University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER XLVII. GRETTIR COMES OUT TO ICELAND AGAIN.

[Songs extracted from the prose narrative.]

[“Heavy tidings thick and fast]

[Grettir.]
“Heavy tidings thick and fast
On the singer now are cast;
My father dead, my brother dead,
A price set upon my head;
Yet, O grove of Hedin's maid,
May these things one day be paid;
Yea upon another morn
Others may be more forlorn.”

[“One that helm-fire well can wield]

[Grettir.]

Then he took horse and rode after him; Grettir rode on till he came up to the homestead at Kropp; there he met a man called Hall, who said that he was going down to the ship at the Wolds; Grettir sang a stave:

[“Sawest thou him who did me harm]

[Svein.]
“Sawest thou him who did me harm
On my horse by yonder farm?
Even such an one was he,
Sluggish yet a thief to see;
From the neighbours presently
Doom of thief shall he abye
And a blue skin shall he wear,
If his back I come anear.”

[“Say to guard of deep-sea's flame]

[Grettir.]
“Say to guard of deep-sea's flame
That here worm-land's haunter came;
Well-born goddess of red gold,
Thus let gamesome rhyme be told:
‘Giver forth of Odin's mead,
Of thy black mare have I need;
For to Gilsbank will I ride,
Meed of my rash words to bide.’”

[“What foreteller of spear-shower]

[Svein.]
“What foreteller of spear-shower
E'en within this nigh-passed hour,
Swift through the rough weather rode
Past the gate of this abode?
He, the hound-eyed reckless one,
By all good deeds left alone,
Surely long upon this day
From my hands will flee away.”

[“Who rode on my mare away?]

[Svein.]
“Who rode on my mare away?
What is that which thou wilt pay?
Who a greater theft has seen?
What does the cowl-covered mean?”

[“I did ride thy mare to Grim]

[Grettir.]
“I did ride thy mare to Grim
(Thou art feeble weighed with him),
Little will I pay to thee,
Yet good fellows let us be.”