<i>Of Grettir and Biorn and the Bear</i>.
There was a man, hight Biorn, who was dwelling with Thorkel; he was
a man of rash temper, of good birth, and somewhat akin to Thorkel; he
was not well loved of men, for he would slander much those who were
with Thorkel, and in this wise he sent many away. Grettir and he
had little to do together; Biorn thought him of little worth weighed
against himself, but Grettir was unyielding, so that things fell
athwart between them. Biorn was a mightily boisterous man, and made
himself very big; many young men gat into fellowship with him in these
things, and would stray abroad by night. Now it befell, that early in
winter a savage bear ran abroad from his winter lair, and got so grim
that he spared neither man nor beast. Men thought he had been roused
by the noise that Biorn and his fellows had made. The brute got so
hard to deal with that he tore down the herds of men, and Thorkel
had the greatest hurt thereof, for he was the richest man in the
neighbourhood.
Now one day Thorkel bade his men to follow him, and search for the
lair of the bear. They found it in sheer sea-rocks; there was a high
rock and a cave before it down below, but only one track to go up to
it: under the cave were scarped rocks, and a heap of stones down by
the sea, and sure death it was to all who might fall down there. The
bear lay in his lair by day, but went abroad as soon as night fell; no
fold could keep sheep safe from him, nor could any dogs be set on
him: and all this men thought the heaviest trouble. Biorn, Thorkel's
kinsman, said that the greatest part had been done, as the lair had
been found. "And now I shall try," said he, "what sort of play we[10]
namesakes shall have together." Grettir made as if he knew not what
Biorn said on this matter.
[Footnote 10: Biorn is Icelandic for bear.]
Now it happened always when men went to sleep anights that Biorn
disappeared: and one night when Biorn went to the lair, he was aware
that the beast was there before him, and roaring savagely. Biorn lay
down in the track, and had over him his shield, and was going to wait
till the beast should stir abroad as his manner was. Now the bear had
an inkling of the man, and got somewhat slow to move off. Biorn waxed
very sleepy where he lay, and cannot wake up, and just at this time
the beast betakes himself from his lair; now he sees where the man
lies, and, hooking at him with his claw, he tears from him the shield
and throws it down over the rocks. Biorn started up suddenly awake,
takes to his legs and runs home, and it was a near thing that the
beast gat him not. This his fellows knew, for they had spies about
Biorn's ways; in the morning they found the shield, and made the
greatest jeering at all this.
At Yule Thorkel went himself, and eight of them altogether, and there
was Grettir and Biorn and other followers of Thorkel. Grettir had on
a fur-cloak, which he laid aside while they set on the beast. It was
awkward for an onslaught there, for thereat could folk come but by
spear-thrusts, and all the spear-points the bear turned off him with
his teeth. Now Biorn urged them on much to the onset, yet he himself
went not so nigh as to run the risk of any hurt. Amid this, when men
looked least for it, Biorn suddenly seized Grettir's coat, and cast it
into the beast's lair. Now nought they could wreak on him, and had
to go back when the day was far spent. But when Grettir was going, he
misses his coat, and he could see that the bear has it cast under him.
Then he said, "What man of you has wrought the jest of throwing my
cloak into the lair?"