Grettir went over the Thorskafjord Heath to Langadal, where he let his
hands sweep over the property of the smaller cultivators, taking what
he wanted from every one. From some he got weapons, from others clothes.
They gave up their property very variously, but when he was gone all
said that they had been compelled to do it.
There dwelt on the Vatnsfjord one Vermund the Slender, a brother of
Viga-Styr, who had married Thorbjorg the daughter of Olaf Peacock, the
son of Hoskuld, called Thorbjorg the Fat. At the time when Grettir was
in Langadal Vermund was away at the Thing. He went across the ridge
to Laugabol where a man named Helgi was living, one of the principal
bondis. Thence Grettir took a good horse belonging to the bondi and rode
on to Gervidal, where dwelt a man named Thorkell. He was well provided
but in a small way of business. Grettir took from him what he wanted,
Thorkell daring neither to withhold anything nor to protest. Thence
Grettir went to Eyr and on to the coast of the fjord, obtaining food and
clothes from every homestead and making himself generally disagreeable,
so that men found it hard to live while he was about.
Grettir went boldly on, taking little care of himself. He went on until
he came to Vatnsfjardardal and entered a dairy shelter, where he
stayed several nights. There he lay sleeping in the forest, fearing
for nothing. When the shepherds learned of it they reported in the
homesteads that a fiend had come into the place who they thought would
be hard to deal with. All the farmers came together and a band of thirty
of them concealed themselves in the forest where Grettir could not know
of them. They set one of the shepherds to watch for an opportunity of
seizing him, without however knowing very clearly who the man was.
One day when Grettir was lying asleep the farmers came up to him.
They considered how they should take him with least danger to
themselves, and arranged that ten should fall upon him while others
laid bonds round his feet. They threw themselves on to him, but Grettir
struggled so violently that he threw them all off and came down on his
hands and knees. Then they threw ropes round his feet. Grettir kicked
two of them in the ears and they fell senseless. One came on after the
other; long and hard he struggled, but at last they succeeded in getting
him down and binding him. Then they began to ask themselves what they
were going to do with him. They asked Helgi of Laugabol to take him over
and look after him until Vermund returned from the Thing.
He said: "I have something better to do than to keep my men guarding
him. I have labour enough with my lands, and he shall not come in my
way."
Then they asked Thorkell of Gervidal to take him and said he had
sufficient means. He objected strongly and said he had no accommodation
for him, "I lie at home with my wife, far from other men. You shall not
bring your basket to me."
"Then you, Thoralf of Eyr," they said; "you take Grettir and look after
him well while the Thing lasts, or else hand him on to the next farm;
only be answerable for his not escaping. Give him over bound, just as
you receive him."
He said: "I am not going to take Grettir. I have neither means nor money
to keep him, nor was he captured on my property. So far as I can see
much more trouble than credit is to be got by taking him or having
anything to do with him. He shall not enter my house."
Each of the bondis was asked, but all refused. Some witty person wrote a
poem about these confabulations and called it "Grettir's Faring," adding
many jests of his own for the dilectification of men. After parleying
for a long time they all came to an agreement that they would not throw
away their luck, and set to work to raise a gallows there and then
in the forest upon which Grettir should hang. Their delight over this
proposal was uproarious.
Then they saw three people riding along the valley from below, one
of them in a dyed dress. They guessed that it must be Thorbjorg the
mistress of Vatnsfjord on her way to the dairy, and so it was. Thorbjorg
was a person of great magnificence, and tremendously wise. She was the
leading personage of the district and managed everything when Vermund
was away. She came up to where the crowd was gathered and was lifted
from her horse; the bondis saluted her respectfully. She said:
"What is your meeting about? Who is this thick-necked man sitting there
in bonds?"
Grettir told his name and saluted her.
"What has moved you, Grettir," she said, "to commit violence upon my
Thing-men?"
"I cannot overlook everything," he said. "I must be somewhere."
"You are indeed unfortunate," she said, "that a pack of churls like
these should have captured you and that none of them should have paid
for it. What are you men going to do with him?"
The bondis said that they were going to hoist him on to a gallows for
his misdeeds.
She said: "It may be that Grettir has deserved it, but it will bring
trouble upon you men of Isafjord if you take the life of a man so
renowned and so highly connected as Grettir, ill-starred though he be.
Now what will you do for your life, Grettir, if I give it to you?"
"What do you wish me to do?"
"You shall swear never to commit any violence here in Isafjord; nor
shall you take revenge upon those who have had a hand in capturing you."
Grettir said it should be as she desired, and he was released. He said
it was the greatest effort of self-restraint that he ever made that he
did not thrash the men who were there triumphing over him. Thorbjorg
told him to come home with her and gave him a horse to ride on. So he
went to Vatnsfjord and stayed there well cared for by the mistress until
Vermund returned. She gained great renown from this deed through the
district. Vermund was very much put out when he got home and asked why
Grettir was there. Thorbjorg told him everything which had happened with
the Isafjord men.
"To what does he owe it that you gave him his life?" he asked.
"Many reasons there were," she said. "The first is that you might be the
more respected as a chief for having a wife who would dare to do such a
thing. Next, his kinswoman Hrefna will surely say that I could not let
him be slain; and thirdly, because he is in many respects a man of the
highest worth."
"You are a wise woman," he said, "in most things. I thank you for what
you have done."
Then he said to Grettir: "You have sold yourself very cheap, such a man
of prowess as you are, to let yourself be taken by churls. This is what
always happens to those who cannot control themselves."
Grettir then spoke a verse:
"Full was my cup in Isafjord
when the old swine held me at ransom."
"What were they going to do with you when they took you?" Vermund asked.
"To Sigar's lot my neck was destined
when noble Thorbjorg came upon them."
"Would they have hanged you then if they had been left to themselves?"
"My neck would soon have been in the noose,
had she not wisely saved the bard."
"Did she invite you to her home?"
"She bade me home with her to fare.
A steed she gave me, life and peace."
"Great will your life be and troublous," said Vermund; "but now you
have learnt to beware of your foes. I cannot keep you here, for it would
rouse the enmity of many powerful men against me. Your best way is to
seek your kinsmen; there are not many who will be willing to take you in
if they can do anything else; nor are you one who will easily follow the
will of another man."
Grettir remained for a time in Vatnsfjord and went thence to the Western
fjords and tried several of the leading men there, but something always
happened to prevent their taking him in.