NJAL'S BURNING.
Now they took fire, and made a great pile before the doors. Then
Skarphedinn said.
"What, lads! are ye lighting a fire, or are ye taking to cooking?"
"So it shall be," answered Grani Gunnar's son; "and thou shalt not need
to be better done."
"Thou repayest me," said Skarphedinn, "as one may look for from the man
that thou art. I avenged thy father, and thou settest most store by that
duty which is farthest from thee."
Then the women threw whey on the fire, and quenched it as fast as they
lit it. Some, too, brought water, or slops.
Then Kol Thorstein's son said to Flosi--
"A plan comes into my mind; I have seen a loft over the hall among the
crosstrees, and we will put the fire in there, and light it with the
vetch-stack that stands just above the house."
Then they took the vetch-stack and set fire to it, and they who were
inside were not aware of it till the whole hall was ablaze over their
heads.
Then Flosi and his men made a great pile before each of the doors, and
then the women folk who were inside began to weep and to wail.
Njal spoke to them and said, "Keep up your hearts, nor utter shrieks,
for this is but a passing storm, and it will be long before ye have
another such; and put your faith in God, and believe that He is so
merciful that He will not let us burn both in this world and the next."
Such words of comfort had he for them all, and others still more strong.
Now the whole house began to blaze. Then Njal went to the door and
said--
"Is Flosi so near that he can hear my voice?"
Flosi said that he could hear it.
"Wilt thou," said Njal, "take an atonement from my sons, or allow any
men to go out?"
"I will not," answers Flosi, "take any atonement from thy sons, and now
our dealings shall come to an end once for all, and I will not stir from
this spot till they are all dead; but I will allow the women and
children and house-carles to go out."
Then Njal went into the house, and said to the folk--
"Now all those must go out to whom leave is given, and so go thou out
Thorhalla Asgrim's daughter, and all the people also with thee who may."
Then Thorhalla said--
"This is another parting between me and Helgi than I thought of a while
ago; but still I will egg on my father and brothers to avenge this
manscathe which is wrought here."
"Go, and good go with thee," said Njal, "for thou art a brave woman."
After that she went out and much folk with her.
Then Astrid of Deepback said to Helgi Njal's son--
"Come thou out with me, and I will throw a woman's cloak over thee, and
tire thy head with a kerchief."
He spoke against it at first, but at last he did so at the prayer of
others.
So Astrid wrapped the kerchief round Helgi's head, but Thorhilda,
Skarphedinn's wife, threw the cloak over him, and he went out between
them, and then Thorgerda Njal's daughter, and Helga her sister, and many
other folk went out too.
But when Helgi came out Flosi said--
"That is a tall woman and broad across the shoulders that went yonder,
take her and hold her."
But when Helgi heard that, he cast away the cloak. He had got his sword
under his arm, and hewed at a man, and the blow fell on his shield and
cut off the point of it, and the man's leg as well. Then Flosi came up
and hewed at Helgi's neck, and took off his head at a stroke.
Then Flosi went to the door and called out to Njal, and said he would
speak with him and Bergthora.
Now Njal does so, and Flosi said--
"I will offer thee, master Njal, leave to go out, for it is unworthy
that thou shouldst burn indoors."
"I will not go out," said Njal, "for I am an old man, and little fitted
to avenge my sons, but I will not live in shame."
Then Flosi said to Bergthora--
"Come thou out, housewife, for I will for no sake burn thee indoors."
"I was given away to Njal young," said Bergthora, "and I have promised
him this, that we would both share the same fate."
After that they both went back into the house.
"What counsel shall we now take?" said Bergthora.
"We will go to our bed," says Njal, "and lay us down; I have long been
eager for rest."
Then she said to the boy Thord, Kari's son--
"Thee will I take out, and thou shalt not burn in here."
"Thou hast promised me this, grandmother," says the boy, "that we should
never part so long as I wished to be with thee; but methinks it is much
better to die with thee and Njal than to live after you."
Then she bore the boy to her bed, and Njal spoke to his steward and
said--
"Now shalt thou see where we lay us down, and how I lay us out, for I
mean not to stir an inch hence, whether reek or burning smart me, and so
thou wilt be able to guess where to look for our bones."
He said he would do so.
There had been an ox slaughtered and the hide lay there. Njal told the
steward to spread the hide over them, and he did so.
So there they lay down both of them in their bed, and put the boy
between them. Then they signed themselves and the boy with the cross,
and gave over their souls into God's hand, and that was the last word
that men heard them utter.
Then the steward took the hide and spread it over them, and went out
afterwards. Kettle of the Mark caught hold of him, and dragged him out,
he asked carefully after his father-in-law Njal, but the steward told
him the whole truth. Then Kettle said--
"Great grief hath been sent on us, when we have had to share such
ill-luck together."
Skarphedinn saw how his father laid him down, and how he laid himself
out, and then he said--
"Our father goes early to bed, and that is what was to be looked for,
for he is an old man."
Then Skarphedinn, and Kari, and Grim, caught the brands as fast as they
dropped down, and hurled them out at them, and so it went on a while.
Then they hurled spears in at them, but they caught them all as they
flew, and sent them back again.
Then Flosi bade them cease shooting, "for all feats of arms will go hard
with us when we deal with them; ye may well wait till the fire overcomes
them".
So they do that, and shoot no more.
Then the great beams out of the roof began to fall, and Skarphedinn
said--
"Now must my father be dead, and I have neither heard groan nor cough
from him."
Then they went to the end of the hall, and there had fallen down a
cross-beam inside which was much burnt in the middle.
Kari spoke to Skarphedinn, and said--"Leap thou out here, and I will
help thee to do so, and I will leap out after thee, and then we shall
both get away if we set about it so, for hitherward blows all the
smoke."
"Thou shalt leap first," said Skarphedinn; "but I will leap straightway
on thy heels."
"That is not wise," says Kari, "for I can get out well enough elsewhere,
though it does not come about here."
"I will not do that," says Skarphedinn; "leap thou out first, but I will
leap after thee at once."
"It is bidden to every man," says Kari, "to seek to save his life while
he has a choice, and I will do so now; but still this parting of ours
will be in such wise that we shall never see one another more; for if I
leap out of the fire, I shall have no mind to leap back into the fire to
thee, and then each of us will have to fare his own way."
"It joys me, brother-in-law," says Skarphedinn, "to think that if thou
gettest away thou wilt avenge me."
Then Kari took up a blazing bench in his hand, and runs up along the
cross-beam, then he hurls the bench out at the roof, and it fell among
those who were outside.
Then they ran away, and by that time all Kari's upper-clothing and his
hair were ablaze, then he threw himself down from the roof, and so crept
along with the smoke.
Then one man said who was nearest--
"Was that a man that leapt out at the roof?"
"Far from it," says another; "more likely it was Skarphedinn who hurled
a firebrand at us."
After that they had no more mistrust.
Kari ran till he came to a stream, and then, he threw himself down into
it, and so quenched the fire on him.
After that he ran along under shelter of the smoke into a hollow, and
rested him there, and that has since been called Kari's Hollow.