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CHAPTER VII
GLUM sailed out to Iceland, and went home to Thverá,
where he straightway found his mother. She received him gladly, and told
him the unfairness of Sigmund and his father towards her. She bade him
however have patience, for that she was not able to cope with them. Then
he rode to the homestead, and saw that the fence ran in such a way as
to encroach on his property, and he sung these verses:--
Yes! closer than I thought, fair dame,
This hedge so green hath hemm’d us in;
Our peace at home is spoilt, and shame
Must cling to us and all our kin.
I sing it now, but in the fray
I soon shall have to draw my sword.
Too surely, whilst I’ve been away,
My land hath found a wrongful lord.
What had
occurred whilst he was absent, was that Sigmund had worried Astrida, and
evidently wanted to drive her off her land. In the autumn, before Glum
returned, Sigmund and Thorkel had lost two heifers, and supposed they
had been stolen. Their suspicions fell on the serfs of Astrida, who, they
said, had no doubt killed and eaten them off hand, and they caused these
serfs to be summoned in the spring for the theft. Now these were the best
men Astrida had, and she thought she could hardly mange her farm if they
went away. So she went to her son Thorstein, and told him what wrong Sigmund
and his father were doing her, and asked him to answer for her serfs.
"I would rather atone for them in money," she said, "than that they should
be found guilty on a false charge, and I should think it your business
now to stand before us, and to show yourself worthy of a good name." Thorstein
seemed to think that the prosecutors would so follow up the matter as
to bring the full force of their family interest to bear on it. "And if,"
said he, "these serfs are essential to your household, we had better take
such a share of the fine as will make it possible to get the money to
pay it." "Yes," she answered, "but I hear that the only atonement they
will take is one which is intended to ruin us. However, as I see there
is a little help to be got where you are, the matter must rest in their
hands."
One of the best things
about the estate at Thverá was a certain field known by the name of "the
Suregiver," which was never without a crop. It had been so arranged in
the partition of the land that either party should have this field year
and year about. Then Astrida said to Thorkel and Sigmund, "It is clear
thay you wish to push me hard, and you see that I have no one to manage
for me, but rather than give up my serfs I will leave the affair to be
settled on your own terms." They replied that was very prudent on her
part, and after consulting together they decided that they must either
declare the men guilty, or award what damages they thought proper. But
Thorstein did not stir in the case, so as to take the award out of their
hands, and they assigned to the field to themselves, as sole owners, with
the intention of getting hold of all her land, by thus depriving her of
the main prop of her housekeeping. And that very summer which was coming
on, she ought, if she had her rights, to have had the field.
Now, in the summer, when
men were gone to the Thing, and when this suit had been thus settled,
the herdsmen going round the pastures found the two heifers in a landslip,
where the snow had drifted over them early in the winter, and thus the
calumny against Astrida’s serfs was exposed. When Thorkel and Sigmund
heard that the heifers had bee found, they offered money to pay for the
field, but they refused to renounce the conveyance which had been made
of it to them. Astrida however answered that it would not be too great
a compensation for the false charge which had been go up, if she were
allowed to have what was her own. "So," said she, "I will either have
what belongs to me, or I will submit to the loss; and though there is
no one here to set the matter straight, I will wait, and I expect that
Glum will come out and put it in the right way." Sigmund replied, "It
will be a long time before he ploughs for that harvest. Why, there is
that son of yours, who is a much fitter man to help you, sitting by and
doing nothing." "Pride and wrong," said she, "often end badly, and this
may happen in your case."
It was somewhat late in
the summer when Glum came out; he stayed a little while with the ship,
and then went home with his goods. His temper and character were the same
as thy had been. He gave little sign of what he thought, and seemed as
if he did not hear what had happened whilst he was away. He slept every
day till nine o’clock, and took no thought about the management of the
farm. If they had had their right, the field would, as had been said,
have been that summer in the hands of Glum and his mother. Sigmund’s cattle
moreover did them much injury, and were to be found every morning in their
home-field.
One morning Astrida waked
Glum up, and told him that many of Sigmund’s cattle had got into their
home-field, and wanted to break in among the hay which was laid in heaps,
"and I am not active enough to drive them out, and the men are all at
work." He answered, "Well, you have not often asked me to work, and there
shall be no offence in your doing so now." So he jumped up, took his horse,
and a large stick in his hand, drove the cattle briskly off the farm,
thrashing them well till they came to the homestead of Thorkel and Sigmund,
and then he let them do what mischief they please. Thorkel was looking
after the hay and the fences that morning, and Sigmund was with the labourers.
The former called out to Glum, "You may be sure people will not stand
this at your hands--that you should damage their beasts in this way, though
you may have got some credit while you were abroad." Glum answered, "The
beasts are not injured yet, but if they come again and trespass upon us
some of them will be lamed, and you will have to make the best of it;
it is all you will get; we are not going to suffer damage by your cattle
any longer." Sigmund cried, out, "You talk big, Glum, but in our eyes
you are now just as great a simpleton as when you went away, and we shall
not regulate our affairs according to your nonsense." Glum went home,
and then a fit of laughter came upon him, and affected him in such a manner
that he turned quite pale, and tears burst from his eyes, just like large
hailstones. He was often afterwards taken in this way when the appetite
for killing some one came upon him.
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Chapter VII
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