Egil’s Saga. E. Eddison R.
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hither a good one, even as we hope it will be. Many be they that have of you great honour that are less fit for it than he, and that are nought near so well gifted in all feats of mastery as he will be. And thou mayest so do this, King, which is a thing I myself set most store by, if that is aught to thee”.
Oliver spake long and readily, for he was a man apt of word. Many other friends of Oliver’s went before the King and pushed this suit.
The King looked about him. He saw that a man stood at the back of Oliver and was by a head taller than other men, and bald. “Is that he, Skallagrim?” said the King: “The big man?”
Grim said that he guessed aright.
“I will, then,” said the King, “if thou biddest boot for Thorolf, that thou become my man, and go here into the lay of my bodyguard, and serve me. May be it shall like me so well of thy service, that I shall bestow on thee atonement after thy brother, or other honour, no smaller than I bestowed on him, on Thorolf thy brother; and thou must know better how to keep it than he did, if I make thee so great a man as he was become.”
Skallagrim answereth: “That was known, how greatly Thorolf was beyond what I am in all that belonged to him, and no good hap bare he of his serving thee, King. Now will I not take that rede. I will not serve thee; for I know that I shall not bear that good hap in doing thee service, that I should wish for and worthy were. I think that in more things should I be found wanting than was Thorolf”.
The King was silent, and was set blood-red to look upon.
Oliver turned straight away and bade Grim and his go out. They did so: went out, and took their weapons. Oliver bade them fare away at their swiftest. Oliver went on their way with them as far as the water, and a many men with him. Before he and Skallagrim parted, Oliver spake: “Another way turned out thy faring to the King, kinsman Grim, than I would choose. Much I urged thy coming hither, and now will I pray this, that thou fare home at thy speediest: and this withal, that thou come not to see King Harald unless there be better agreement betwixt you than meseemeth now things turn toward. And guard thee well against the King, and against his men”.
And now fared Grim and his over the water, but Oliver and his folk went where those ships were that were drawn up aland by the water-side, and hewed them so that they were not seaworthy: because they saw faring of men down from the King’s house: they were many men together, and much weaponed, and fared hastily. Those men had King Harald sent after them for this, to slay Grim.
The King had taken up the word a little after Grim and his had gone out: said as thus: “That see I in that great bald-head, that he is choke-full of wolfishness, and needs must he do a hurt to some of those men that we should feel the loss of, if he catch them. You may make up your minds for this, you men whom he may reckon he hath some quarrel against, that that bald-head will spare no single man of you if he but come across you. Fare then now after him, and slay him”.
Therewith fared they, and came to the water and found there not a ship that was sea-worthy. So now fared they back again, and said to the King of their journey, and that too, that Grim and his should by then be gotten over the water.
Skallagrim went his ways with his company till he came home. Skallagrim said unto Kveldulf of their journey. Kveldulf deemed well of it that Grim had not fared on this errand to the King to go under the hand of him; said too, as aforetime, that there would befall them from the King scathe only and no upholding.
Kveldulf and Skallagrim talked oft of what counsel they should take, and that came always to an agreement betwixt them: so said, that they might in no wise be there in the land, no more than other men, such as were out of atonement with the King; and that this should be their rede, to fare abroad out of the land. And they thought that a thing to be desired, to seek to Iceland, because it was then well spoken of for the choice of land there. Thither were by then come friends of theirs and folk of their knowing, Ingolf Arnarson and his fellows, and had taken choice of land there and taken up their dwelling in Iceland. Men might there take to themselves land unboughten, and pick their dwelling-place. That was firmest set in their rede-taking, that they would break up their household and fare abroad out of the land.
Thorir Hroaldson4 had been in his childhood’s days at fostering with Kveldulf, and he and Skallagrim were much of an age: there was dear love there in that fosterbrotherhood. Thorir was become landed man unto the King when these things betided: but the friendship betwixt him and Skallagrim held fast always.
Early in the spring Kveldulf and his folk made ready their ships. They had great choice of ships, and good: made ready two great round-ships5 and had aboard each thirty men, of them that were fit for fighting, and, over and above these, women and young folk. They had with them all their loose goods that they might come away with. But their lands durst no man buy, because of the King’s might. So when they were ready, then sailed they away. They sailed to those islands that are named the Solunds:6 these be many islands and big, and so much shorn with bays that it is said that there will few men know all the havens.
CHAPTER XXVI. OF THE CHILDREN OF DUKE GUTTHORM.
GUTTHORM1 was the name of a man, son of Sigurd Hart. He was mother’s brother of Harald the King. He was fosterfather of the King and governor over his land, for the King was then in his childhood when first he came to power. Gutthorm was war-duke of the host of Harald the King then when he won the land under him; and he was in all the battles that the King had when he gat unto him the land of Norway. But when Harald was become sole King over all the land, and sat him down in quiet, then gave he unto Gutthorm his kinsman Westfold and East Agdir and Ring-realm and all that land that had belonged to Halfdan the Black, his father.
Gutthorm had two sons and two daughters. His sons were named Sigurd and Ragnar, and his daughters Ragnhild and Aslaug.
Gutthorm took a sickness, and when it grew heavy on him, then sent he men to find Harald the King and prayed him see to his children and his realm. A little after, he died. But when the King heard of his death, then let he call to him Hallvard Hardfarer, him and his brother: said that they must fare on a sending of his east into the Wick. The King was then stopping in Thrandheim.
Those brethren made them ready for their journey in stateliest wise: picked their host and had the best ship they might get. That ship they had which had been Thorolf Kveldulfson’s, and they had taken from Thorgils the Yeller. But when they were ready for their journey, then said the King unto them their errand, that they must fare east to Tunsberg.2 There was then a cheaping-stead: there had Gutthorm had his seat.
“You shall”, said the King, “fetch me the sons of Gutthorm, but his daughters shall be bred up there until I give them in marriage. I shall find men to take ward of the realm and to give fostering to the maidens.”
So when those brethren were ready, then fare they on their way, and had wind at will. They came in the spring-time into the Wick, east to Tunsberg, and there bare forward their errand. Hallvard and his take up the sons of Gutthorm and much of loose goods. Fare they then, when they are ready, on their way back. They were somewhat later then in getting a fair wind, but there befell nought to tell of in their journey until they were a-sailing north of the Sogn-sea, with a good breeze and bright weather, and were then all merry.
KVELDULF and Skallagrim and their folk held espial all the summer in along the highway of the sea. Skallagrim was of all men the keenest sighted: he saw the sailing of Hallvard and his and knew the ship, for he had seen that ship before, when Thorgils fared with her. Skallagrim kept watch on their faring, where they laid her in haven at eventide; and now fareth he back to his folk and saith to Kveldulf that which he had seen, and that, too, that he had known the ship for that which Hallvard and his men had taken from Thorgils, and had been Thorolf s, and that there would be some of those men along with her who should make them good hunting.
So now make they ready, and make