CHAPTER XXVI
Portents At Walls.
Now must somewhat be told about the men of that country who now come into our matter. Thorbiorn Brunison rose up early at Walls, and bade his house-carle rise with him. "To-day shall we fare to Thorgaut to the stithy, and there shall we smithy."
Now that was early, just at the sun's uprising. Thorbiorn called for their breakfast, and nought is told of what of things was brought forward, but that the goodwife set a bowl on the board. Thorbiorn cried out that he was nought well served, and he drave the bowl betwixt the shoulders of her. She turned about thereat, and cried out aloud, and was shrewish of tongue, and either was hard on the other.
"Thou hast brought that before me," said he, "wherein there is nought save blood, and a wonder it is that thou seest nothing amiss therein."
Then she answereth calmly: "I brought nought before thee which thou mightest not well eat; and none the worse do I think of the wonder thou seest, whereas it betokens that thou shalt be speedily in hell. For assuredly this will be thy fetch."
He sang a stave:
"The wealth-bearing stem that for wife we are owning,
The black coif of widowhood never shall bear
For my death; though I know that the field of the necklace
All the days of my life neath the mould would be laying:
She who filleth the ale round would give for my eating
The apples of hell-orchard. Evil unheard of!
But that wealth-bearing board now will scarcely meseemeth
Have might for the bringing this evil about."
Then she springs away, and takes a cheese-loaf and casts it down before him. But she sat on the dais on the other side and wept. Then Thorbiorn sang another stave:
"Yea, he who spurs onward the steed of the drift
Of the fair-bestroked courser of sea-roving Ati,
Hath nothing of thanks for the wife that bewails him,
While yet he fares quick on the face of the earth.
For she, the fair isle of the wrist-flame, meseemeth,
Will think it o'er irksome to have, when she flitteth
The friend of the heath-prowlers under the earth,
To speed him with heavy rain over the cheek."
"Now moreover things are shifting in uncouth fashion. Meseems as if both gable-walls have fallen away from the house, and I seem to see a mighty river running through the house from the north of the Heath; and of mould it seems to me, and of nought else tastes the cheese which I am eating."
Therewith they spring up from the board, and go to their horses and leap aback, and ride out from the garth.
Then Thorbiorn took up the word: "Dreamed have I in the night," saith he.
The house-carle asked: "What dreamedst thou?"
He said: "Methought I was standing there whereas folk were not all of one mind. And I thought I had that sword which I was wont to bear in my hand, but which as now is not at home; and straightway it brake asunder when I hewed forth with it. Methought also that I sang two staves in my sleep; and both of them I remember:
"O grove of the mote of the maidens of battle,
A dream have I dreamed me, and now will I duly
Make hard and hard woven my song-tale the noble;
'Twas the white wand of shields, of the holme of the helm-wolf,
The buckler, there brake it asunder, so deemed I,
In the place where the blood-reeds clashed bickering together,
At a meeting most seemly of him who is wonted
To seek out the haunts of the hanged for a gossip.
"O Balder, that heeds the dear lair of the dale-fish,
O how well it were if I then had been bearing
A wound-wand unflawed in the din of the welter,
Where light leaps the keel of the rim of the war-board;
And I with my head-bone unhurt in the battle.
If I bore but the brand that will bring unto death
Of the warriors of menfolk not few, but a many.
And e'en such might I hold it until my life's ending."
He who followed Thorbiorn learned both these staves as they rode.
Now Thorbiorn peers about him. "Yea," saith he, "at home lieth now the smithying stuff, or else it hath fallen down. Go thou back again and seek it; and if thou find it on the way, then fare thou to the stithy; but I will ride on ahead. But if thou find it not on the road, then fare thou to thy work."
So they sunder, but the house-carle found not the smithying stuff.
Now Thorbiorn rideth to Thorgaut his kinsman, to his stithy, and meeteth him before daymeal-tide; each greeted the other and asked for tidings, and neither had aught to tell the other.
Now it is said that those sons of Thorgaut rise up all of them, and go to the mowing of Goldmead, and they spake between themselves how fair-like the weather looked, and that Goldmead would be mown that same day; they go to the meadow, and doff their clothes and weapons.
Gisli went over the meadow awhile, and looked on that which they were minded to mow, and he took his stand and sang a stave.
He told of a dream of his, that him thought they were standing on Goldmead, and there came on them many wolves and dealt with them there, and great was the work there: "And methought I woke therewith, that I ran home to the stead."
Then they fall to work and mow a while.