<i>Grettir goes to Thorhall-stead, and has to do with Glam</i>.
Grettir rode to Thorhall-stead, and the bonder gave him good welcome;
he asked whither Grettir was minded to fare, but Grettir said he would
be there that night if the bonder would have it so.
Thorhall said that he thanked him therefor, "But few have thought it
a treat to guest here for any time; thou must needs have heard what
is going on here, and I fain would that thou shouldest have no trouble
from me: but though thou shouldest come off whole thyself, that know
I for sure, that thou wilt lose thy horse, for none keeps his horse
whole who comes here."
Grettir said that horses were to be had in plenty whatsoever might hap
to this. Then Thorhall was glad that Grettir was to be there, and gave
him a hearty welcome.
Now Grettir's horse was locked up in a strong house, and they went to
sleep; and so the night slipped by, and Glam came not home.
Then said Thorhall, "Things have gone well at thy coming, for every
night is Glam wont to ride the house-roofs, or break open doors, as
thou mayest well see."
Grettir said, "Then shall one of two things be, either he shall not
hold himself back for long, or the hauntings will abate for more than
one night; I will bide here another night and see how things fare."
Thereafter they went to Grettir's horse, and nought had been tried
against it; then all seemed to the bonder to go one way.
Now is Grettir there another night, and neither came the thrall home;
that the farmer deemed very hopeful; withal he fared to see after
Grettir's horse. When the farmer came there, he found the house broken
into, but the horse was dragged out to the door, and every bone in
him broken to pieces. Thorhall told Grettir what had happed there, and
bade him save himself, "For sure is thy death if thou abidest Glam."
Grettir answered, "I must not have less for my horse than a sight of
the thrall."
The bonder said it was no boon to see him, for he was unlike any shape
of man; "but good methinks is every hour that thou art here."
Now the day goes by, and when men should go to sleep Grettir would
not put off his clothes, but lay down on the seat over against the
bonder's lock-bed. He had a drugget cloak over him, and wrapped one
skirt of it under his feet, and twined the other under his head, and
looked out through the head-opening; a seat-beam was before the seat,
a very strong one, and against this he set his feet. The door-fittings
were all broken from the outer door, but a wrecked door was now bound
thereby, and all was fitted up in the wretchedest wise. The panelling
which had been before the seat athwart the hall, was all broken away
both above and below the cross-beam; all beds had been torn out of
place, and an uncouth place it was.
Light burned in the hall through the night; and when the third part
of the night was passed, Grettir heard huge din without, and then one
went up upon the houses and rode the hall, and drave his heels against
the thatch so that every rafter cracked again.
That went on long, and then he came down from the house and went
to the door; and as the door opened, Grettir saw that the thrall
stretched in his head, which seemed to him monstrously big, and
wondrous thick cut.
Glam fared slowly when he came into the door and stretched himself
high up under the roof, and turned looking along the hall, and laid
his arms on the tie-beam, and glared inwards over the place. The
farmer would not let himself be heard, for he deemed he had had enough
in hearing himself what had gone on outside. Grettir lay quiet, and
moved no whit; then Glam saw that some bundle lay on the seat, and
therewith he stalked up the hall and griped at the wrapper wondrous
hard; but Grettir set his foot against the beam, and moved in no wise;
Glam pulled again much harder, but still the wrapper moved not at all;
the third time he pulled with both hands so hard, that he drew Grettir
upright from the seat; and now they tore the wrapper asunder between
them.
Glam gazed at the rag he held in his hand, and wondered much who might
pull so hard against him; and therewithal Grettir ran under his hands
and gripped him round the middle, and bent back his spine as hard as
he might, and his mind it was that Glam should shrink thereat; but the
thrall lay so hard on Grettir's arms, that he shrank all aback because
of Glam's strength.
Then Grettir bore back before him into sundry seats; but the
seat-beams were driven out of place, and all was broken that was
before them. Glam was fain to get out, but Grettir set his feet
against all things that he might; nathless Glam got him dragged from
out the hall; there had they a wondrous hard wrestling, because the
thrall had a mind to bring him out of the house; but Grettir saw that
ill as it was to deal with Glam within doors, yet worse would it be
without; therefore he struggled with all his might and main against
going out-a-doors.
Now Glam gathered up his strength and knit Grettir towards him when
they came to the outer door; but when Grettir saw that he might not
set his feet against that, all of a sudden in one rush he drave his
hardest against the thrall's breast, and spurned both feet against the
half-sunken stone that stood in the threshold of the door; for this
the thrall was not ready, for he had been tugging to draw Grettir to
him, therefore he reeled aback and spun out against the door, so that
his shoulders caught the upper door-case, and the roof burst asunder,
both rafters and frozen thatch, and therewith he fell open-armed aback
out of the house, and Grettir over him.
Bright moonlight was there without, and the drift was broken, now
drawn over the moon, now driven from off her; and, even as Glam fell,
a cloud was driven from the moon, and Glam glared up against her. And
Grettir himself says that by that sight only was he dismayed amidst
all that he ever saw.
Then his soul sank within him so, from all these things both from
weariness, and because he had seen Glam turn his eyes so horribly,
that he might not draw the short-sword, and lay well-nigh 'twixt home
and hell.
But herein was there more fiendish craft in Glam than in most other
ghosts, that he spake now in this wise--
"Exceeding eagerly hast thou wrought to meet me, Grettir, but no
wonder will it be deemed, though thou gettest no good hap of me; and
this must I tell thee, that thou now hast got half the strength and
manhood, which was thy lot if thou hadst not met me: now I may not
take from thee the strength which thou hast got before this; but that
may I rule, that thou shalt never be mightier than now thou art;
and nathless art thou mighty enow, and that shall many an one learn.
Hitherto hast thou earned fame by thy deeds, but henceforth will
wrongs and man-slayings fall on thee, and the most part of thy doings
will turn to thy woe and ill-hap; an outlaw shalt thou be made, and
ever shall it be thy lot to dwell alone abroad; therefore this weird I
lay on thee, ever in those days to see these eyes with thine eyes,
and thou wilt find it hard to be alone--and that shall drag thee unto
death."
Now when the thrall had thus said, the astonishment fell from Grettir
that had lain on him, and therewith he drew the short-sword and hewed
the head from Glam, and laid it at his thigh.
Then came the farmer out; he had clad himself while Glam had his spell
going, but he durst come nowhere nigh till Glam had fallen.
Thorhall praised God therefor, and thanked Grettir well for that he
had won this unclean spirit. Then they set to work and burned Glam
to cold coals, thereafter they gathered his ashes into the skin of a
beast, and dug it down whereas sheep-pastures were fewest, or the ways
of men. They walked home thereafter, and by then it had got far
on towards day; Grettir laid him down, for he was very stiff: but
Thorhall sent to the nearest farm for men, and both showed them and
told them how all things had fared.
All men who heard thereof deemed this a deed of great worth, and in
those days it was said by all that none in all the land was like to
Grettir Asmundson for great heart and prowess.
Thorhall saw off Grettir handsomely, and gave him a good horse and
seemly clothes, for those were all torn to pieces that he had worn
before; so they parted in friendly wise. Grettir rode thence to the
Ridge in Waterdale, and Thorvald received him well, and asked closely
about the struggle with Glam. Grettir told him all, and said thereto
that he had never had such a trial of strength, so long was their
struggle.
Thorvald bade him keep quiet, "Then all will go well with thee, else
wilt thou be a man of many troubles."
Grettir said that his temper had been nowise bettered by this, that he
was worse to quiet than before, and that he deemed all trouble worse
than it was; but that herein he found the greatest change, in that he
was become so fearsome a man in the dark, that he durst go nowhither
alone after nightfall, for then he seemed to see all kinds of horrors.
And that has fallen since into a proverb, that Glam lends eyes, or
gives Glamsight to those who see things nowise as they are.
But Grettir rode home to Biarg when he had done his errands, and sat
at home through the winter.