Egil’s Saga Read online

  So now part they. Egil and his fare up to the hause. But of the King’s men is that to say, that, soon as they were hidden from sight of Egil and his folk, then took they their snowshoes2 that they had had and put them on. Then made they their way back again with all their might. Fared they night and day, and turned to the Uplands and thence north by Dovrafell, and stayed not till they came to meet King Hakon and said to him of their journey, even as it had fared.

  Egil and his companions fared in the evening over the hause. That was swiftest to say of them, that they forthwith lost the road. There was great snow. The horses fell into drifts every other while, so that they must be dragged up. There were cliffs sometimes, and woods full of undergrowth, and about the undergrowth and cliffs was exceeding hard going. There was then great delay for them with the horses, and the going for the men was of the heaviest. Then were they much outwearied, and yet made their way down from the hause, and saw there before them a great farmstead and held on thitherward. And when they came into the home-mead then saw they that there stood men without, Armod and his boys. They came to speech and asked tidings of one another, and when Armod knew that they were King’s messengers, then bade he them guesting there. They took that thankfully. Armod’s housecarles took their horses and gear, and the bonder bade Egil go into the hall, and they did so.

  Armod set Egil in the high-seat on the lower bench, and his fellows there out from him on either side. They talked much of it, how toilsomely they had fared that evening, and to the homemen it seemed great wonder that they had come through, and said that there was no fit going for any man, even were it without snow.

  Then spake Armod: “Think ye not that entertainment best, that tables be set for you and your supper given you, and then ye may go to sleep? Ye will then rest you best”.

  “That likes us very well,” saith Egil.

  Armod then let set tables for them, and thereafter were set forth great bowls full of curds.3 Then Armod let it seem that he thought that ill, that he had no strong beer to give them. Egil and his were much thirsty for weariness: took they up the bowls and drank deep of the curds, and yet Egil by much the most. There came not any other victuals forth for them.

  There was there a mort of household folk. The mistress sat at the cross-bench, and women there beside her. The bonder’s daughter was on the floor, of ten winters or eleven: the mistress called her to her and spake her in the ear: therewith fared the maid out before the table, there where Egil sat. She quoth: 4

  My mother sent me,

  Me with thee to talk,

  And word bear to Egil

  That you should be ware:

  So spake the Hild of Hornés—

  Manage so thy maw now:

  Our guests anon may

  Eat of nobler victual.

  Armod struck the maid and bade her be silent: “Speakst thou that always which worst befitteth”.

  The maid gat her gone; but Egil shot down the curd-bowl, and it was then near empty, and then were the bowls taken from them. Then went the homemen now into their seats, and tables were set up throughout all the hall, and victuals set forth: next to that, came in chargers of meat, and were then set before Egil as before other men. Next to that was ale borne in, and that was the strongest of beer. There was then soon drinking each man by himself: each man alone should drink off the beast’s horn. There was the most heed given to it, where Egil was and his followers, that they should drink their hardest.

  Egil drank fairly at first, a long while. But when his companions became speechless, then drank he for them that which they had no might for. So went it until the tables were taken away; and then were they all become very drunk, they that were within. But every cup that Armod drank, then spake he, “Drink I to thee, Egil”; but the housecarles drank to the companions of Egil, and had the same form of speech. A man was appointed for this, to bear to Egil and his men every cup, and that one egged them on much that they should swiftly drink.5 Egil spake with his companions that they should then not drink at all; but he drank for them that which they might no other way be rid of.

  Egil found then that, with things going that gate, it must ill bestead him. Stood he then up, and walked across the floor thither where Armod sat. He took him with his hands by the shoulders and bent him back up against the pillars. Therewith yawked Egil up out of him great spew, and it gushed into the face of Armod, into his eyes and nostrils and into his mouth: ran so down over his chest; but Armod was near smothered, and when he had gotten his breath again, then gushed up spew. But all spake that were by, housecarles of Armod’s, that Egil must be of all men the vilest, and he would be yet the worst of men for this work, when he should not go out when he had a will to spew, and not be a gazing-stock within-door in the drinking hall.

  Egil saith, “No need to speak cross at me for this, albeit I do as the bonder doth. Speweth he with all his might, no less than I”.

  Therewith Egil gat him to his place and sitteth him down: bade then give him to drink. Then quoth Egil with a rouse:6

  That I this journey hazarded

  Readily witness bear I—

  To thy meat weighty witness—

  The witness of my cheek-surge.

  Many a guest for’s guesting

  Yieldeth—(seldom meet we)—

  Costlier pay: the ale-dregs

  Is left in Armod’s beard.

  Armod leapt up and out, but Egil bade give him to drink. Then spake the mistress with that man who had poured out for them that evening that he should give drink, so that it should not run short, while they had will to drink. So now took he a great beast’s horn and filled and bare it to Egil. Egil quaffed off the horn at one drink. Then quoth he:7

  Drink we off—(though Ekki’s

  Ocean-steed’s bestrider

  Still to song-god’s hand bear

  Horn-mere)—every brimmer!

  Leave we nought, though sword-play’s

  Stirrer unto me fetch

  Froth-mash tarn in horn-a

  From now till day at morn-a!

  Egil drank for a while, and quaffed off every horn that came to him: but little was then of gladness in the hall, albeit some men drank. And now standeth up Egil and his companions, and take their weapons from the walls, that they had fastened up, and now go to that corn-barn that their horses were in. There they laid them down in the straw, and slept through the night.8

  CHAPTER LXXII. OF EGIL’S LEAVE-TAKING OF ARMOD, AND HIS COMING TO THORFINN’S.

  EGIL stood up in the morning, soon as it began to be day. Those companions array them and fared, soon as they were ready, back to the farmstead to look for Armod. And when they came to that bower which Armod slept in and his wife and daughter, then Egil kicked open the door and went to Armod’s bed. He drew then his sword, but with the other hand grabbed he Armod by the beard and jerked him forward to the bedpost. But the wife of Armod and his daughter leapt up and besought Egil that he should not slay Armod. Egil saith that he should do that for their sake, “For that is seemly. Yet had he his deserts for it, were I to slay him”.

  Then quoth Egil:1

  The ill-spoke giver of arm-snakes

  Hath his own wife to thank for’t—

  (To us of terror-eker

  No awe is)—and his daughter.

  Yet so belike will seem to thee,

  The scot this poet for drink pays,

  (Yet on our way we’ll waddle),

  Nought worthy, as’t befalleth.

  Therewithal sliced Egil the beard off him close to the chin. Therewithal crooked he his finger in his eye, so that it lay out on the cheek. After that Egil gat him gone and to his companions.

  Fare they then on their way: come at day-meal time to the farmstead of Thorfinn. He dwelt beside Eidwood. Egil and his craved day-meal, and to bait their horses: goodman Thorfinn took it as if that were their due. Go they then, Egil and his, in into the hall.

  Egil asked if Thorfinn had seen aught of his companions: “We had here bespoken tryst between
us”.

  Thorfinn saith as thus: “Fared here six men together something before day, and were much weaponed”.

  Then spake a housecarle of Thorfinn’s: “I drove last night to fetch wood, and I found six men in the way, and that was house-carles of Armod’s; and that was much before day. Now know I not, whether those will be all one and the same with the six men that thou saidst of”.

  Thorfinn saith that those men that he had met had fared later than when the housecarle came home with the load of wood.

  And when Egil and his sat and took their meat, then saw Egil that a sick woman2 lay on the cross-bench. Egil asked Thorfinn what woman that might be, who there was holden so heavily. Thorfinn saith that she was named Helga and was a daughter of his: “She hath long had lack of strength”; and that was a great fever. She gat never a night’s sleep, and was as if beside herself.

  “Hath aught been looked to in it”, saith Egil, “about her hurt?”

  Thorfinn saith, “Runes have been scored, and that is a certain bonder’s son a short way from here who did that: and is since then much worse than before. Or canst thou, Egil, do aught for such hurts?”

  Egil saith, “May be it will not spoil things utterly, even if I come into it”.

  And when Egil had eat his fill he went there where the woman lay and talked with her. He bade then lift her out of the bed and lay under her clean clothes, and now was it so done. And now he ransacked the bed that she had rested in, and there found he a whalebone, and thereon were the runes. Egil read them, and therewithal he scraped off the runes and shaved them off into the fire. He burnt all the whalebone, and let bear into the wind those clothes which she had had before.

  Then quoth Egil:3

  Runes shall a man not score,

  Save he can well to read them.

  That many a man betideth,

  On a mirk stave to stumble.

  Saw I on scrapéd whalebone

  Ten dark staves scoréd:

  That hath to the leek-linden

  Over-long sickness broughten.

  Egil scored runes and laid them under the bolster in the resting-place where she rested. It seemed to her as if she wakened out of sleep, and she said that she was then healed; yet was she of little might. But her father and mother became exceeding joyful. Thorfinn offered that Egil should have there all furtherance, whatso he thought he needed.

  CHAPTER LXXIII. OF EGIL’S COMING TO ALF THE WEALTHY.

  EGIL saith to his companions, that he will fare on his journey and bide no longer. Thorfinn had a son who was named Helgi: he was a stalwart man. That father and son bade Egil their companionship through the wood. They said that they knew for truth that Armod Beard had put six men in the wood to sit for them; and yet ’twas likelier that there would be more sittings in the wood, if the first should go miss. Thorfinn and his were four in company, that offered themselves for the journey.

  Then quoth Egil a stave:1

  Wot you, if I with four fare,

  Fare there not six that ’gainst me

  Should hold exchange with red shield-

  Snicking knives of Din-God.

  But if I with eight be,

  Are never twelve that shake should,

  With swords together hurtling,

  The heart of black-brow’d me.

  Thorfinn and his had their way in this, that they fared to the wood with Egil, and they were then eight in company. And when they came there, where was the sitting for them, then saw they men there. But those housecarles of Armod’s, that sat there, saw that there fared eight men, and it seemed to them that they were nought fit to have to do with them. Stole they away then into the wood. But when Egil and his came there where the look-out men had been, then saw they that it was not all peaceful. Then spake Egil, that Thorfinn and his should fare back again; but they offered to fare further. Egil would not that, and bade them fare home, and they did so, and turned back; but Egil and his held on on their journey and were then four in company. And as the day wore, Egil and his were ware that there were six men in the wood, and thought they knew that there would be Armod’s housecarles. The look-out men leapt up and made at them, and they against them; and that befell of their meeting, that Egil felled two men, but those that were left leapt then into the wood.

  And now fared Egil and his on their ways, and there was done then nought to tell of before they came out of the wood and took guesting beside the wood with that bonder whose name was Alf, and was called Alf the Wealthy. He was an old man and wealthy of fee, a man self-willed, so that he might not have household folk about him, save few only. Good welcome had Egil there, and Alf was free of speech with him. Egil asked much of tidings, but Alf said such as he asked. They talked most about the Earl and about the messengers of Norway’s King, them that before had fared eastward thither to fetch home the scat. Alf was no friend of the Earl’s in his talk.

  CHAPTER LXXIV. HOW EGIL CAME TO EARL ARNVID AND HAD THE SCAT OF HIM, AND OF THE EARL’S CHARGE UNTO HIS MEN CONCERNING EGIL.

  EGIL made him ready betimes in the morning for his journey, he and his companions, but at their parting Egil gave Alf a hairy cloak. Alf took the gift thankfully: “And may here make me of it a hairy cape”: and bade Egil come thither to him, when he fared back again.

  They parted friends, and Egil fared on his journey and came in the afternoon to the court of Arnvid the Earl, and gat there all good welcome. Room was made for those companions next to the high-seat man. And when Egil and his had been there a night, then bear they up their errand with the Earl and the King’s word-sending out of Norway, and say that he will have all that scat from Vermland which had before stood over, since Arnvid was set in power there.

  The Earl saith that he had paid out of hand all the scat and put it into the hands of the King’s messengers. “But I know not what they have done with it after that, whether they have brought it to the King or have run away out of the land with it. But sith ye bear sure tokens hereof, that the King hath sent you, then will I pay all that scat which he hath a right to, and put it into your hands. But I will not be answerable afterwards, what way ye fare with it.”

  Egil and his tarry there a while, but before Egil fares away, the Earl payeth them the scat. That was some in silver, some in grey-war es. And when Egil and his were ready, then fared they back on their way. Saith Egil to the Earl at their parting: “Now will we bring the King that scat that we have taken; but that shalt thou know, Earl, that this fee is much less than the King thinketh he hath here; and yet is that not counted, that it will seem to him that you have to pay him back for his messengers with man-gilds,1 them that men reckon that you will have let slay”.

  The Earl saith that that was not true.

  Part they on that. And when Egil was away, then called the Earl to him two brethren, that were each named Wolf.2 He spake as thus: “That great Egil, that was here this while, I am minded ’twill be clean unuseful to us that he should come to the King. We may mark from this, what way he will bear our matters before the King, when he splashed this up in our eyes,3 the taking off of the King’s men. Now shall ye two fare after them and slay them all, and let them not bear these slanders before the King. It seems to me that is your likeliest rede, that ye sit for them in Eidwood. Have with you men so many that it be certain no one of them come off, but ye get nought of man-spill from them”.

  Now make they ready, those brethren, for their journey, and had thirty men. Fared they to the wood; and they knew there every path before them. Held they then espial of the faring of Egil. In the wood were two ways: by the one was a hill to fare over, and there was there a steep cliff and a one-man’s path to fare by: that road was the shorter. But by the other the faring was round the end of the hill, and there were there big fens and felled trees laid over them, and there was there too a one-man’s path to fare by. And fifteen sat in either place.

  CHAPTER LXXV. OF EGIL.’S BRINGING OF THE SCAT OUT OF VERMLAND, AND OF HIS GREAT FIGHTS AGAINST THE EARL’S. MEN THAT SAT FOR HIM IN EIDW
OOD.

  EGIL fared till he came to Alf’s, and was there for the night in good entertainment. The morning after, stood he up before day: made ready then for their journey, and when they sat over their day-meal then came there goodman Alf. He spake: “Betimes do ye make ready, Egil; but that would be my rede, nowise to rush on the journey, rather look before you, for I am minded that men will be set for you in the wood. I have no men I may find to follow thee, such as might be aught of strength for thee. But that will I offer, that thou tarry here with me until I can say to thee this, that ’tis clear for faring through the wood”.

  Egil saith, “That will be nought but fairy-babes.1 I will fare mine own way, as I have before determined of”.

  Egil and his make them ready for the journey, but Alf letted it, and bade him fare back again if he became ware that the way was trodden: said that there had no man fared over the wood from the east since Egil fared eastaway, “Unless those have fared who methinks are like to have a will to meet you”.

  “What deemest thou, how many will they be belike, if so it is as thou sayest? We are not to be picked up like forfeit goods,2 though there be some odds of strength.”

  He saith, “I was fared forth to the wood and my housecarles with me, and we came on men’s footmarks, and that slot layforward towards the wood, and they would likely have been many in company. But if thou believe not that which I say to thee, then fare thither and see the slot, but turn back if it shows to thee as I say to thee”.

  Egil fared on his way. And when they came to the road, that which led into the wood, then saw they there both men’s tracks and horses’. Then spake Egil’s companions, that they should turn back.

  “Fare will we,” said Egil. “That seemeth to me nought wonderful, though men have fared through Eidwood, seeing that is the common highroad.”

  And now fared they, and the trodden way held, and there was then a multitude of tracks; and when they come there where the ways parted, then parted the slot too, and was then of equal bigness in either place. Then spake Egil: “Now meseemeth it may be, that Alf hath said true. We shall now make us ready so, as if it were to be looked for that a meeting should be betwixt us”.