NJAL'S AND BERGTHORA'S BONES FOUND.
Kari bade Hjallti to go and search for Njal's bones, "for all will
believe in what thou sayest and thinkest about them".
Hjallti said he would be most willing to bear Njal's bones to church; so
they rode thence fifteen men. They rode east over Thurso-water, and
called on men there to come with them till they had one hundred men,
reckoning Njal's neighbours.
They came to Bergthorsknoll at mid-day.
Hjallti asked Kari under what part of the house Njal might be lying, but
Kari showed them to the spot, and there was a great heap of ashes to dig
away. There they found the hide underneath, and it was as though it were
shrivelled with the fire. They raised up the hide, and lo! they were
unburnt under it. All praised God for that, and thought it was a great
token.
Then the boy was taken up who had lain between them, and of him a finger
was burnt off which he had stretched out from under the hide.
Njal was borne out, and so was Bergthora, and then all men went to see
their bodies.
Then Hjallti said--"What like look to you these bodies?"
They answered, "We will wait for thy utterance".
Then Hjallti said, "I shall speak what I say with all freedom of speech.
The body of Bergthora looks as it was likely she would look, and still
fair; but Njal's body and visage seem to me so bright that I have never
seen any dead man's body so bright as this."
They all said they thought so too.
Then they sought for Skarphedinn, and the men of the household showed
them to the spot where Flosi and his men heard the song sung, and there
the roof had fallen down by the gable, and there Hjallti said that they
should look. Then they did so, and found Skarphedinn's body there, and
he had stood up hard by the gable-wall, and his legs were burnt off him
right up to the knees, but all the rest of him was unburnt. He had
bitten through his under lip, his eyes were wide open and not swollen
nor starting out of his head; he had driven his axe into the gable-wall
so hard that it had gone in up to the middle of the blade, and that was
why it was not softened.
After that the axe was broken out of the wall, and Hjallti took up the
axe, and said--
"This is a rare weapon, and few would be able to wield it."
"I see a man," said Kari, "who shall bear the axe."
"Who is that?" says Hjallti.
"Thorgeir Craggeir," says Kari, "he whom I now think to be the greatest
man in all their family."
Then Skarphedinn was stripped of his clothes, for they were unburnt; he
had laid his hands in a cross, and the right hand uppermost. They found
marks on him; one between his shoulders and the other on his chest, and
both were branded in the shape of a cross, and men thought that he must
have burnt them in himself.
All men said that they thought that it was better to be near Skarphedinn
dead than they weened, for no man was afraid of him.
They sought for the bones of Grim, and found them in the midst of the
hall. They found, too, there, right over-against him under the side
wall, Thord Freedmanson; but in the weaving-room they found Saevuna the
carline, and three men more. In all they found there the bones of nine
souls. Now they carried the bodies to the church, and then Hjallti rode
home and Kari with him. A swelling came on Ingialld's leg, and then he
fared to Hjallti, and was healed there, but still he limped ever
afterwards.
Kari rode to Tongue to Asgrim Ellidagrim's son. By that time Thorhalla
was come home, and she had already told the tidings. Asgrim took Kari by
both hands, and bade him be there all that year. Kari said so it should
be.
Asgrim asked besides all the folk who had been in the house at
Bergthorsknoll to stay with him. Kari said that was well offered, and
said he would take it on their behalf.
Then all the folk were flitted thither.
Thorhall Asgrim's son was so startled when he was told that his
foster-father Njal was dead, and that he had been burnt in his house,
that he swelled all over, and a stream of blood burst out of both his
ears, and could not be staunched, and he fell into a swoon, and then it
was staunched.
After that he stood up, and said he had behaved like a coward, "but I
would that I might be able to avenge this which has befallen me on some
of those who burnt him".
But when others said that no one would think this a shame to him, he
said he could not stop the mouths of the people from talking about it.
Asgrim asked Kari what trust and help he thought he might look for from
those east of the rivers. Kari said that Mord Valgard's son, and
Hjallti, Skeggi's son, would yield him all the help they could, and so,
too, would Thorgeir Craggeir, and all those brothers.
Asgrim said that was great strength.
"What strength shall we have from thee?" says Kari.
"All that I can give," says Asgrim, "and I will lay down my life on it."
"So do," says Kari.
"I have also," says Asgrim, "brought Gizur the white into the suit, and
have asked his advice how we shall set about it."
"What advice did he give?" asks Kari.
"He counselled," answers Asgrim, "'that we should hold us quite still
till spring, but then ride east and set the suit on foot against Flosi
for the manslaughter of Helgi, and summon the neighbours from their
homes, and give due notice at the Thing of the suits for the burning,
and summon the same neighbours there too on the inquest before the
court. I asked Gizur who should plead the suit for manslaughter, but he
said that Mord should plead it whether he liked it or not, and now,' he
went on, 'it shall fall most heavily on him that up to this time all the
suits he has undertaken have had the worst ending. Kari shall also be
wroth whenever he meets Mord, and so, if he be made to fear on one side,
and has to look to me on the other, then he will undertake the duty.'"
Then Kari said, "We will follow thy counsel as long as we can, and thou
shalt lead us".
It is to be told of Kari that he could not sleep of nights. Asgrim woke
up one night and heard that Kari was awake, and Asgrim said--"Is it that
thou canst not sleep at night?"
Then Kari sang this song--
Bender of the bow of battle,
Sleep will not my eyelids seal,
Still my murdered messmates' bidding
Haunts my mind the livelong night;
Since the men their brands abusing
Burned last autumn guileless Njal,
Burned him house and home together,
Mindful am I of my hurt.
Kari spoke of no men so often as of Njal and Skarphedinn, and Bergthora
and Helgi. He never abused his foes, and never threatened them.