when Hauskuld saw him he wanted to turn away, then Skarphedinn
ran up to him and said, “Don’t try to turn on thy heel, Whiteness
priest,” and hews at him, and the blow came on his head, and he
fell on his knees. Hauskuld said these words when he fell, “God
help me, and forgive you!”
Then they all ran up to him and gave him wounds.
After that Mord said, “A plan comes into my mind.”
“What is that?” says Skarphedinn.
“That I shall fare home as soon as I can, but after that I will
fare up to Gritwater, and tell them the tidings, and say ‘tis an
ill deed; but I know surely that Thorgerda will ask me to give
notice of the slaying, and I will do that, for that will be the
surest way to spoil their suit. I will also send a man to Ossaby
and know how soon they take any counsel in the matter, and that
man will learn all these tidings thence, and I will make believe
that I have heard them from him.”
“Do so by all means,” says Skarphedinn.
Those brothers fared home, and Kari with them, and when they came
home they told Njal the tidings.
“Sorrowful tidings are these,” says Njal, “and such are ill to
hear, for sooth to say this grief touches me so nearly, that
methinks it were better to have lost two of my sons and that
Hauskuld lived.”
“It is some excuse for thee,” says Skarphedinn, “that thou art
an old man, and it is to be looked for that this touches thee
nearly.”
“But this,” says Njal, “no less than old age, is why I grieve,
that I know better than thou what will come after.”
“What will come after?” says Skarphedinn.
“My death,” says Njal, “and the death of my wife and of all my
sons.”
“What dost thou foretell for me?” says Kari.
“They will have hard work to go against thy good fortune, for
thou wilt be more than a match for all of them.”
This one thing touched Njal so nearly that he could never speak
of it without shedding tears.
111. OF HILDIGNNA AND MORD VALGARD’S SON
Hildigunna woke up and found that Hauskuld was away out of his
bed.
“Hard have been my dreams,” she said, “and not good; but go and
search for him, Hauskuld.”
So they searched for him about the homestead and found him not.
By that time she had dressed herself; then she goes and two men
with her, to the fence, and there they find Hauskuld slain.
Just then, too, came up Mord Valgard’s son’s shepherd, and told
her that Njal’s sons had gone down thence, “and,” he said,
“Skarphedinn called out to me and gave notice of the slaying as
done by him.”
“It were a manly deed,” she says, “if one man had been at it.”
