CHAPTER XL
Of Biorn, The Champion
Of The Broadwickers, And
His Dealings With Thurid Of Frodis-Water.
Thorleif Kimbi was two winters in Norway, and then went back to Iceland with the same chapmen as he had fared out with. They made Broadfirth and came to Daymeal-ness, and Thorleif went home to Swanfirth in the autumn, and made much of himself as his manner was.
That same summer came out to Lavahaven-mouth those brothers Biorn and Arnbiorn, and Biorn was afterwards called the Champion of the Broadwickers. Arnbiorn had by then brought home a pretty penny; and as soon as he came aland that summer he bought him land at Bank in Lavahaven, and set up house there the next spring. That winter he spent at Cnear with Thord Walleye, his brother-in-law. Arnbiorn was not a man for show, and was of few words in most matters, yet the stoutest and manliest of men in every wise. But Biorn his brother was a very stately man when he came out, and fair was his mien, for that he had shaped himself after the customs of outland chiefs. A far goodlier man was he than Arnbiorn, and in nothing of less skill than he, and in hardihood far more proven, for thereby he had gained renown in the outlands.
Now in the summer, when these were new come out, was appointed a great meeting of men north of the heath under Howebrent, in from Frodismouth. So those chapmen rode thither all of them, in coloured raiment, and when they came to the assembly, there were many there before them, and Thurid withal the goodwife of Frodis-water, and Biorn went to talk with her; and no man laid a word on them therefor, for they deemed that it was to be looked for that they should have much to say to each other, so long as it was since they met last.
Now that day men gave and took wounds, and one man from the Northcountry-men was brought to his death, and he was borne into a copse that was on the ere, and much blood ran from his wounds, and there stood a pool of blood in the copse. There was the youngling Kiartan, the son of Thurid of Frodis-water, with a little axe in his hand; he ran to the copse, and dipped the axe in the blood.
But when the folk from the south side of the heath rode south from the meeting, Thord Walleye asked Biorn how things had gone in the talk betwixt him and Thurid of Frodis-water. Biorn seemed well pleased thereabout. Then Thord asked Biorn if he had seen that day the youngling Kiartan, the son of Thurid and Thorod and them all together.
"Yea, I saw him," cried Biorn.
"In what wise didst thou deem of him?" said Thord.
Then sang Biorn this stave:
"The young tree I saw there, the eager-eyed sapling,
The youngling, the very own image of her,
That gem-bestrewn table; he ran to the tree-grove,
Whence the brook of the Wolf, even Fenrir, was welling.
They who waste wide the flame of Morn's river, meseemeth
Have been hitherto heedful to hide from the stripling
The name of the father who erewhile begat him,
He who speedeth the steeds of the streams of the Ocean."
Then said Thord: "What will Thorod now say as to which of you two owns the swain?"
Then sang Biorn yet again:
"Then the slender-sweet fir-tree of Thorod, that beareth
The fells goodly-fashioned shall find of my guessing,
That truly I guessed it -- Ah, surely the coif-field,
The snow-white of women, erewhile well hath loved me --
If so it befell that the kin-famous woman,
The table of jewels, bore son like my body
Now, whatso betideth I weary in longing
For that Valkyr of flame of the sea-flood a-roaring."
Thord said: "Yea, but it must now be thy rede to have but little to do with her, and to turn thy mind from thence whereas she is."
"Good rede," said Biorn; "yet far is it from my mind, though I have to do with somewhat over-mighty a man whereas her brother Snorri is."
"See to that thyself," said Thord; and therewithal they dropped their talk. And now Biorn went home to Combe, and there took on him the ruling of the house, because his father was by then dead. He betook himself anew to a journey north over the heath to meet Thurid that winter, and though Thorod misliked it, yet he deemed it no easy thing for him to better matters; for his mind told him how hardly he had fared whenas he had made trouble of their ways aforetime, and he saw that Biorn was now far mightier than heretofore.
But Thorod made a bargain that winter with Thorgrima Witch-face that she should bring a storm on Biorn as he went over the heath; and on a day Biorn fared to Frodis-water, and in the evening when he was ready to go home the weather waxed thick, and somewhat it rained, and he withal was rather late ready; but when he came upon the heath cold grew the weather, and the snow drave down, and so dark it was that he might not see the road before him. Then came on a storm, with such hail that he might scarce keep his feet, and his clothes, which before had got wet through, took to freezing on him, and he was so wildered withal that he knew not which way he turned; but in the night he found a cave in the rocks and went therein and abode there that night, and cold harbour he had. There sang Biorn:
"The Goddess of sea-flame, the weed-wearer, surely
Heavy-hearted would wax if of me she were wotting;
If she heard of my plight here, and how I am lying
All amidst of ill weather, the woe of the woodland.
If the Goddess of wildfire of waves did but know it,
How the heeder, the herder of yoke-beasts that labour
The field of the sea-flood, is lying alone
All starven with cold in the cave of the stone-heaps!"
And still he sang:
"With the boards was I shearing the icy cold swan-field;
From the East in the laden keel fared I erewhile;
So hard and so hard there the dear bride she drew me;
So fast and so fast in her love was I bounden.
Weary wet-worn I was as we wended thereover
The highway of waves; and now all heart-heavy
The grove of the battle in cave hath abiding
Instead of the fair woman's bolster beneath him."
Biorn was out in the cave for three days before the storm abated, and by then he left the heath it was the fourth day, and so he came home to Combe much wearied; but the home-men asked of him where he had been amidst the storm; and Biorn sang:
"Time was when my deeds neath the banner well warded
That Styrbiorn was bearing, were blazoned abroad,
Whenas Eric the Iron-coat fared in the field,
And smote down the host in the din of the spear-flight.
Now wandering, bewildered I trod the heath over,
And wended my ways in the teeth of the sleet-drift,
That was wrought but for me by the spell-working wife;
For the wide way, the waste, was o'er ill for the tracking."
So Biorn abode at home the winter through; but in the spring Arnbiorn his brother set up house at Bank in Lavahaven, while Biorn abode still at Combe, and kept a noble house.