thorgerd at once went into
the hall; Asgerd greeted her, and asked if they had supped. Thorgerd
said loudly “I have had no supper, and shall have none until with
Freyja.[333] I know of no better resolve than to do like my father. I
will not live after my father and brother.” She went to the bedroom, and
shouted, ‘Father, open the door. I want you to go with me.’ Egil drew
back the latch. Thorgerd went up and shut the door; she laid herself
down in another bed which was there. Then Egil said ‘Thou didst well,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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