<i>Of Grettir's voyage out</i>.
There was a man called Haflidi, who dwelt at Reydarfell in
Whiteriverside, he was a seafaring man and had a sailing ship, which
lay up Whiteriver: there was a man on board his ship, hight Bard,
who had a wife with him young and fair. Asmund sent a man to Haflidi,
praying him to take Grettir and look after him; Haflidi said that he
had heard that the man was ill ruled of mood; yet for the sake of the
friendship between him and Asmund he took Grettir to himself, and made
ready for sailing abroad.
Asmund would give to his son no faring-goods but victuals for the
voyage and a little wadmall. Grettir prayed him for some weapon, but
Asmund answered, "Thou hast not been obedient to me, nor do I know
how far thou art likely to work with weapons things that may be of any
gain; and no weapon shalt thou have of me."
"<i>No deed no reward</i>," says Grettir. Then father and son parted
with little love. Many there were who bade Grettir farewell, but few
bade him come back.
But his mother brought him on his road, and before they parted she
spoke thus, "Thou art not fitted out from home, son, as I fain would
thou wert, a man so well born as thou; but, meseems, the greatest
shortcoming herein is that thou hast no weapons of any avail, and my
mind misgives me that thou wilt perchance need them sorely."
With that she took out from under her cloak a sword well wrought,
and a fair thing it was, and then she said, "This sword was owned
by Jokul, my father's father, and the earlier Waterdale men, and it
gained them many a day; now I give thee the sword, and may it stand
thee in good stead."
Grettir thanked her well for this gift, and said he deemed it better
than things of more worth; then he went on his way, and Asdis wished
him all good hap.
Now Grettir rode south over the heath, and made no stay till he came
to the ship. Haflidi gave him a good welcome and asked him for his
faring-goods, then Grettir sang--
"Rider of wind-driven steed,
Little gat I to my need,
When I left my fair birth-stead,
From the snatchers of worm's bed;
But this man's-bane hanging here,
Gift of woman good of cheer,
Proves the old saw said not ill,
<i>Best to bairn is mother still</i>."
Haflidi said it was easily seen that she thought the most of him. But
now they put to sea when they were ready, and had wind at will; but
when they had got out over all shallows they hoisted sail.
Now Grettir made a den for himself under the boat, from whence he
would move for nought, neither for baling, nor to do aught at the
sail, nor to work at what he was bound to work at in the ship in even
shares with the other men, neither would he buy himself off from the
work.
Now they sailed south by Reekness and then south from the land; and
when they lost land they got much heavy sea; the ship was somewhat
leaky, and scarce seaworthy in heavy weather, therefore they had it
wet enough. Now Grettir let fly his biting rhymes, whereat the men
got sore wroth. One day, when it so happened that the weather was both
squally and cold, the men called out to Grettir, and bade him now do
manfully, "For," said they, "now our claws grow right cold." Grettir
looked up and said--
"Good luck, scurvy starvelings, if I should behold
Each finger ye have doubled up with the cold."
And no work they got out of him, and now it misliked them of their
lot as much again as before, and they said that he should pay with his
skin for his rhymes and the lawlessness which he did. "Thou art more
fain," said they, "of playing with Bard the mate's wife than doing thy
duty on board ship, and this is a thing not to be borne at all."
The gale grew greater steadily, and now they stood baling for days and
nights together, and all swore to kill Grettir. But when Haflidi heard
this, he went up to where Grettir lay, and said, "Methinks the bargain
between thee and the chapmen is scarcely fair; first thou dost by them
unlawfully, and thereafter thou castest thy rhymes at them; and now
they swear that they will throw thee overboard, and this is unseemly
work to go on."
"Why should they not be free to do as they will?" says Grettir; "but I
well would that one or two of them tarry here behind with me, or ever
I go overboard."
Haflidi says, "Such deeds are not to be done, and we shall never
thrive if ye rush into such madness; but I shall give thee good rede."
"What is that?" says Grettir.
"They blame thee for singing ill things of them; now, therefore, I
would that thou sing some scurvy rhyme to me, for then it might be
that they would bear with thee the easier."
"To thee I never sing but good," says Grettir: "I am not going to make
thee like these starvelings."
"One may sing so," says Haflidi, "that the lampoon be not so foul when
it is searched into, though at first sight it be not over fair."
"I have ever plenty of that skill in me," says Grettir.
Then Haflidi went to the men where they were baling, and said, "Great
is your toil, and no wonder that ye have taken ill liking to Grettir."
"But his lampoons we deem worse than all the rest together," they
said.
Haflidi said in a loud voice, "He will surely fare ill for it in the
end."