Njal's Saga (37 page)

Kari said, ‘There's no getting away from you, Skarphedin; you're the boldest of us all.'

‘I don't know about that,' said Skarphedin and stretched his lips into a grin.

Kari and Grim and Helgi made many spear-thrusts and wounded many men, and Flosi and his men could do nothing.

Flosi spoke: ‘Our men have been hurt badly; many are wounded, and one is slain, the one whom we least wanted to lose. It's clear now that we cannot defeat them with weapons – there are many here who are not attacking as sharply as they intended. Now we'll have to try something else. There are two choices, and neither of them is good. One is to turn back, but that would lead to our death – the other is to bring fire and burn them inside, and that's a great responsibility before God, for we're Christian men. Still, that is the course we must take.'

Then they came with fire and started a great blaze in front of the doors.

Skarphedin said, ‘Building a fire, boys? Are you going to cook something?'

Grani answered, ‘That's right, and it'll be as hot as you need for baking.'

Skarphedin spoke: ‘This is how you reward me for avenging your father – you're the kind of man who places greater value on a lesser duty'

The women then poured whey on the flames and put them out.

Kol Thorsteinsson said to Flosi, ‘I have a plan. I saw a loft above
the crossbeams in the hall. Let's build a fire there and start it with the pile of chickweed at the back of the house.'

They took the chickweed and set fire to it, and the people inside did not notice it until flames started coming down all over the hall. Then Flosi and his men started big fires in front of all the doors. The women inside started to suffer badly.

Njal spoke to them: ‘Bear this bravely and don't express any fear, for it's only a brief storm, and it will be a long time before we have another like it. Have faith that God is merciful, and that he will not let us burn both in this world and in the next.'

Such were the words he had for them, and others even more reassuring.

Now the whole house began to burn.

Njal went to the door and said, ‘Is Flosi near enough to hear me?'

Flosi said he could hear.

Njal said, ‘Are you at all willing to make a settlement with my sons, or let some people leave the house?'

Flosi answered, ‘I will not make any settlement with your sons – our dealings with them will soon be over, and we won't leave here until they're all dead. But I'm willing to allow the women and children and servants to come out.'

Njal went back in and said to his people, ‘All those who've been allowed must now go. And you go, too, Thorhalla Asgrimsdottir, along with everybody else who has permission.'

Thorhalla said, ‘My parting from Helgi will be different from what I had long expected, but I shall incite my father and my brothers to take vengeance for the killings which are done here.'

Njal said, ‘You will do well, for you're a good woman.'

Then she left, and many others went with her.

Astrid of Djuparbakki said to Helgi, ‘Come out with me – I'll throw a woman's cloak over you and wrap a kerchief around your head.'

Helgi declined at first, but then went along with their request. Astrid wrapped a kerchief around his head, and Thorhild put the cloak on him, and he walked out between the two of them. Then his sisters Thorgerd and Helga and many others went out.

When Helgi came out, Flosi said, ‘That woman there is big and broad-shouldered – grab her and hold on to her!'

When Helgi heard this he threw off the cloak. He had been carrying a sword under his arm, and swung it at one of the men and hit his shield, and it cut off the lower part of the shield and the man's leg as well. Then Flosi came up and struck at Helgi's neck, and the head came off at once.

Flosi went to the door and said that Njal and Bergthora should come and talk with him. They did so.

Flosi spoke: ‘I want to offer you free exit, for you do not deserve to be burned.'

Njal spoke: ‘I will not leave, for I'm an old man and hardly fit to avenge my sons, and I do not want to live in shame.'

Flosi spoke to Bergthora: ‘Then you come out, Bergthora, for by no means do I want to burn you in your house.'

Bergthora spoke: ‘I was young when I was given to Njal, and I promised him that one fate should await us both.'
¹

Then the two of them went back in.

Bergthora said, ‘What are we to do now?'

Njal answered, ‘We will go to our bed and lie down.'

Then she said to the boy Thord, Kari's son, ‘Someone will carry you out – you must not be burned here.'

‘You promised me, grandmother,' said the boy, ‘that we would never be parted, and so it must be, for I think it much better to die with you.'

Then she carried the boy to the bed.

Njal said to his foreman, ‘Now you must see where we lie down and how I lay us out, for I don't intend to budge from this spot, no matter how much the smoke and the fire bother me – then you will know where our remains can be found.'

He said he would. An ox had been slaughtered, and its hide was lying there. Njal told the foreman to spread the hide over them, and he promised to do so. They lay down in the bed and placed the boy between them. Then they crossed themselves and the boy and put their souls in God's hands, and this was the last that people heard them speak. The foreman took the hide and spread it over them and
then went out of the house. Ketil of Mork met him and hurried him out and asked carefully about his father-in-law Njal. The foreman told exactly what had happened.

Ketil spoke: ‘A great ordeal has been dealt us, that we should share so much bad luck.'

Skarphedin had seen his father lie down and how he arranged things, and he spoke: ‘Our father has gone to bed early, which is to be expected – he's an old man.'

Then Skarphedin and Kari and Grim seized the burning pieces as fast as they fell and threw them at those outside, and this went on for a while. Then the attackers threw spears at them, and they caught them all in the air and hurled them back.

Flosi told them to stop – ‘for every exchange of blows with them goes badly for us. Just wait until the fire overcomes them.'

They did as he said. Then large timbers from the roof began falling down.

Skarphedin spoke: ‘Now my father must be dead, and not a groan or a cough has been heard from him.'

Then they went to the end of the hall, where the crossbeam had fallen down, much burned in the middle.

Kari said to Skarphedin, ‘Run outside on this – I'll help you start and run right behind you, and we'll both get away if we do this, because the smoke is all lying this way.'

Skarphedin said, ‘You run out first, and I'll be right behind.'

‘There's no need for that,' said Kari, ‘because I'll get out somewhere else if I don't make it here.'

‘I don't want that,' said Skarphedin. ‘You run out first, and I'll be right on your heels.'

Kari spoke: ‘Every man is obliged to save his own life, and so shall I. But our parting now will mean that we'll never meet again. If I run out of the fire, I won't have the courage to run back into it to join you, and then each of us will have to go his own way.'

Skarphedin said, ‘It cheers me, brother-in-law, to think that if you escape you will avenge us.'

Then Kari took hold of a flaming piece of wood and ran up the crossbeam and threw the piece down from the roof, and it fell on the
men outside; they ran away. By then all of Kari's clothing and even his hair were aflame. He jumped down from the roof and scurried along under cover of the smoke.

One of the men outside said, ‘Did someone jump off the roof over there?'

‘Far from it,' said another – ‘that was Skarphedin throwing another burning piece at us.'

After that they suspected nothing. Kari ran until he came to a stream, and he threw himself into it and put out the flames. From there he ran under cover of the smoke to a hollow and rested there, and that place has since been called Kari's hollow.

To return to Skarphedin: he ran up the crossbeam right after Kari, but when he reached the point where it was most burned, it gave way under him. He landed on his feet and quickly tried again, this time up the wall, but then the roof beam started towards him and he stumbled back.

Skarphedin spoke: ‘It's clear now how it will be.'

Then he went along the side wall.

Gunnar Lambason leaped up on the wall and saw Skarphedin and said, ‘What's this? Are you crying now, Skarphedin?'

‘Not at all,' he said, ‘though it's true that my eyes are smarting. But it seems to me that you're laughing – or am I wrong?'

‘You're right,' said Gunnar, ‘and this is the first time I have laughed since you killed Thrain.'

Skarphedin said, ‘Then here's something to remember him by'

He took from his purse one of the molars he had hacked out of Thrain and threw it at Gunnar's eye and knocked it out onto his cheek. Gunnar then fell off the roof.

Skarphedin went to his brother Grim; they joined hands and stamped out the fire. When they reached the middle of the hall Grim fell down dead. Skarphedin went on to the end of the house, and then there was a loud crash, and the whole roof fell down. He was caught between it and the gable wall and could not budge.

*

Flosi and his men stayed at the fire all night, until well after dawn. Then a man came riding towards them. Flosi asked his name. He said he was Geirmund, a kinsman of the Sigfussons, and he said, ‘You have done a mighty deed here.'

Flosi answered, ‘Men will call this both a mighty and an evil deed. But that can't be helped now.'

Geirmund said, ‘How many notable people have died here?'

Flosi answered, ‘Those who have died here are Njal and Bergthora, Njal's sons Helgi and Grim and Skarphedin, Thord Karason, Kari Solmundarson, and Thord Freed-man.
¹
And there are others, less familiar to us, about whom we don't know for sure.'

Geirmund spoke: ‘You listed one man as dead whom we know to have escaped – I spoke with him this morning.'

‘Who is that?' said Flosi.

‘Kari Solmundarson – my neighbour Bard and I came across him,' said Geirmund, ‘and Bard gave him a horse, and his hair and his clothes were burned off him.'

‘Did he have any weapons?' said Flosi.

‘He had the sword Life-taker,' said Geirmund, ‘and one of its edges had turned blue, and we said that it must have lost its temper, but he said he would harden it with the blood of the Sigfussons and the other burners.'

Flosi said, ‘What did he say about Skarphedin and Grim?'

‘He said that they were both alive when he left,' said Geirmund, ‘but he expected them to be dead by now.'

Flosi spoke: ‘You have told us things which bode no peace for us, for the man who has escaped comes closest to Gunnar of Hlidarendi in all respects. You must now think of this, you Sigfussons and the rest of our men, that the actions taken in response to this burning will be so great that they will cost many men their heads, and others will lose all their property. I suspect that none of you Sigfussons will dare to stay at home now, and with good reason. I want to invite all of you to come east with me, and let one fate await us all.'

They thanked him.

Modolf Ketilsson spoke this verse:

13.

From Njal's house one lived                                                                               
one:
Kari

when fire burned the rest;

the sons of Sigfus,

stalwart men, set it.

Now the kin of Gollnir is paid                                                                 
kin of Gollnir:
Njal

for the killing of brave Hoskuld;

the blaze burned through the house,

bright flames in the hall.

‘We must find other things to boast of,' said Flosi, ‘than the burning of Njal, for there's no distinction in that.'

Flosi went up on the gable wall, with Glum Hildisson and some others.

Glum said, ‘Is Skarphedin dead yet?'

The others said he had been dead for a long time. The fire flared up one moment and died down the next. Then they heard, from down in the embers, this verse being spoken:

14.

Gunn of gold will not hold back                                                   
Gunn
(valkyrie)
of gold:
woman

the gushing tears from her brow

over the sparring of spears                                                                       
sparring of spears:
fight

of the spirited shield-warrior,

when the allies of the edge                                                                       
allies of the edge:
warriors

exulted in the slaughter–

I boldly sing this song–

and spears tried in wounds cried out.
²

Grani Gunnarsson said, ‘Did Skarphedin speak this verse alive or dead?'

‘I won't make any guesses about that,' said Flosi.

‘Let's go looking,' said Grani, ‘for Skarphedin and for the other men who burned to death here.'

‘No!' said Flosi, ‘and only fools like you would say that, when men must be gathering forces all over the district. Whoever stays around here now will be so frightened that he won't know which way to run, and so my advice is that we all ride away at once.'

Flosi and all his men went quickly to their horses.