half, in the whole. Then Glum bound himself to Hallgerda as his
betrothed, and they rode away home south; but Hauskuld was to
keep the wedding-feast at his house. And now all is quiet till
men ride to the wedding.
14. GLUM’S WEDDING
Those brothers gathered together a great company, and they were
all picked men. They rode west to the dales and came to
Hauskuldstede, and there they found a great gathering to meet
them. Hauskuld and Hrut, and their friends, filled one bench,
and the bridegroom the other. Hallgerda sat upon the cross bench
on the dais, and behaved well. Thiostolf went about with his axe
raised in air, and no one seemed to know that he was there, and
so the wedding went off well. But when the feast was over,
Hallgerda went away south with Glum and his brothers. So when
they came south to Varmalek, Thorarin asked Hallgerda if she
would undertake the housekeeping. “No, I will not,” she said.
Hallgerda kept her temper down that winter, and they liked her
well enough. But when the spring came, the brothers talked about
their property, and Thorarin said, “I will give up to you the
house at Varmalek, for that is readiest to your hand, and I will
go down south to Laugarness and live there, but Engey we will
have both of us in common.”
Glum was willing enough to do that. So Thorarin went down to the
south of that district, and Glum and his wife stayed behind
there, and lived in the house at Varmalek.
Now Hallgerda got a household about her; she was prodigal in
giving, and grasping in getting. In the summer she gave birth to
a girl. Glum asked her what name it was to have?
“She shall be called after my father’s mother, and her name shall
be Thorgerda,” for she came down from Sigurd Fafnir’s-bane on the
father’s side, according to the family pedigree.
So the maiden was sprinkled with water, and had this name given
her, and there she grew up, and got like her mother in looks and
feature. Glum and Hallgerda agreed well together, and so it went
on for a while. About that time these tidings were heard from
the north and Bearfirth, how Swan had rowed out to fish in the
spring, and a great storm came down on him from the east, and how
he was driven ashore at Fishless, and he and his men were there
lost. But the fishermen who were at Kalback thought they saw
Swan go into the fell at Kalbackshorn, and that he was greeted
well; but some spoke against that story, and said there was
nothing in it. But this all knew that he was never seen again
either alive or dead. So when Hallgerda heard that, she thought
she had a great loss in her mother’s brother. Glum begged
Thorarin to change lands with him, but he said he would not;
“but,” said he, “if I outlive you, I mean to have Varmalek to
myself.” When Glum told this to Hallgerda, she said, “Thorarin
has indeed a right to expect this from us.”
15. THIOSTOLF GOES TO GLUM’S HOUSE
