UNNA SEPARATES FROM HRUT.
Now the time for the Thing was coming on, Unna spoke to Sigmund Auzur's
son, and asked if he would ride to the Thing with her; he said he could
not ride if his kinsman Hrut set his face against it.
"Well!" says she, "I spoke to thee because I have better right to ask
this from thee than from any one else."
He answered, "I will make a bargain with thee: thou must promise to ride
back west with me, and to have no underhand dealings against Hrut or
myself".
So she promised that, and then they rode to the Thing. Her father Mord
was at the Thing, and was very glad to see her, and asked her to stay in
his booth white the Thing lasted, and she did so.
"Now," said Mord, "what hast thou to tell me of thy mate, Hrut?"
Then she sung him a song, in which she praised Hrut's liberality, but
said he was not master of himself. She herself was ashamed to speak out.
Mord was silent a short time, and then said--
"Thou hast now that on thy mind I see, daughter, which thou dost not
wish that any one should know save myself, and thou wilt trust to me
rather than any one else to help thee out of thy trouble."
Then they went aside to talk, to a place where none could overhear what
they said; and then Mord said to his daughter--
"Now tell me all that is between you two, and don't make more of the
matter than it is worth."
"So it shall be," she answered, and sang two songs, in which she
revealed the cause of their misunderstanding; and when Mord pressed her
to speak out, she told him how she and Hrut could not live together,
because he was spell-bound, and that she wished to leave him.
"Thou didst right to tell me all this," said Mord, "and now I will give
thee a piece of advice, which will stand thee in good stead, if thou
canst carry it out to the letter. First of all, thou must ride home from
the Thing, and by that time thy husband will have come back, and will be
glad to see thee; thou must he blithe and buxom to him, and he will
think a good change has come over thee, and thou must show no signs of
coldness or ill-temper, but when spring comes thou must sham sickness,
and take to thy bed. Hrut will not lose time in guessing what thy
sickness can be, nor will he scold thee at all, but he will rather beg
every one to take all the care they can of thee. After that he will set
off west to the Firths, and Sigmund with him, for he will have to flit
all his goods home from the Firths west, and he will be away till the
summer is far spent. But when men ride to the Thing, and after all have
ridden from the Dales that mean to ride thither, then thou must rise
from thy bed and summon men to go along with thee to the Thing; and when
thou art all-boun, then shalt thou go to thy bed, and the men with thee
who are to bear thee company, and thou shalt take witness before thy
husband's bed, and declare thyself separated from him by such a lawful
separation as may hold good according to the judgment of the Great
Thing, and the laws of the land; and at the man's door [the main door of
the house] thou shalt take the same witness. After that ride away, and
ride over Laxriverdale Heath, and so on over Holtbeacon Heath; for they
will look for thee by way of Hrutfirth. And so ride on till thou comest
to me; then I will see after the matter. But into his hands thou shalt
never come more."
Now she rides home from the Thing, and Hrut had come back before her,
and made her hearty welcome. She answered him kindly, and was blithe and
forbearing towards him. So they lived happily together that half-year;
but when spring came she fell sick, and kept her bed. Hrut set off west
to the Firths, and bade them tend her well before he went. Now, when the
time for the Thing comes, she busked herself to ride away, and did in
every way as had been laid down for her; and then she rides away to the
Thing. The country folk looked for her, but could not find her. Mord
made his daughter welcome, and asked her if she had followed his advice;
and she says, "I have not broken one tittle of it".
Then she went to the Hill of Laws, and declared herself separated from
Hrut; and men thought this strange news. Unna went home with her father,
and never went west from that day forward.