There dwelt at Reydarfell on the banks of the Hvita a man named Haflidi,
a mariner, owning a ship of his own which was lying in dock in the Hvita
river. He had as his mate a man named Bard who had a young and pretty
wife. Asmund sent a man to Haflidi asking him to take Grettir and look
after him. Haflidi answered that he had heard that Grettir was very
difficult to get on with, but out of friendship for Asmund he took him.
Grettir, therefore, prepared to go to sea. His father would not give
him any outfit for his voyage beyond his bare provisions and a little
wadmal. Grettir asked him to give him some sort of weapon. Asmund
answered: "You have never been obedient to me. Nor do I know what you
would do with a weapon that would be of any profit. I shall not give you
any."
Grettir said: "Work not done needs no reward."
Father and son parted with little love between them. Many wished him a
good voyage, but few a safe return. His mother went with him along the
road. Before they parted she said: "You have not been sent off in the
way that I should have wished, my son, or in a way befitting your birth.
The most cruel thing of all, I think, is that you have not a weapon
which you can use. My heart tells me that you will want one."
Then she took from under her mantle a sword all ready for use, a
valuable possession. She said: "This was the sword of Jokull, my
father's father and of the ancient Vatnsdal men, in whose hands it was
blessed with victory. I give it to you; use it well."
Grettir thanked her warmly and said it would be more precious to him
than any other possession though of greater value. Then he went on his
way and Asdis wished him all possible happiness. He rode South over the
heath and did not stop till he reached his ship. Haflidi received him
well and asked him about his outfit for the voyage. Grettir spoke a
verse:
"Oh trimmer of sails I my father is wealthy,
but poorly enough he sent me from home.
My mother it was who gave me this sword.
True is the saying: The mother is best."
Haflidi said it was evident that she had most thought for him.
Directly they were ready and had a wind they got under way. When they
were out of shallow water they hoisted their sail. Grettir made himself
a corner under the ship's boat, whence he refused to stir either to bale
or to trim the sails or to do any work in the ship, as it was his duty
to do equally with the other men; nor would he buy himself off. They
sailed to the South, rounded Reykjanes and left the land behind them,
when they met with stormy weather. The ship was rather leaky and became
very uneasy in the gale; the crew were very much exhausted. Grettir only
let fly satirical verses at them, which angered them sorely.
One day when it was very stormy and very cold the men called out to
Grettir to get up and work; they said their claws were quite frozen. He
answered:
"Twere well if every finger were froze
on the hands of such a lubberly crew."
They got no work out of him and liked him even worse than before,
and said they would pay him out on his person for his squibs and his
mutinous behaviour.
"You like better," they said, "to pat the belly of Bard the mate's wife
than to bear a hand in the ship. But we don't mean to stand it."
The weather grew steadily worse; they had to bale night and day, and
they threatened Grettir. Haflidi when he heard them went up to Grettir
and said: "I don't think your relations with the crew are very good. You
are mutinous and make lampoons about them, and they threaten to pitch
you overboard. This is most improper."
"Why cannot they mind their own business?" Grettir rejoined. "But I
should like one or two to remain behind with me before I go overboard."
"That is impossible," said Haflidi. "We shall never get on upon those
terms. But I will make you a proposal about it."
"What is that?"
"The thing which annoys them is that you make lampoons about them. Now
I suggest that you make a lampoon about me. Then, perhaps, they will
become better disposed towards you."
"About you I will never utter anything but good," said he. "I am not
going to compare you with the sailors."
"But you might compose a verse which should at first appear foul, but on
closer view prove to be fair."
"That," he answered, "I am quite equal to."
Haflidi then went to the sailors and said: "You have much toil; and it
seems that you don't get on with Grettir."
"His lampoons," they answered, "annoy us more than anything else."
Then Haflidi, speaking loud, said: "It will be the worse for him some
day."
Grettir, when he heard himself being denounced, spoke a verse:
"Other the words that Haflidi spake
when he dined on curds at Reydarfell.
But now two meals a day he takes
in the steed of the bays mid foreland shores."
The sailors were very angry and said he should not lampoon Haflidi for
nothing. Haflidi said: "Grettir certainly deserves that you should take
him down a little, but I am not going to risk my good name because of
his ill-temper and caprice. This is not the time to pay him out, when we
are all in such danger. When you get on shore you can remember it if you
like."
"Shall we not endure what you can endure?" they said. "Why should a
lampoon hurt us more than it does you?"
Haflidi said so it should be, and after that they cared less about
Grettir's lampoons.
The voyage was long and fatiguing. The ship sprung a leak, and the
men began to be worn out. The mate's young wife was in the habit of
stitching Grettir's sleeves for him, and the men used to banter him
about it. Haflidi went up to Grettir where he was lying and said:
"Arise from thy den! deep furrows we plough!
Remember the word thou didst speak to the fair.
Thy garment she sewed; but now she commands
that thou join in the toil while the land is afar."
Grettir got up at once and said:
"I will rise, though the ship be heavily rolling.
The woman is vexed that I sleep in my den.
She will surely be wrath if here I abide
while others are toiling at work that is mine."
Then he hurried aft where they were baling and asked what they wanted
him to do. They said he would do little good. He replied: "A man's help
is something." Haflidi told them not to refuse his help. "Maybe," he
said, "he is thinking of loosening his hands if he offers his services."
In those days in sea-going ships there were no scuppers for baling; they
only had what is called bucket or pot-baling, a very troublesome and
fatiguing process. There were two buckets, one of which went down while
the other came up. The men told Grettir to take the buckets down, and
said they would try what he could do. He said the less tried the better,
and went below and filled his bucket. There were two men above to
empty the buckets as he handed them. Before long they both gave in
from fatigue. Then four others took their places, but the same thing
happened. Some say that before they were done eight men were engaged
in emptying the buckets for him. At last the ship was baled dry. After
this, the seamen altered their behaviour towards Grettir, for they
realised the strength which was in him. From that time on he was ever
the forwardest to help wherever he was required.
They now held an easterly course out to sea. It was very dark. One night
when they least expected it, they struck a rock and the lower part of
the ship began to fill. The boats were got out and the women put into
them with all the loose property. There was an island a little way off,
whither they carried as much of their property as they could get off in
the night. When the day broke, they began to ask where they were. Some
of them who had been about the country before recognised the coast of
Sunnmore in Norway. There was an island lying a little off the mainland
called Haramarsey, with a large settlement and a farm belonging to the
Landman on it.