Gudmund. Thorkel said there was no man in Iceland with whom he
would not fight in single combat, or yield an inch to, if need
were. He was called Thorkel Foulmouth, because he spared no one
with whom he had to do either in word or deed.
ENDNOTES:
(1) Hafr was the son of Thorkel, the son of Eric of Gooddale,
the son of Geirmund, the son of Hroald, the son of Eric
Frizzlebeard who felled Gritgarth in Soknardale in Norway.
(2) Thorkel was the son of Thorgeir the Priest, the son of
Tjorfi, the son of Thorkel the Long; but the mother of
Thorgeir was Thoruna, the daughter of Thorstein, the son of
Sigmund, son of Bard of the Nip. The mother of Thorkel
Foulmouth was named Gudrida; she was a daughter of Thorkel
the B1ack of Hleidrargarth, the son of Thorir Tag, the son
of Kettle the Seal, the son of Ornolf, the son of Bjornolf,
the son of Grim Hairycheek, the son of Kettle Haeing, the
son of Hallbjorn Halftroll.
(3) “Baltic side.” This probably means a part of the Finnish
coast in the Gulf of Bothnia. See “Fornm. Sogur”, xii.
264-5.
(4) “Wild man of the woods.” In the original Finngalkn, a
fabulous monster, half man and half beast.
119. OF SKARPHEDINN AND THORKEL FOULMOUTH
Asgrim and his fellows went to Thorkel Foulmouth’s booth, and
Asgrim said then to his companions, “This booth Thorkel Foulmouth
owns, a great champion, and it were worth much to us to get
his-help. We must here take heed in everything, for he is self-willed and bad tempered; and now I will beg thee, Skarphedinn,
not to let thyself be led into our talk.”
Skarphedinn smiled at that. He was so clad, he had on a blue
kirtle and grey breeks, and black shoes on his feet, coming high
up his leg; he had a silver belt about him, and that same axe in
his hand with which he slew Thrain, and which he called the
“ogress of war,” a round buckler, and a silken band round his
brow, and his hair brushed back behind his ears. He was the most
soldierlike of men, and by that all men knew him. He went in
his appointed place, and neither before nor behind.
Now they went into the booth and into its inner chamber. Thorkel
sate in the middle of the crossbench, and his men away from him
on all sides. Asgrim hailed him, and Thorkel took the greeting
well, and Asgrim said to him, “For this have we come hither, to
ask help of thee, and that thou wouldst come to the Court with
us.”
“What need can ye have of my help,” said Thorkel, “when ye have
already gone to Gudmund; he must surely have promised thee his
help?”
“We could not get his help,” says Asgrim.
“Then Gudmund thought the suit likely to make him foes,” said
Thorkel; “and so no doubt it will be, for such deeds are the
worst that have ever been done; nor do I know what can have
