SIGMUND COMES OUT TO ICELAND.
There was a man whose name was Sigmund. He was the son of Lambi, the son
of Sighvat the Red. He was a great voyager, and a comely and a courteous
man; tall too, and strong. He was a man of proud spirit, and a good
skald, and well trained in most feats of strength. He was noisy and
boisterous, and given to jibes and mocking. He made the land east in
Hornfirth. Skiolld was the name of his fellow-traveller; he was a
Swedish man, and ill to do with. They took horse and rode from the east
out of Hornfirth, and did not draw bridle before they came to Lithend,
in the Fleetlithe. Gunnar gave them a hearty welcome, for the bonds of
kinship were close between them. Gunnar begged Sigmund to stay there
that winter, and Sigmund said he would take the offer if Skiolld his
fellow might be there too.
"Well, I have been so told about him," said Gunnar, "that he is no
better of thy temper; but as it is, thou rather needest to have it
bettered. This, too, is a bad house to stay at, and I would just give
both of you a bit of advice, my kinsmen, not to fire up at the egging on
of my wife Hallgerda; for she takes much in hand that is far from my
will."
"His hands are clean who warns another," says Sigmund.
"Then mind the advice given thee," says Gunnar, "for thou art sure to be
sore tried; and go along always with me, and lean upon my counsel."
After that they were in Gunnar's company. Hallgerda was good to Sigmund;
and it soon came about that things grew so warm that she loaded him with
money, and tended him no worse than her own husband; and many talked
about that, and did not know what lay under it.
One day Hallgerda said to Gunnar--"It is not good to be content with
that hundred in silver which thou tookest for my kinsman Brynjolf. I
shall avenge him if I may," she says.
Gunnar said he had no mind to bandy words with her, and went away. He
met Kolskegg, and said to him, "Go and see Njal; and tell him that Thord
must beware of himself though peace has been made, for, methinks, there
is faithlessness somewhere".
He rode off and told Njal, but Njal told Thord, and Kolskegg rode home,
and Njal thanked them for their faithfulness.
Once on a time they two were out in the "town," Njal and Thord; a
he-goat was wont to go up and down in the "town," and no one was allowed
to drive him away. Then Thord spoke and said--
"Well, this _is_ a wondrous thing!"
"What is it that thou see'st that seems after a wondrous fashion?" says
Njal.
"Methinks the goat lies here in the hollow, and he is all one gore of
blood."
Njal said that there was no goat there, nor anything else.
"What is it then?" says Thord.
"Thou must be a 'fey' man," says Njal, "and thou must have seen the
fetch that follows thee, and now be ware of thyself."
"That will stand me in no stead," says Thord, "if death is doomed for
me."
Then Hallgerda came to talk with Thrain Sigfus' son, and said--"I would
think thee my son-in-law indeed," she says, "if thou slayest Thord
Freedmanson".
"I will not do that," he says, "for then I shall have the wrath of my
kinsman Gunnar; and besides, great things hang on this deed, for this
slaying would soon be avenged."
"Who will avenge it?" she asks; "is it the beardless carle?"
"Not so," says he; "his sons will avenge it."
After that they talked long and low, and no man knew what counsel they
took together.
Once it happened that Gunnar was not at home, but those companions were.
Thrain had come in from Gritwater, and then he and they and Hallgerda
sat out of doors and talked. Then Hallgerda said--
"This have ye two brothers in arms, Sigmund and Skiolld, promised to
slay Thord Freedmanson; but Thrain thou hast promised me that thou
wouldst stand by them when they did the deed."
They all acknowledged that they had given her this promise.
"Now I will counsel you how to do it," she says: "Ye shall ride east
into Hornfirth after your goods, and come home about the beginning of
the Thing, but if ye are at home before it begins, Gunnar will wish that
ye should ride to the Thing with him. Njal will be at the Thing and his
sons and Gunnar, but then ye two shall slay Thord."
They all agreed that this plan should be carried out. After that they
busked them east to the Firth, and Gunnar was not aware of what they
were about, and Gunnar rode to the Thing. Njal sent Thord Freedmanson
away east under Eyjafell, and bade him be away there one night. So he
went east, but he could not get back from the east, for the Fleet had
risen so high that it could not be crossed on horseback ever so far up.
Njal waited for him one night, for he had meant him to have ridden with
him; and Njal said to Bergthora, that she must send Thord to the Thing
as soon as ever he came home. Two nights after, Thord came from the
east, and Bergthora told him that he must ride to the Thing, "but first
thou shalt ride up into Thorolfsfell and see about the farm there, and
do not be there longer than one or two nights."