OF PORTENTS AT BERGTHORSKNOLL.
Now we must take up the story, and turn to Bergthorsknoll, and say that
Grim and Helgi go to Holar. They had children out at foster there, and
they told their mother that they should not come home that evening. They
were in Holar all the day, and there came some poor women and said they
had come from far. Those brothers asked them for tidings, and they said
they had no tidings to tell, "but still we might tell you one bit of
news".
They asked what that might be, and bade them not hide it. They said so
it should be.
"We came down out of Fleetlithe, and we saw all the sons of Sigfus
riding fully armed--they made for Threecorner ridge, and were fifteen in
company. We saw, too, Grani Gunnar's son and Gunnar Lambi's son, and
they were five in all. They took the same road, and one may say now that
the whole country-side is faring and flitting about."
"Then," said Helgi Njal's son, "Flosi must have come from the east, and
they must have all gone to meet him, and we two, Grim, should be where
Skarphedinn is."
Grim said so it ought to be, and they fared home.
That same evening Bergthora spoke to her household, and said, "Now shall
ye choose your meat to-night, so that each may have what he likes best;
for this evening is the last that I shall set meat before my household".
"That shall not be," they said.
"It will be though," she says, "and I could tell you much more if I
would, but this shall be a token, that Grim and Helgi will be home ere
men have eaten their full to-night; and if this turns out so, then the
rest that I say will happen too."
After that she set meat on the board, and Njal said, "Wondrously now it
seems to me. Methinks I see all round the room, and it seems as though
the gable wall were thrown down, but the whole board and the meat on it
is one gore of blood."
All thought this strange but Skarphedinn, he bade men not be downcast,
nor to utter other unseemly sounds, so that men might make a story out
of them.
"For it befits us surely more than other men to bear us well, and it is
only what is looked for from us."
Grim and Helgi came home ere the board was cleared, and men were much
struck at that. Njal asked why they had returned so quickly, but they
told what they had heard.
Njal bade no man go to sleep, but to beware of themselves.