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CHAPTER XVIII
THEN Bárd set his suit on foot, and when Vigfuss
knew it, he told his father that he should not like proceedings for a
theft to be commenced against his foster-father. Glum’s answer was, "You
know he is not to be trusted, and it will not be a popular thing to swear
him guiltless." Vigfuss said, "Then I would rather that we had to deal
with a matter of greater consequence." Glum replied, "It seems to me better
to pay something on his account and let him change his residence and come
hither, than to risk my credit for a man of his character."
When men came up to the
Thing, the case was brought on in court, and Glum had to swear one way
or the other with his twelve men. Vigfuss became aware of the fact that
his father intended to find Hallvard guilty, so he went to the court and
said that he would take care Glum should pay dearly for it, if his foster-father
was declared guilty. It ended in Glum quashing the suit by swearing that
Hallvard was innocent, and he got discredit by doing so. In the course
of a winter or two it happened that Halli lost a pig of his, which was
so fat that it could hardly get on its legs. Bárd came in one day and
asked if he pig had been killed, and Halli said it had disappeared. Bárd
replied, "he is gone, no doubt, to look for the sheep which were stolen
last autumn." "I suppose," said Halli, "they are both gone the same way.
Will you summon Hallvard?" "Well," replied Bárd, "so it shall be, for
I do not think Glum will this time swear Hallvard free; Vigfuss was the
cause of he previous acquittal, and he is not now in the country." Bárd
took up the case and proceeded to serve the summons; but when he met Hallvard
he made a short matter of the suit by cutting of his head, and went and
told his father. Halli did not like it; he straightway found Glum, told
him what had happened, and offered to leave the matter in his hands. Glum
accepted the offer, assessed the damage at a small sum, and caused the
pig and the sheep to be paid for, by doing which he was well spoken of.
When Vigfuss returned he was displeased at Hallvard’s death; but his father
said, "I shall not allow this settlement to be disturbed now it is made;"
and when Vigfuss and Bárd met nothing passed between them.
The next summer there
was a meeting appointed for a horse-fight, in which all the horses in
that district were to be fought; those from the upper against those from
the lower "rape," 1 and either party
were to select their man as umpire to decide which had the best of it.
The judgment of the men thus chosen was to be abided by. From the upper
"rape" Bárd was taken, and from the lower Vigfuss, the son of Glum. There
were many horses, and the sport was good, but the fight was pretty equal,
and many matches came off, with the result however that the number of
those which fought well, and those which bolted was the same. so they
agreed that it was an equal match; but Vigfuss said he had a horse which
had not fought, which was the best on the ground that day. "Come," said
he, "do you match some one with him." Bárd answered, "He looks a poor
beast to us, we will not match any horse with him; let us say it is a
tie." "Oh," replied Vigfuss, "the fact is you have none to meet him, but
you do not choose to own that you have got the worst of it." "Up to this
time," said Bárd, "You have acted impartially, but now the sky is clouding
over. Now we see the truth, that you have stood by your mother at the
dresser in the pantry, and talked about cooking oftener than you have
been at horse-fights, and that is the reason why your beard has never
got any colour in it." Vigfuss and other people laughed at this joke.
Halli’s servant came home,
and his mater asked him about the horse-fights. He said the match was
held to be "a tie." Then Halli asked, "Did Bárd and Vigfuss agree?" "Yes,
pretty well, but Bárd said one thing to Vigfuss." "What was that?" he
inquired; then the servant repeated it, and Halli said, "That will lead
to mischief." The servant said, "Vigfuss laughed at it." "Yes, but it
is the way of Glum and his son to laugh when the fit for killing somebody
comes upon them."
When Halli and Bárd met,
the former asked his son, "How came you to talk in that reckless way?
I fear it will lead to great evil. You have but one thing to do, and that
is to go abroad and get house timber; you must stay away three winters
or your death is certain." Bárd answered, "There is nothing in it if you
were not a coward, but old age causes you to be afraid on account of your
sons." "You are no doubt a very brave fellow," said Halli, "but you will
find it difficult to stay in the district." So Bárd took his father’s
advice and went abroad, and Halli bribed a vagrant fellow to go into Skagafirth,
or to the westward of it, and tell the story how Bárd was gone away; and
how for the sake of one word, on account of Glum and his son, the only
safe course for him had been to become an exile; and ho no one in the
district dared to do anything which they disliked. This fellow did what
Halli wished, and they had recourse to this plan in order that Bárd’s
kinsmen might not be molested for his sake. Bárd stopped out one winter,
and then returned to his home.
Footnotes
1 The Icelandic
word is Hreppr--and I have translated it by the word still retained
in "The Rape of Bramber."
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Chapter XVIII
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