The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue Read online

  That summer, people made their way to the Althing in large groups: Illugi the Black took his sons Gunnlaug and Hermund with him; Thorstein Egilsson took his son Kollsvein; Onund from Mosfell took all his sons; and Sverting the son of Goat-Bjorn also went. Skafti was still Lawspeaker then.

  One day during the Althing, when people were thronging to the Law Rock and the legal business was done, Gunnlaug demanded a hearing and said, ‘Is Hrafn Onundarson here?’

  Hrafn said that he was.

  Then Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue said, ‘You know that you have married my intended and have drawn yourself into enmity with me because of it. Now I challenge you to a duel to take place here at the Althing in three days’ time on Oxararholm (Axe River Island).’

  ‘That’s a fine-sounding challenge,’ Hrafn replied, ‘as might be expected from you. Whenever you like – I’m quite ready for it!’

  Both sets of relatives were upset by this, but, in those days, the law said that anyone who felt he’d received underhand treatment from someone else could challenge him to a duel.

  Now when the three days were up, they got themselves ready for the duel. Illugi the Black went to the island with his son, along with a large body of men; and Skafti the Lawspeaker went with Hrafn, as did his father and other relatives. Before Gunnlaug went out on to the island, he spoke this verse:

  17. I’m ready to tread the isle

  where combat is tried

  – God grant the poet victory –

  a drawn sword in my hand;

  into two I’ll slice the hair-seat

  of Helga’s kiss-gulper;

  finally, with my bright sword,

  I’ll unscrew his head from his neck.

  Hrafn replied with this one:

  18. The poet doesn’t know

  which poet will rejoice –

  wound-sickles are drawn,

  the edge fit to bite leg.

  Both single and a widow,

  from the Thing the thorn-tray will hear

  – though bloodied I might be –

  tales of her man’s bravery.

  Hermund held his brother Gunnlaug’s shield for him; and Sverting, Goat-Bjorn’s son, held Hrafn’s. Whoever was wounded was to pay three marks of silver to release himself from the duel. Hrafn was to strike the first blow, since he had been challenged. He hacked at the top of Gunnlaug’s shield, and the blow was so mightily struck that the sword promptly broke off below the hilt. The point of the sword glanced up and caught Gunnlaug on the cheek, scratching him slightly. Straight away, their fathers, along with several other people, ran between them.

  Then Gunnlaug said, ‘I submit that Hrafn is defeated, because he is weaponless.’

  ‘And I submit that you are defeated,’ Hrafn replied, ‘because you have been wounded.’

  Gunnlaug got very angry and said, all in a rage, that the matter had not been resolved. Then his father, Illugi, said that there should not be any more resolving for the moment.

  ‘Next time Hrafn and I meet, Father,’ Gunnlaug said, ‘I should like you to be too far away to separate us.’

  With that they parted for the time being, and everyone went back to their booths.

  Now the following day, it was laid down as law by the Law Council that all duelling should be permanently abolished. This was done on the advice of all the wisest men at the Althing, and all the wisest men in Iceland were there. Thus the duel which Hrafn and Gunnlaug fought was the last one ever to take place in Iceland. This was one of the three most-crowded Althings of all time, the others being the one after the burning of Njal and the one following the Slayings on the Heath.

  One morning, when the brothers Hermund and Gunnlaug were on their way to the Oxara river to wash themselves, several women were going to its opposite bank. Helga the Fair was one of them.

  Then Hermund asked Gunnlaug, ‘Can you see your girlfriend Helga on the other side of the river?’

  ‘Of course I can see her,’ Gunnlaug replied. And then he spoke this verse:

  19. The woman was born to bring war

  between men – the tree of the valkyrie

  started it all; I wanted her

  sorely, that log of rare silver.

  Henceforward, my black eyes

  are scarcely of use to glance

  at the ring-land’s light-goddess,

  splendid as a swan.

  Then they went across the river, and Helga and Gunnlaug chatted for a while. When they went back eastwards across the river, Helga stood and stared at Gunnlaug for a long time. Then Gunnlaug looked back across the river and spoke this verse:

  20. The moon of her eyelash – that valkyrie

  adorned with linen, server of herb-surf,

  shone hawk-sharp upon me

  beneath her brow’s bright sky;

  but that beam from the eyelid-moon

  of the goddess of the golden torque

  will later bring trouble to me

  and to the ring-goddess herself.

  After this had happened, everyone rode home from the Althing, and Gunnlaug settled down at home at Gilsbakki. One morning, when he woke up, everyone was up and about except him. He slept in a bed closet further into the hall than were the benches. Then twelve men, all armed to the teeth, came into the hall: Hrafn Onundarson had arrived. Gunnlaug leapt up with a start, and managed to grab his weapons.

  ‘You’re not in any danger,’ Hrafn said, ‘and you’ll hear what brings me here right now. You challenged me to a duel at the Althing last summer, and you thought that the matter was not fully resolved. Now I want to suggest that we both leave Iceland this summer and travel to Norway and fight a duel over there. Our relatives won’t be able to stand between us there.’

  ‘Well spoken, man!’ Gunnlaug replied. ‘I accept your proposal with pleasure. And now, Hrafn, you may have whatever hospitality you would like here.’

  ‘That is a kind offer,’ Hrafn replied, ‘but, for the moment, we must ride on our way.’

  And with that they parted. Both sets of relatives were very upset about this, but, because of their own anger, they could do nothing about it. But what fate decreed must come to pass.

  12

  Now we return to Hrafn. He fitted out his ship in Leiruvog. The names of two men who travelled with him are known: they were the sons of his father Onund’s sister, one named Grim and the other Olaf. They were both worthy men. All Hrafn’s relatives thought it was a great blow when he went away, but he explained that he had challenged Gunnlaug to a duel because he was not getting anywhere with Helga; one of them, he said, would have to perish at the hands of the other.

  Hrafn set sail when he got a fair breeze, and they brought the ship to Trondheim, where he spent the winter. He received no news of Gunnlaug that winter, and so he waited there for him all summer, and then spent yet another winter in Trondheim at a place named Levanger.

  Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue sailed from Melrakkasletta in the north with Hallfred the Troublesome Poet. They left their preparations very late, and put to sea as soon as they got a fair breeze, arriving in the Orkney Islands shortly before winter.

  The islands were ruled by Earl Sigurd Hlodvesson at that time, and Gunnlaug went to him and spent the winter there. He was well respected. During the spring, the earl got ready to go plundering. Gunnlaug made preparations to go with him, and they spent the summer plundering over a large part of the Hebrides and the Scottish firths and fought many battles. Wherever they went, Gunnlaug proved himself to be a very brave and valiant fellow, and very manly. Earl Sigurd turned back in the early part of the summer, and then Gunnlaug took passage with some merchants who were sailing to Norway. Gunnlaug and Earl Sigurd parted on very friendly terms.

  Gunnlaug went north to Lade in Trondheim to visit Earl Eirik, arriving at the beginning of winter. The earl gave him a warm welcome, and invited him to stay with him. Gunnlaug accepted the invitation. The earl had already heard about the goings-on between Gunnlaug and Hrafn, and he told Gunnlaug that he would not allow t
hem to fight in his realm. Gunnlaug said that such matters were for the earl to decide. He stayed there that winter, and was always rather withdrawn.

  Now one day that spring, Gunnlaug and his kinsman Thorkel went out for a walk. They headed away from the town, and in the fields in front of them was a ring of men. Inside the ring, two armed men were fencing. One had been given the name Gunnlaug, and the other one Hrafn. The bystanders said that Icelanders struck out with mincing blows and were slow to remember their promises. Gunnlaug realized that there was a great deal of contempt in this, that it was a focus for mockery, and he went away in silence.

  A little while after this, Gunnlaug told the earl that he did not feel inclined to put up with his followers’ contempt and mockery concerning the goings-on between himself and Hrafn any longer. He asked the earl to provide him with guides to Levanger. The earl had already been told that Hrafn had left Levanger and gone across into Sweden, and he therefore gave Gunnlaug permission to go, and found him two guides for the journey.

  Then Gunnlaug left Lade with six other men, and went to Levanger. He arrived during the evening, but Hrafn had departed from there with four men the same morning. Gunnlaug went from there into Veradal, always arriving in the evening at the place where Hrafn had been the night before. Gunnlaug pressed on until he reached the innermost farm in the valley, which was named Sula, but Hrafn had left there that morning. Gunnlaug did not break his journey there, however, but pressed on through the night, and they caught sight of each other at sunrise the next day. Hrafn had reached a place where there were two lakes, with a stretch of flat land between them. This area was named Gleipnisvellir (Gleipnir’s Plains). A small headland called Dingenes jutted out into one of the lakes. Hrafn’s party, which was five strong, took up position on the headland. His kinsmen, Grim and Olaf, were with him.

  When they met, Gunnlaug said, ‘It’s good that we have met now.’

  Hrafn said that he had no problem with it himself – ‘and now you must choose which you prefer,’ he said. ‘Either we will all fight, or just the two of us, but both sides must be equal.’

  Gunnlaug said that he would be quite happy with either arrangement. Then Hrafn’s kinsmen, Grim and Olaf, said that they would not stand by while Gunnlaug and Hrafn fought. Thorkel the Black, Gunnlaug’s kinsman, said the same.

  Then Gunnlaug told the earl’s guides: ‘You must sit by and help neither side, and be there to tell the story of our encounter.’ And so they did.

  Then they fell to, and everyone fought bravely. Grim and Olaf together attacked Gunnlaug alone, and the business between them ended in his killing them both, though he was not himself hurt. Thord Kolbeinsson confirms this in the poem he composed about Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue:

  21. Before reaching Hrafn,

  Gunnlaug hacked down Grim

  and Olaf, men pleased

  with the valkyrie’s warm wind;

  blood-bespattered, the brave one

  was the bane of three bold men;

  the god of the wave-charger

  dealt death out to men.

  Meanwhile, Hrafn and Thorkel the Black, Gunnlaug’s kinsman, were fighting. Thorkel succumbed to Hrafn, and lost his life. In the end, all their companions fell. Then the two of them, Hrafn and Gunnlaug, fought on, setting about each other remorselessly with heavy blows and fearless counterattacks. Gunnlaug was using the sword which Ethelred had given him, and it was a formidable weapon. In the end, he hacked at Hrafn with a mighty blow, and chopped off his leg. Yet Hrafn did not collapse completely, but dropped back to a tree stump and rested the stump of his leg on it.

  ‘Now you’re past fighting,’ Gunnlaug said, ‘and I will not fight with you, a wounded man, any longer.’

  ‘It is true that things have turned against me, rather,’ Hrafn replied, ‘but I should be able to hold out all right if I could get something to drink.’

  ‘Don’t trick me then,’ Gunnlaug replied, ‘if I bring you water in my helmet.’

  ‘I won’t trick you,’ Hrafn said.

  Then Gunnlaug went to a brook, fetched some water in his helmet and took it to Hrafn. But as Hrafn reached out his left hand for it, he hacked at Gunnlaug’s head with the sword in his right hand, causing a hideous wound.

  ‘Now you have cruelly deceived me,’ Gunnlaug said, ‘and you have behaved in an unmanly way, since I trusted you.’

  ‘That is true,’ Hrafn replied, ‘and I did it because I would not have you receive the embrace of Helga the Fair.’

  Then they fought fiercely again, and it finished in Gunnlaug’s over-powering Hrafn, and Hrafn lost his life right there. Then the earl’s guides went over and bound Gunnlaug’s head wound. He sat still throughout and spoke this verse:

  22. Hrafn, that bold sword-swinger,

  splendid sword-meeting’s tree,

  in the harsh storm of stingers

  advanced bravely against me.

  This morning, many metal-flights

  howled round Gunnlaug’s head

  on Dingenes, O ring-birch

  and protector of ranks.

  Then they saw to the dead men, and afterwards they put Gunnlaug on his horse and brought him down into Levanger. There he lay for three nights, and received the full rites from a priest before he died. He was buried in the church there. Everyone thought the deaths of both Gunnlaug and Hrafn in such circumstances were a great loss.

  13

  That summer, before this news had been heard out here in Iceland, Illugi the Black had a dream. He was at home at Gilsbakki at the time. He dreamed that Gunnlaug appeared to him, covered in blood, and spoke this verse to him. Illugi remembered the poem when he woke up, and later recited it to other people:

  23. I know that Hrafn hit me

  with the hilt-finned fish

  that hammers on mail,

  but my sharp edge bit his leg

  when the eagle, corpse-scorer,

  drank the mead of warm wounds.

  The war-twig of valkyrie’s thorns

  split Gunnlaug’s skull.

  On the same night, at Mosfell in the south, it happened that Onund dreamed that Hrafn came to him. He was all covered in blood, and spoke this verse:

  24. My sword was stained with gore,

  but the Odin of swords

  sword-swiped me too; on shields

  shield-giants were tried overseas.

  I think there stood blood-stained

  blood-goslings in blood round my brain.

  Once more the wound-eager wound-raven

  wound-river is fated to wade.

  At the Althing the following summer, Illugi the Black spoke to Onund at the Law Rock.

  ‘How are you going to compensate me for my son,’ he asked, ‘since your son Hrafn tricked him when they had declared a truce?’

  ‘I don’t think there’s any onus on me to pay compensation for him,’ Onund replied, ‘since I’ve been so sorely wounded by their encounter myself. But I won’t ask you for any compensation for my son, either.’

  ‘Then some of your family and friends will suffer for it,’ Illugi answered. And all summer, after the Althing, Illugi was very depressed.

  People say that during the autumn, Illugi rode off from Gilsbakki with about thirty men, and arrived at Mosfell early in the morning. Onund and his sons rushed into the church, but Illugi captured two of Onund’s kinsmen. One of them was named Bjorn and the other Thorgrim. Illugi had Bjorn killed and Thorgrim’s foot cut off. After that, Illugi rode home, and Onund sought no reprisals for this act. Hermund Illugason was very upset about his brother’s death, and thought that, even though this had been done, Gunnlaug had not been properly avenged.

  There was a man named Hrafn, who was a nephew of Onund of Mosfell’s. He was an important merchant, and owned a ship which was moored in Hrutafjord.

  That spring, Hermund Illugason rode out from home on his own. He went north over Holtavarda heath, across to Hrutafjord and then over to the merchants’ ship at Bordeyri. The merchants were almost ready
to leave. Skipper Hrafn was ashore, with several other people. Hermund rode up to him, drove his spear through him and then rode away. Hrafn’s colleagues were all caught off-guard by Hermund. No compensation was forthcoming for this killing, and with it the feuding between Illugi the Black and Onund was at an end.

  Some time later, Thorstein Egilsson married his daughter Helga to a man named Thorkel, the son of Hallkel. He lived out in Hraunsdal, and Helga went back home with him, although she did not really love him. She could never get Gunnlaug out of her mind, even though he was dead. Still, Thorkel was a decent man, rich and a good poet. They had a fair number of children. One of their sons was named Thorarin, another Thorstein, and they had more children besides.

  Helga’s greatest pleasure was to unfold the cloak which Gunnlaug had given her and stare at it for a long time. Now there was a time when Thorkel and Helga’s household was afflicted with a terrible illness, and many people suffered a long time with it. Helga, too, became ill but did not take to her bed. One Saturday evening, Helga sat in the fire-room, resting her head in her husband Thorkel’s lap. She sent for the cloak Gunnlaug’s Gift, and when it arrived, she sat up and spread it out in front of her. She stared at it for a while. Then she fell back into her husband’s arms, dead. Thorkel spoke this verse:

  25. My Helga, good arm-serpent’s staff,

  dead in my arms I did clasp.

  God carried off the life

  of the linen-Lofn, my wife.

  But for me, the river-flash’s poor craver,

  it is heavier to be yet living.

  Helga was taken to the church, but Thorkel carried on living in Hraunsdal. As one might expect, he found Helga’s death extremely hard to bear.

  And this is the end of the saga.

  Glossary

  Althing – Iceland’s general assembly; also called the ‘Thing’. At the annual Althing, the thirty-nine godis (local chieftains) reviewed and made new laws, and set fines and punishments.