AN ATTACK PLANNED ON NJAL AND HIS SONS.
Flosi summoned all his men up to the "Great Rift," and went thither
himself.
So when all his men were come, there were one hundred and twenty of
them.
Then Flosi spake thus to the sons of Sigfus--
"In what way shall I stand by you in this quarrel, which will be most to
your minds?"
"Nothing will please us," said Gunnar Lambi's son, "until those
brothers, Njal's sons, are all slain."
"This," said Flosi, "will I promise to you, ye sons of Sigfus, not to
part from this quarrel before one of us bites the dust before the other,
I will also know whether there be any man here who will not stand by us
in this quarrel."
But they all said they would stand by him.
Then Flosi said--
"Come now all to me, and swear an oath that no man will shrink from this
quarrel."
Then all went up to Flosi and swore oaths to him; and then Flosi said--
"We will all of us shake hands on this, that he shall have forfeited
life and land who quits this quarrel ere it be over."
These were the chiefs who were with Flosi:--Kol the son of Thorstein
broadpaunch, the brother's son of Hall of the Side, Hroald Auzur's son
from Broadwater, Auzur son of Anund wallet-back, Thorstein the fair the
son of Gerleif, Glum Hilldir's son, Modolf Kettle's son, Thorir the son
of Thord Illugi's son of Mauratongue, Kolbein and Egil Flosi's kinsmen,
Kettle Sigfus' son, and Mord his brother, Ingialld of the Springs,
Thorkel and Lambi, Grani Gunnar's son, Gunnar Lambi's son, and Sigmund
Sigfus' son, and Hroar from Hromundstede.
Then Flosi said to the sons of Sigfus--
"Choose ye now a leader, whomsoever ye think best fitted; for some one
man must needs be chief over the quarrel."
Then Kettle of the Mark answered--
"If the choice is to be left with us brothers, then we will soon choose
that this duty should fall on thee; there are many things which lead to
this. Thou art a man of great birth, and a mighty chief, stout of heart,
and strong of body, and wise withal, and so we think it best that thou
shouldst see to all that is needful in the quarrel."
"It is most fitting," said Flosi, "that I should agree to undertake this
as your prayer asks; and now I will lay down the course which we shall
follow, and my counsel is, that each man ride home from the Thing and
look after his household during the summer, so long as men's haymaking
lasts. I, too, will ride home, and be at home this summer; but when that
Lord's day comes on which winter is eight weeks off, then I will let
them sing me a mass at home, and afterwards ride west across Loomnips
Sand; each of our men shall have two horses. I will not swell our
company beyond those which have now taken the oath, for we have enough
and to spare if all keep true tryst. I will ride all the Lord's day and
the night as well, but at even on the second day of the week, I shall
ride up to Threecorner ridge about mid-even. There shall ye then be all
come who have sworn an oath in this matter. But if there be any one who
has not come, and who has joined us in this quarrel, then that man shall
lose nothing save his life, if we may have our way."
"How does that hang together," said Kettle, "that thou canst ride from
home on the Lord's day, and come the second day of the week to
Threecorner ridge?"
"I will ride," said Flosi, "up from Skaptartongue, and north of the
Eyjafell Jokul, and so down into Godaland, and it may be done if I ride
fast. And now I will tell you my whole purpose, that when we meet there
all together, we shall ride to Bergthorsknoll with all our band, and
fall on Njal's sons with fire and sword, and not turn away before they
are all dead. Ye shall hide this plan, for our lives lie on it. And now
we will take to our horses and ride home."
Then they all went to their booths.
After that Flosi made them saddle his horses, and they waited for no
man, and rode home.
Flosi would not stay to meet Hall his father-in-law, for he knew of a
surety that Hall would set his face against all strong deeds.
Njal rode home from the Thing and his sons. They were at home that
summer. Njal asked Kari his son-in-law whether he thought at all of
riding east to Dyrholms to his own house.
"I will not ride east," answered Kari, "for one fate shall befall me and
thy sons."
Njal thanked him, and said that was only what was likely from him. There
were nearly thirty fighting men in Njal's house, reckoning the
house-carles.
One day it happened that Rodny Hauskuld's daughter, the mother of
Hauskuld Njal's son, came to the Springs. Her brother Ingialld greeted
her well, but she would not take his greeting, but yet bade him go out
with her. Ingialld did so, and went out with her; and so they walked
away from the farmyard both together. Then she clutched hold of him and
they both sat down, and Rodny said--
"Is it true that thou hast sworn an oath to fall on Njal, and slay him
and his sons?"
"True it is," said he.
"A very great dastard art thou," she says, "thou, whom Njal hath thrice
saved from outlawry."
"Still it hath come to this," says Ingialld, "that my life lies on it if
I do not this."
"Not so," says she, "thou shalt live all the same, and be called a
better man, if thou betrayest not him to whom thou oughtest to behave
best."
Then she took a linen hood out of her bag, it was clotted with blood all
over, and torn and tattered, and said, "This hood, Hauskuld Njal's son,
and thy sister's son, had on his head when they slew him; methinks,
then, it is ill owing to stand by those from whom this mischief sprang".
"Well!" answers Ingialld, "so it shall be that I will not be against
Njal whatever follows after, but still I know that they will turn and
throw trouble on me."
"Now mightest thou," said Rodny, "yield Njal and his sons great help, if
thou tellest him all these plans."
"That I will not do," says Ingialld, "for then I am every man's dastard,
if I tell what was trusted to me in good faith; but it is a manly deed
to sunder myself from this quarrel when I know that there is a sure
looking for of vengeance; but tell Njal and his sons to beware of
themselves all this summer, for that will be good counsel, and to keep
many men about them."
Then she fared to Bergthorsknoll, and told Njal all this talk; and Njal
thanked her, and said she had done well, "for there would be more
wickedness in his falling on me than of all men else".
She fared home, but he told this to his sons.
There was a carline at Bergthorsknoll, whose name was Saevuna. She was
wise in many things, and foresighted; but she was then very old, and
Njal's sons called her an old dotard, when she talked so much, but still
some things which she said came to pass. It fell one day that she took a
cudgel in her hand, and went up above the house to a stack of vetches.
She beat the stack of vetches with her cudgel, and wished it might never
thrive, "wretch that it was!"
Skarphedinn laughed at her, and asked why she was so angry with the
vetch stack.
"This stack of vetches," said the carline, "will be taken and lighted
with fire when Njal my master is burnt, house and all, and Bergthora my
foster-child. Take it away to the water, or burn it up as quick as you
can."
"We will not do that," says Skarphedinn, "for something else will be got
to light a fire with, if that were foredoomed, though this stack were
not here."
The carline babbled the whole summer about the vetch-stack that it
should be got indoors, but something always hindered it.