KOLSKEGG GOES ABROAD.
Thrain Sigfus' son said to his wife that he meant to fare abroad that
summer. She said that was well. So he took his passage with Hogni the
white.
Gunnar took his passage with Arnfin of the Bay; and Kolskegg was to go
with him.
Grim And Helgi, Njal's sons, asked their father's leave to go abroad
too, and Njal said--
"This foreign voyage ye will find hard work, so hard that it will be
doubtful whether ye keep your lives; but still ye two will get some
honour and glory, but it is not unlikely that a quarrel will arise out
of your journey when ye come back."
Still they kept on asking their father to let them go, and the end of it
was that he bade them go if they chose.
Then they got them a passage with Bard the black, and Olaf Kettle's son
of Elda; and it is the talk of the whole country that all the better men
in that district were leaving it.
By this time Gunnar's sons, Hogni and Grani, were grown up; they were
men of very different turn of mind. Grani had much of his mother's
temper, but Hogni was kind and good.
Gunnar made men bear down the wares of his brother and himself to the
ship, and when all Gunnar's baggage had come down, and the ship was all
but "boun," then Gunnar rides to Bergthorsknoll, and to other homesteads
to see men, and thanked them all for the help they had given him.
The day after he gets ready early for his journey to the ship, and told
all his people that he would ride away for good and all, and men took
that much to heart, but still they said that they looked to his coming
back afterwards.
Gunnar threw his arms round each of the household when he was "boun,"
and every one of them went out of doors with him; he leans on the butt
of his spear and leaps into the saddle, and he and Kolskegg ride away.
They ride down along Markfleet, and just then Gunnar's horse tripped and
threw him off. He turned with his face up towards the Lithe and the
homestead at Lithend, and said--
"Fair is the Lithe; so fair that it has never seemed to me so fair; the
corn fields are white to harvest, and the home mead is mown; and now I
will ride back home, and not fare abroad at all."
"Do not this joy to thy foes," says Kolskegg, "by breaking thy atonement,
for no man could think thou wouldst do thus, and thou mayst be sure that
all will happen as Njal has said."
"I will not go away any whither," says Gunnar, "and so I would thou
shouldest do too."
"That shall not be," says Kolskegg; "I will never do a base thing in
this, nor in anything else which is left to my good faith; and this is
that one thing that could tear us asunder; but tell this to my kinsmen
and to my mother, that I never mean to see Iceland again, for I shall
soon learn that thou art dead, brother, and then there will be nothing
left to bring me back."
So they parted there and then. Gunnar rides home to Lithend, but
Kolskegg rides to the ship, and goes abroad.
Hallgerda was glad to see Gunnar when he came home, but his mother said
little or nothing.
Now Gunnar sits at home that fall and winter, and had not many men with
him.
Now the winter leaves the farmyard. Olaf the peacock asked Gunnar and
Hallgerda to come and stay with him; but as for the farm, to put it into
the hands of his mother and his son Hogni.
Gunnar thought that a good thing at first, and agreed to it, but when it
came to the point he would not do it.
But at the Thing next summer, Gizur the white, and Geir the priest, gave
notice of Gunnar's outlawry at the Hill of Laws; and before the Thing
broke up Gizur summoned all Gunnar's foes to meet in the "Great
Rift".[27] He summoned Starkad under the Threecorner, and Thorgeir his
son; Mord and Valgard the guileful; Geir the priest and Hjalti Skeggi's
son; Thorbrand and Asbrand, Thorleik's sons; Eyjulf, and Aunund his son,
Aunund of Witchwood and Thorgrim the Easterling of Sandgil.
Then Gizur spoke and said, "I will make you all this offer, that we go
out against Gunnar this summer and slay him".
"I gave my word to Gunnar," said Hjalti, "here at the Thing, when he
showed himself most willing to yield to my prayer, that I would never be
in any attack upon him; and so it shall be."
Then Hjalti went away, but those who were left behind made up their
minds to make an onslaught on Gunnar, and shook hands on the bargain,
and laid a fine on any one that left the undertaking.
Mord was to keep watch and spy out when there was the best chance of
falling on him, and they were forty men in this league, and they thought
it would be a light thing for them to hunt down Gunnar, now that
Kolskegg was away, and Thrain and many other of Gunnar's friends.
Men ride from the Thing, and Njal went to see Gunnar, and told him of
his outlawry, and how an onslaught was planned against him.
"Me thinks thou art the best of friends," says Gunnar; "thou makest me
aware of what is meant."
"Now," says Njal, "I would that Skarphedinn should come to thy house,
and my son Hauskuld; they will lay down their lives for thy life."
"I will not," says Gunnar, "that thy sons should be slain for my sake,
and thou hast a right to look for other things from me."
"All thy care will come to nothing," says Njal; "quarrels will turn
thitherward where my sons are as soon as thou art dead and gone."
"That is not unlikely," says Gunnar, "but still it would mislike me that
they fell into them for me; but this one thing I will ask of thee, that
ye see after my son Hogni, but I say naught of Grani, for he does not
behave himself much after my mind."
Njal rode home, and gave his word to do that.
It is said that Gunnar rode to all meetings of men, and to all lawful
Things, and his foes never dared to fall on him.
And so some time went on that he went about as a free and guiltless
man.