The Sagas of the Icelanders (26 page)

59
There was a man called Thorgeir Lamb. He was married to Thordis, who was the daughter of Yngvar and the sister of Bera, Egil’s mother. Thorgeir lived inland from Alftanes, at Lambastadir, and had come to Iceland with Yngvar. He was wealthy and well respected. His son, Thord, had inherited Lambastadir from his father and was living there when Egil came to Iceland.

That autumn, some time before winter, Thord rode over to Borg to meet his kinsman Egil and invite him to a feast. He had brewed some ale at home. Egil promised to go along and the time was set for a week later. When this came around, he made ready to go, and his wife, Asgerd, with him. They were ten or twelve in all.

And when Egil was ready, Skallagrim came out with him, embraced him before he mounted his horse and said, ‘You seem to be taking your time about paying me the money that King Athelstan sent me, Egil. How do you intend to dispose of it?’

Egil said, ‘Are you very short of money, father? I wasn’t aware. I will let you have silver as soon as I know that you need it, but I know you have kept a chest or two aside, full of silver.’

‘You seem to think we have already divided our money equably,’ said Skallagrim. ‘So you won’t mind if I do as I please with what I have put aside.’

Egil said, ‘Don’t pretend you need to ask my permission, because you will do as you please, whatever I say.’

Then Egil rode off to Lambastadir. He was given a warm and friendly welcome and was to stay there for the next three nights.

The same evening that Egil left home, Skallagrim had his horse saddled, then rode away from home when everyone else went to bed. He was carrying a fairly large chest on his knees, and had an iron cauldron under his arm when he left. People have claimed ever since that he put either or both of them in the Krumskelda Marsh, with a great slab of stone on top.

Skallagrim came home in the middle of the night, went to his bed and lay down, still wearing his clothes. At daybreak next morning, when everybody was getting dressed, Skallagrim was dead, sitting on the edge of his bed, and so stiff that they could neither straighten him out nor lift him no matter how hard they tried.

A horse was saddled quickly and the rider set off at full pelt all the way to Lambastadir. He went straight to see Egil and told him the news. Egil took his weapons and clothes and rode back to Borg that evening. He dismounted, entered the house and went to an alcove in the fire-room where there was a door through to the room in which were the benches where people sat and slept. Egil went through to the bench and stood behind Skallagrim, taking him by the shoulders and tugging him backwards. He laid him down on the bench and closed his nostrils, eyes and mouth. Then he ordered the men to take spades and break down the south wall. When this had been done, Egil took hold of him by the head and shoulders, and the others by his legs. They carried him like this right across the house and out through where the wall had been broken down. They carried him out to Naustanes without stopping and covered his body up for the night. In the morning, at high tide, Skallagrim’s body was put in a ship and they rowed with it out to Digranes. Egil had a mound made on the edge of the promontory, where Skallagrim was laid to rest with his horse and weapons and tools. It is not mentioned whether any money was put into his tomb.

Egil inherited his father’s lands and valuables, and ran the farm. Thordis, Asgerd’s daughter by Thorolf, was with him there.

60
King Eirik ruled Norway for one year after the death of his father, before another of King Harald’s sons, Hakon, arrived in Norway from England, where he had been fostered by King Athelstan. This was the same summer that Egil Skallagrimsson went to Iceland. Hakon went north to
Trondheim, and was accepted as king there. That winter, he and Eirik were joint kings of Norway. The following spring, they both gathered armies, and Hakon’s was by far the more numerous. Eirik saw that he had no option but to flee the country, and left with his wife, Gunnhild, and their children.

Arinbjorn the Hersir was King Eirik’s foster-brother, and foster-father to his children. King Eirik was fondest of him among all his landholders, and had made him the chieftain of all the Fjordane province. Arinbjorn left the country with the king, and they began by crossing over to the Orkneys. There the king gave his daughter Ragnhild in marriage to Earl Arnfinn. Then he travelled south with all his men to Scotland and raided there, and from there he continued southwards to England and raided there as well.

When King Athelstan heard this he gathered a great force and went to face Eirik. When they met, an agreement was settled whereby King Athelstan would appoint Eirik to rule Northumbria and defend his kingdom from the Scots and Irish. King Athelstan had made Scotland a tributary kingdom after the death of King Olaf, but the people there were invariably disloyal to him. King Eirik generally stayed in York.

It is said that Gunnhild had a magic rite performed to curse Egil Skallagrimsson from ever finding peace in Iceland until she had seen him. That summer, after Hakon and Eirik had met and disputed the control of Norway, an embargo was placed on all travel from that country, so no ships sailed for Iceland then, and there was no news from Norway.

Egil Skallagrimsson remained on his farm. In his second year at Borg after Skallagrim’s death, Egil grew restless and became increasingly melancholy as the winter progressed. When summer came, Egil announced that he was going to prepare his ship to sail abroad. He took on a crew, planning to sail to England. There were thirty men on board. Asgerd would remain behind to look after the farm, while Egil planned to go to see King Athelstan and collect what he had promised when they parted.

Egil was slow in getting ready, and by the time he put to sea it was too late for favourable winds, with autumn and bad weather approaching. They sailed north of Orkney. Egil did not want to stop there, since he assumed King Eirik was ruling the islands. They sailed southwards along the coast of Scotland in a heavy storm and crosswinds, but managed to tack and head south of Scotland to the north of England. In the evening, when it began to get dark, the storm intensified. Before they knew it, the waves were breaking on shoals both on their seaward side and ahead of them, so the only course of action was to make for land. They did so, running their ship aground in the mouth of the Humber. All the men were saved and most of their possessions, but the ship was smashed to pieces.

When they met people to talk to, they heard something that Egil thought rather ominous: King Eirik Blood-axe and Gunnhild were there, rulers of the kingdom, and he was staying not far away in York. He also heard that Arinbjorn the Hersir was with the king and on good terms with him.

After he had found out all this news, Egil made his plans. He did not feel he had much chance of getting away even if he were to try to hide and keep under cover all the way back out of Eirik’s kingdom. Anyone who saw him would recognize him. Considering it unmanly to be caught fleeing like that, he steeled himself and decided the very night that they arrived to get a horse and ride to York. He arrived in the evening and rode straight into town. He was wearing a long hood over his helmet, and was fully armed.

Egil asked where Arinbjorn’s house was in the town; he was told, and rode to it. When he reached the house, he dismounted and spoke to someone who told him that Arinbjorn was sitting at table.

Egil said, ‘I would like you to go into the hall, my good man, and ask Arinbjorn whether he would prefer to talk to Egil Skallagrimsson indoors or outside.’

The man said, ‘It’s not much bother for me to do that.’

He went into the hall and said in a loud voice, ‘There’s a man outside, as huge as a troll. He asked me to come in and ask whether you would prefer to talk to Egil Skallagrimsson indoors or outside.’

Arinbjorn replied, ‘Go and ask him to wait outside. He won’t need to wait for long.’

He did as Arinbjorn said, went out and told Egil what he had said.

Arinbjorn ordered the tables to be cleared, then went outside with all the people from his household. He greeted Egil and asked him why he had come.

Egil gave him a brief account of the highlights of his journey – ‘And now you will decide what I should do, if you want to help me in any way.’

‘Did you meet anyone in town who may have recognized you before you came to the house?’ asked Arinbjorn.

‘No one,’ said Egil.

‘Then take up your arms, men,’ said Arinbjorn.

They did so. And when Egil, Arinbjorn and all his men were armed, they went to the king’s residence. When they reached the hall, Arinbjorn knocked
on the door and asked to be let in, after identifying himself. The guards opened the door at once. The king was sitting at table.

Arinbjorn said twelve men would go inside, and nominated Egil and ten others.

‘Egil, now you must go and offer the king your head and embrace his foot. I will present your case to him.’

Then they went inside. Arinbjorn went up to the king and greeted him. The king welcomed him and asked what he wanted.

Arinbjorn said, ‘I have brought someone here who has travelled a long way to visit you and wants to make a reconciliation with you. It is a great honour for you, my lord, when your enemies come to see you voluntarily from other countries, feeling that they cannot live with your wrath even in your absence. Please treat this man nobly. Make fair reconciliation with him for the great honour he has shown you by crossing many great seas and treacherous paths far from his home. He had no motivation to make the journey other than goodwill towards you, because he could well spare himself from your anger in Iceland.’

Then the king looked around and saw over the heads of the other men that Egil was standing there. The king recognized him at once, glared at him and said, ‘Why are you so bold as to dare to come to see me, Egil? We parted on such bad terms the last time that you had no hope of my sparing your life.’

Then Egil went up to the table and took the king’s foot in his hand. He spoke a verse:

King Eirik said, ‘I have no need to enumerate all the wrongs you have done. They are so great and so numerous that any one of them would suffice to warrant your never leaving here alive. You cannot expect anything but to die here. You should have known in advance that you would not be granted any reconciliation with me.’

Gunnhild said, ‘Why not have Egil killed at once? Don’t you remember, King, what Egil has done to you: killed your friends and kinsmen and even your own son, and heaped scorn upon your own person. Where would anyone dare to treat royalty in such a way?’

‘If Egil has spoken badly of the king,’ Arinbjorn said, ‘he can make recompense with words of praise that will live for ever.’

Gunnhild said, ‘We do not want to hear his praise. Have Egil taken outside and executed, King. I neither want to hear his words nor see him.’

Then Arinbjorn replied, ‘The king will not be urged to do all your scornful biddings. He will not have Egil killed by night, because killing at night is murder.’

The king said, ‘Let it be as you ask, Arinbjorn: Egil will live tonight. Take him home with you and bring him back to me in the morning.’

Arinbjorn thanked the king for his words: ‘I hope that Egil’s affairs will take a turn for the better in future, my lord. But much as Egil may have wronged you, you should consider the losses he has suffered at the hands of your kinsmen. Your father King Harald had his uncle Thorolf, a fine man, put to death solely on the grounds of slander by evil men. You broke the law against Egil yourself, King, in favour of Berg-Onund, and moreover you wanted him put to death, and you killed his men and stole all his wealth. And then you declared him an outlaw and drove him out of the country. Egil is not the sort of man to stand being provoked. Every case should be judged in light of the circumstances,’ Arinbjorn said. ‘I will take Egil home to my house now.’

This was done. When the two men reached the house they went up to one of the garrets to talk things over.

Arinbjorn said, ‘The king was furious, but his temper seemed to calm down a little towards the end. Fortune alone will determine what comes of this. I know that Gunnhild will do her utmost to spoil things for you. My advice is for you to stay awake all night and make a poem in praise of King Eirik. I feel a drapa of twenty stanzas would be appropriate, and you could deliver it when we go to see the king tomorrow. Your kinsman Bragi did that when he incurred the wrath of King Bjorn of Sweden: he spent the whole night composing a drapa of twenty stanzas in his praise, and kept his head as a reward. We might be fortunate enough in our dealings with the king for this to make a reconciliation between you and him.’

Egil said, ‘I will follow the advice you offer, but I would never have imagined I would ever make a poem in praise of King Eirik.’

Arinbjorn asked him to try, then went off to his men. They sat up drinking until the middle of the night. Arinbjorn and the others went off to their sleeping quarters, and before he got undressed, he went up to the garret to Egil and asked how the poem was coming along.

Egil said he hadn’t composed a thing: ‘A swallow has been sitting at the window twittering all night, and I haven’t had a moment’s peace.’

Arinbjorn went out through the door that led to the roof. He sat down near the attic window where the bird had been sitting, and saw a shape-shifter in the form of a bird leaving the other side of the house. Arinbjorn sat there all night, until daybreak. Once Arinbjorn was there, Egil composed the whole poem and memorized it, so that he could recite it to him when he met him the next morning. Then they kept watch until it was time to meet the king.