with me, and I will throw a woman’s cloak over thee, and tie thy
head with a kerchief.”
He spoke against it at first, but at last he did so at the prayer
of others.
So Astrid wrapped the kerchief round Helgi’s head, but Thorhilda,
Skarphedinn’s wife, threw the cloak over him, and he went out
between them, and then Thorgerda Njal’s daughter, and Helga her
sister, and many other folk went out too.
But when Helgi came out Flosi said, “That is a tall woman and
broad across the shoulders that went yonder, take her and hold
her.”
But when Helgi heard that, he cast away the cloak. He had got
his sword under his arm, and hewed at a man, and the blow fell on
his shield and cut off the point of it, and the man’s leg as
well. Then Flosi came up and hewed at Helgi’s neck, and took off
his head at a stroke.
Then Flosi went to the door and called out to Njal, and said he
would speak with him and Bergthora.
Now Njal does so, and Flosi said, “I will offer thee, master
Njal, leave to go out, for it is unworthy that thou shouldst burn
indoors.”
“I will not go out,” said Njal, “for I am an old man, and little
fitted to avenge my sons, but I will not live in shame.”
Then Flosi said to Bergthora, “Come thou out, housewife, for I
will for no sake burn thee indoors.”
“I was given away to Njal young,” said Bergthora, “and I have
promised him this, that we would both share the same fate.”
After that they both went back into the house.
“What counsel shall we now take,” said Bergthora.
“We will go to our bed,” says Njal, “and lay us down; I have long
been eager for rest.”
Then she said to the boy Thord, Kari’s son, “Thee will I take
out, and thou shalt not burn in here.”
“Thou hast promised me this, grandmother,” says the boy, “that we
should never part so long as I wished to be with thee; but
methinks it is much better to die with thee and Njal than to live
after you.”
Then she bore the boy to her bed, and Njal spoke to his steward
and said, “Now thou shalt see where we lay us down, and how I
lay us out, for I mean not to stir an inch hence, whether reek or
burning smart me, and so thou wilt be able to guess where to look
for our bones,”
He said he would do so.
There had been an ox slaughtered and the hide lay there. Njal
told the steward to spread the hide over them, and he did so.
So there they lay down both of them in their bed, and put the boy
between them. Then they signed themselves and the boy with the
cross, and gave over their souls into God’s hand, and that was
the last word that men heard them utter.
Then the steward took the hide and spread it over them, and went
