THE SAGA OF GISLI THE OUTLAW – CHAPTER 18 - GISLI'S SLAYING

NOW Gisli had stayed at home all that summer, and all had been quiet. At length the very last night of summer came. Then we are told Gisli could not sleep, nor could any of these three, Gisli, Auda, or Gudrida, sleep. The weather was in that wise that it was very still, and much rime-frost had fallen. Then Gisli says he will up and away from his house to his lurking-place south under the crags, and see if he can get rest there.

So they all three set out, and are clad in long loose kirtles, and the skirts of the kirtles swept the grass and left a track in the dew and rime. Gisli had a staff in his hand, and scored it with runes as he went, and the chips fell down. So they came to the lurking-place. He lays him down and tries to sleep, but the two women watched.

Then slumber steals over him, and he dreams that fowl came into the house called night-hawks: they are larger than ptarmigan, and they looked evil, and had been wallowing in gore and blood. Then Auda asked what he had dreamt.

GISLI, AUDA, AND GUDRIDA.

Still my dreams were not good," said Gisli, and chaunted a song:

"Wife! what time I rose and hasted,
  Forth I wandered on the hills;
O'er these regions wild and wasted
  Streams of song I poured in rills.
Then I heard the night-hawk shrieking,
  Then I heard his mournful strain;
Soon the dew of Woden 1 reeking
  Shall this outlaw shed like rain."

And when this had happened they hear the voices of men, and there is Eyjolf come and fourteen men with him. They had already gone to the house, and see the trail in the dew, which pointed them out. But when they were ware of those men they clomb the crags hard by, where there was good vantage-ground, and each of the women had in her hand a great club. Now Eyjolf and his men try to come up to them from below, and he called out to Gisli:

"Thy best plan is not to fare farther away, and not to let thyself be hunted down like hare-hearted men, for thou art called a brave fellow. We have often met before, and we now wish this to be the last time."

"Come on like men," answered Gisli, "for I am not going to fare farther away. Besides it is thy bounden duty to be the first to fall on me, for thou hast greater ground for quarrel with me than these others who come along with thee?"

"I'm not going," says Eyjolf, "to leave it in your hands to place my men, but I will draw them up as I choose."

"Well!" says Gisli, "it was likeliest that such a hound as thou would not dare to cross swords with me."

Then Eyjolf said to Spy-Helgi:

"’Twould be great fame for thee now wert thou to be first in leading the way up the crags to Gisli. Such a deed of derring-do would long be borne in mind."

"I have often proved," says Helgi, "that thou likest to have others before thee when there is any trial of courage; but now since thou eggest me on so hotly, well I will do my best, but mind thou backest me like a man, and keep as close to me as thou canst if thou art not altogether a milksop."

Now Helgi busks him to the work where he saw the likeliest place, and holds in his hand a big axe. Gisli was armed thus: he had in his hand his axe, and he was girt with a sword, and his shield was at his side. He had on a gray cloak, and had bound it round with a rope.

Now Helgi takes a run and rushes up the crags at Gisli. He hurried to meet him, and brandished his sword, and smote him on the loins, and exit him in two at the waist; and each half of the man fell down from the crags, each on its own side. Eyjolf got up in another place, and there Auda met him, and smites him on the arm with her club so that it lost all strength, and down he topples back again. Then Gisli spoke and said:

"Long ago I knew I was well wedded, though I never knew I was so well wedded as I am. But now thou hast yielded me less help than thou thoughtest, though thy meaning was good, for had I got at him they would both have gone the same path."

Then two men go to hold Auda and Gudrida, and think they have quite enough to do. And now twelve men rush at once on Gisli, and try to get up the crags. But he defends himself both with stones and weapons, so that great glory followed his deeds. And now one of Eyjolf's band runs up and calls out to Gisli:

"Lay down thy good arms that thou bearest, and give up at the same time Auda thy wife."

"Come and take them then like a man," answers Gisli, "for neither the arms I bear nor the wife I love are fit for any one else."

That man thrusts at Gisli with a spear, but Gisli smote off the spear-head from the shaft with his axe, and the blow was so stout that the axe passed on to the rock, and one horn of the edge broke off. Then he throws away the axe and clutches his sword and fights with it, and shields himself with his shield. They attack him bravely, but he kept them off like a man, and now they are hard upon each other.

In that bout Gisli slew two men, and now four in all have fallen.

Still Eyjolf bade them fall on like men.

"We are getting the worst of it, but that would be worth little thought if we could only make a good end of our business."

Just then, when they were least aware, Gisli whisked about and leaps up on a crag that stands alone there, and is called Oneman's Crag. So he got away from the cliffs, and then he turned at bay and fought. This took them quite by surprise, and now they think that affairs are in a worse way than ever--four men dead and all the rest weary and wounded.

And now there is a break in the onslaught. When they had taken breath Eyjolf eggs on his men warmly, and gives his word to get them many fair things, if they will only get at Gisli. It must be owned that Eyjolf had with him picked men both in valour and hardihood.

It was a man named Sweyn who first was ready to attack Gisli, but Gisli smites at him and cleaves him to the chine, and hurls him down from the crag. And now they think they can never tell when this man's man-slayings will stop. Then Gisli called out to Eyjolf:

"I wish to make those three hundreds in silver which thou hast taken as the price of my head as dear-bought as I can. And I rather think thou wouldst give other three hundreds in silver that we had never met, for thou wilt only take disgrace in return for your loss of life."

Now they take counsel, and no one is willing to turn back for his life's sake. So they fall on him from two sides, and two men are foremost in following Eyjolf whose names are Thorir and Thord, kinsmen of Eyjolf. They were very great swordsmen, and their onslaught was both hard and hot; and now they gave him some wounds with spear-thrusts, but he still fought on with great stoutness and bravery; and they got such knocks from him, both with stones and strokes, that there was not one of them without a wound who came nigh him, for Gisli was not a man to miss his mark. Now Eyjolf and his kinsmen press on hard, for they felt that their fame and honour lay on it. Then they thrust at him with spears, so that his entrails fall out; but he swept up the entrails with his shirt and bound the rope round the wound.

Then Gisli called out and said they had better wait a while:

"Wife so fair, so never failing,
  So truly loved, so sorely cross'd,
Thou wilt often miss me wailing,
  Thou wilt weep thy hero lost.
But my soul is stout as ever ,
  Swords may bite, I feel no smart
Father! better heirloom never
  Owned thy son than hardy heart."

That was Gisli's last song, and as soon as ever he had suing it he rushes down from the crag and smites Thord, Eyjolf's kinsman, on the head, and cleaves him down to the belt, but Gisli fell down on his body and breathed his last.

But they were all much wounded, Eyjolf's companions. Gisli there lost his life with so many great and sore wounds that it was a wonder to see. They say that he never turned his heel, and none of them saw that his strokes were lighter, the last than the first. There now ends Gisli's life, and it has always been said he was the greatest champion--though he was not lucky in all things.

Now they drag him down to the flat ground, and take away his sword, and bury him there in the gravel, and so go down to the sea. There on the sea-shore the sixth man breathed his last. Eyjolf offered Auda to take her with him, but she would not. After that Eyjolf fares home to Otterdale, and there, that same night, the seventh man breathes his last. An eighth lies bedridden from wounds twelve months, and then dies. As for the rest, they were healed, and got nothing but shame for their pains.

It has been said, in short, by one and all that there never was a more famous defence made by one man in times of which the truth is known.

 ----------------------

From: THE STORY/SAGA OF GISLI THE OUTLAW

Translated From The Icelandic Sir George Webbe Dasent D.C.L. With Illustrations By C. E. St. John-Mildmay

ISBN: 978-1-907256-46-2

URL: http://www.abelapublishing.com/cg_gisl.html

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THE SAGA OF GISLI THE OUTLAW – CHAPTER 17 - GISLI'S EVIL DREAMS

SO now that summer glides by, and Gisli abides in his earth-house, and is wary of himself, and does not mean to go away any more. For he thinks that the earths are stopped all round about him, and now the years of his dreaming are all spent. It chanced one night that summer that Gisli suffered much in his sleep. But when he wakes up Auda asks what he had dreamt. He says that worse dream-wife had come to him again and said thus--

"Now will I utterly crush all that the better dream-wife hath said to thee; and if I may have my way, none of those things that she hath spoken shall be of any good to thee."

Then Gisli chaunted:

"Spoke the Valkyr, stern beholding--
  'Ne'er shall ye twain woo and kiss,
Day by day your love unfolding,
  All the gods forbid your bliss.
Woden, lord of worlds and ages,
  Me hath sent to speak his will,
Far from where the battle rages,
  Lo! his bidding I fulfil.'

"Again I dreamed," says Gisli, "that yon wife came to me, and bound round my brow a bloody hood, and washed my head first in blood, and poured blood over me, so that I was all over gore." And he chaunted a song:

"She, methought, her face all flushing,
  Bathed my locks in reddest blood,
Flames of light 1 so rosy blushing,
  Woden's balm 1 so bright and good
Still I see her fingers glowing,
  Bright with gems and blazing rings,
Steeped in blood so freely flowing,
  Welling from the wounds of kings.

Again Gisli chaunted:

"Yes! that lady, dark as raven,
  Bound my brow with gory hood;
All my hair was shorn and shaven--
  Sad the plight in which I stood:
Still her hands were gore-bedabbled,
  Still her fingers dropped with blood;
Something in my ear she babbled,
  Then I woke--to find thee good."

At last Gisli was so sore pressed with dreams that he grew quite afraid to be alone in the dark, and could not bear to be left by himself, for as soon as ever he shut his eyes the same wife appeared to him. One night it happened that Gisli struggled just a little in his sleep, and Auda asked what had happened.

"I dreamt," says Gisli, "that men came on us, and Eyjolf was along with them and many others beside, and we met, and I knew that there was merry work between us. One of their band came first, grinning and gaping, and methought I cut him asunder in the middle; and methought too he bore a wolf's head. Then many more fell on me, and methought I had my shield in my hand, and held my own a long while."

Then Gisli chaunted:

"Methought that early on a morning
  My foes within my dwelling stood;
Alone I met them, cravens scorning,
  Alone I carved the ravens' food.
Fast and thick they fell around me--
  Woe is me! I was aware,
Though chains of death not yet had bound

me,
  My blood bedewed thy bosom fair.

And again he chaunted:

"Well my trusty shield stood by me,
  Bold my heart with peril played
Not a man of them came nigh me,
  Blithely sang my tuneful blade:
Till at last my doom was spoken,
  Ten to one beat down my shield
Well my death was then ywroken,
  Loud clashed swords on fated field.

And again he chaunted:

"Thick I spread the ravens' table,
  One I swept like wind away,
Ere those bitter foes were able
  Once to wound me in the fray
Nay! my sword with temper eager
  Shore a leg from off a wight;
Off he limped, so wan and meagre,
  Mine the pledge he lost in fight."

Now the autumn comes on and the dreams do not minish, but they rather go on waxing more and more. One night when Gisli struggled in his sleep Auda asked, as was her wont, what had happened. Gisli chaunted these verses:

"Methought, O wife, the blood was flowing
  Down my sides in crimson rill;
’Tis but the debt of suffering owing,
The toilsome task I must fulfil.
  Fairly won my wounds, no snarling,
Others' wives for me must weep;--
  Such my visions, Auda darling,
When my eyelids close in sleep.

"Methought, O wife, with weapons bloody
  Both my close-set lips were scored;
Those twin-sisters fair and ruddy
  Deeper blushed at kiss of sword.
Still fond hope was ever smiling,
  Blooming like the fairest flower;
'Thou shalt ’scape'--such words beguiling
  Cheered me in that darksome hour.

"Methought my foemen, axes wielding
  Both my arms at once lopped off;
Wound on wound, no buckler shielding,
  Woe on woe, and bitter scoff.
Worse I dreamt--my forehead splitting,
  Cleft in twain by force of hand,
O'er my brow, like goblin flitting,
  Gaped and grinned the grisly brand.

"Methought that lady wise and witty,
  Wearing crown of silver sheen;
O'er me bowed her head in pity,
  Fast the pearls fell from her een.
Mistress she of hoards unbroken,
  Bound my wounds with gentle skill;
What, my love, doth this betoken?--
  Bodes it good or bodes it ill?"

 ----------------------

From: The Story/Saga of Gisli the Outlaw

Translated From The Icelandic Sir George Webbe Dasent D.C.L. With Illustrations By C. E. St. John-Mildmay

ISBN: 978-1-907256-46-2

URL: http://www.abelapublishing.com/cg_gisl.html

Click on the URL for more info, a table of contents and to order in USD or GBP.

THE SAGA OF GISLI THE OUTLAW – CHAPTER 15 - SPY-HELGI AND HAVARD

IT is said that now only two more years were left of those which the dream-wife had said he had to live. And as time goes on, and Gisli is in Geirthiofsfirth, all his dreams come back on him, and he has hard struggles in his sleep; and now the worse dream-wife comes oftener and oftener to him, though the better visits him sometimes. So it fell one night, as Gisli dreamed that the better dream-wife came to him, and she seemed to ride on a gray horse, and bids him go with her to her abode, and he went gladly. So they came to a house which was almost as large as a hall, and she leads him into that house, and he thought there were pillows of down on the benches, and that it was well furnished in everything. She bade him stay there and be happy: "Hither shalt thou fare when thou diest, and pass thy time in bliss and ease."

And now he wakes and chaunted these verses on what he had dreamt:

"Lo ! the goddess shows her power,
  Sets me on her palfrey gray,
Makes me ride unto her bower,
  Bids me welcome every day:
All her words some comfort bringing,
  Vowing ever to befriend;
In my ears soft sounds are ringing,
  Still that music knows no end.

"There was many a slumb'rous pillow,
  Strewn on benches in that hall,
Soft I sate as swan on billow,
  Ah! my heart remembers all:
More--that lovely woman laid me
  On a bed of softest down:
Grateful for the cheer she made me,
  Straight my face forgot to frown.

"Then outspoke that bounteous woman--
  'Mighty chief! thy foeman's bane,
Hither hasten, chased by no man;
  Death shall set thee free from pain:
Then shalt thou--her speech pursuing--
  'All these treasures call thine own;
Me, too, shalt thou win for wooing;
  Happy we as birds new flown.'"

Now it is next to be said that Helgi the Spy was sent again round Geirthiofsfirth, and men deem it likely that Gisli is there. A man went with him whose name was Havard. He had come to Iceland from Norway the summer before, and was a kinsman of Gest the Wise. They gave out that they were sent into the wood to hew fuel for household use, but though this was the cloak of their journey, hidden under it was the design to hunt out Gisli, and see if they could find out his lurking-place. After they had been three nights in the wood spying about, on the last evening they see a fire burning in the cliffs and crags south of the river. That was just after sundown, and it was as dark as pitch. Then Havard asks Helgi what was to be done, "for thou must be more wont to these things than I can be."

"There is but one thing to be done," said Helgi, "and that is, to pile up a beacon on this hillock which we stand on, and then we shall find it when it is broad daylight, and then we shall see across from the beacon to the cliffs: 'tis but a short way to see."

So they take that plan, and when they had piled up the beacon Havard said he was worn out, and so tired he could scarce keep his eyes open. So he lay down to sleep. But Helgi keeps awake, and heaps up what yet failed to the beacon; and when he had ended his work Havard wakes, and bids Helgi go to sleep and he would watch. So Helgi sleeps awhile, and while he sleeps Havard sets to work and carries off the whole beacon, so that he did not leave one stone upon another in the dark. When he had done that, he takes up a huge stone and dashes it down on the rock close to Helgi's head, so that the earth shook again. Then Helgi jumps up, and is all of a quake and faint-hearted, and asks what ever is the matter.

"Well," said Havard, "there's a man in the wood, and very many such keepsakes have come hither during the night."

"That must have been Gisli. He must have found us out; and know, good fellow, we shall have every bone in our bodies broken if such grit falls on us. There is naught to be done but to be off as fast as possible."

Now Helgi runs off as fast as he can, but Havard follows him, and bids Helgi not to run away from him. But Helgi gave little heed, and ran as fast as he could lay legs to the ground.

At last they came to their boat, and jumped in, and dash the oars into the sea, and row like mad, and do not stay their course till they get to Otterdale, and then Helgi says he has found out where Gisli had hidden himself.

Eyjolf was up and stirring in a trice, and sets off at once with thirteen men, and both Helgi and Havard go with him. So they fare till they come to Geirthiofsfirth, and go through all the woods to search for the beacon and Gisli's lair, and found them nowhere.

Now Eyjolf asks Havard whereabouts they had piled up the beacon.

"I'm sure I can't tell," he answers; "I was so dead tired that I can't call to mind anything. Besides, Helgi piled up the beacon while I slept. Methinks 'tis not unlikely that Gisli was ware of us, and has carried away the beacon when it got light, and we had gone away."

Then Eyjolf said: "Everything seems doomed to go against us in this quest. We may as well turn back;" and so they did; but before they went Eyjolf says he wishes to go and see Auda.

Now they come to the house, and go indoors, and Eyjolf sate him down to talk with Auda. And this was how he began:

"I will make a bargain with thee, Auda. Thou shalt tell me where Gisli is, and I will give thee three hundreds in silver; those very pieces which I have taken as the price of his head. Thou shalt not be bound to stand by while we take his life. Besides all this, I will get thee a match which shall be far better in every way than this bath been. Thou must look also to this--how cheerless it is to be in this barren firth, and be cut off for ever from thy kinsmen and belongings, all because of Gisli's misdeeds."

"As for that," she says, "methinks it most unlikely we should ever agree upon a match which I should think as much worth as this; but still the old saw says: 'Fee is best for a 'fey' man.' Let me see then whether this fee is so much and fine as thou sayest."

So he pours out the silver into her lap, and she touches it with her hand, while he tells it over and presses her hard. Then her foster-daughter, Gudrida, fell a-weeping, and goes out and meets Gisli, and says:

"My foster-mother has now lost her wits, and will betray thee."

"Be of good heart," says Gisli; "that will never be. My brave Auda will never betray me."

With that he chaunted:

"What! the folk, with wicked whisper,
  Say that she will me deceive?
Auda faithless to her husband
  Never can my heart believe.
No! her heart is staunch as ever;
  Auda plots no guile for me
Auda wrongs her Gisli never;
  Vain the bribe of silver fee."

After that the lassie went home, and says never a word as to where she had been. By this time Eyjolf had told the silver, and then Auda said:

"This fee is no whit better or worse than thou hast said and now thou wilt no doubt let me do with it as I like."

Eyjolf jumped at that, and bade her do with it just as she chose.

So Auda takes the fee, and puts it into a big purse. After that she rises and runs to Eyjolf, and dashes the purse, silver and all, on Eyjolf's nose, so that the blood gushed out all over him; and as she smote him she said:

"Take that for thy silliness, and bad luck go with it! Didst thou ween I would sell my husband into the hands of such a wretch as thee. Take that, I say, and shame and blame go with it. Thou shalt bear in mind, vile fellow, so long as thou livest, that a woman hath beaten thee, and know thou shalt never work thy will whatever happens."

"Lay hands on," called out Eyjolf, "and slay her, though she be but a weak woman."

Then Havard spoke out and said: "Our journey is about as bad as it can be already without our doing this dastard's deed. Up men, and do not let him work his will."

"Sooth is the saw," said Eyjolf, "There are no foes like those of one's own house."'

But Havard had many friends, and many a man was ready to stand by hint in this matter, and at the same time to save Eyjolf from disgrace; so he had to swallow his shame, and goes away home. But ere Havard leaves the house Auda said: "The debt that Gisli owes thee must not be long unpaid. Here is a ring which I wish thee to take."

"I would not have looked for this," says Havard.

"But for all that I will repay thee," says Auda. So she gave him the gold down on the nail for his help. So Havard takes horse and fares south to the Strand to Gest the Wise, for he will stay no longer with Eyjolf. As for Eyjolf, he fares home to Otterdale, and is ill-pleased with his journey; and this last seemed to men the most shameful of all.

 ----------------------

From: The Story/Saga of Gisli the Outlaw

Translated From The Icelandic Sir George Webbe Dasent D.C.L. With Illustrations By C. E. St. John-Mildmay

ISBN: 978-1-907256-46-2

URL: http://www.abelapublishing.com/cg_gisl.html

Click on the URL for more info, a table of contents and to order in USD or GBP.