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CHAPTER XVII.

THE MIDDLE FRITH.

Glacial Action-Bjarg: the Home of Grettir-Cairn-Spear-head-Carved Stone-Magical Characters-The Story of the Banded-Men: a Saga.

ON Sunday evening I galloped with Grímr and the son of the Archdeacon to Bjarg, the farm where Grettir was born and spent his childhood. To reach it, we rode up the vale, passing the church of Statharbakki, and crossing the river where the banks contract and the hills become steeper. Our path lay over the shoulder of a hill, the rocks completely smoothed and grooved by glacial action. The striæ ran from N.N.E. to S.S.W. There are, however, no mountains near from which glaciers could have descended. Above Bjarg is a long hill with the rock exposed in several places. I found it everywhere polished. It is strewn with large blocks of stone, one of which, a Grettis-tak measuring 46 feet in circumference and 15 feet 4 inches in height, rests on a pivot, like a logan stone. This huge mass, in being moved along the smooth rock, has scored a furrow about twelve feet long. This is only one among numerous blocks which lie thus resting at the end of ruts in the polished surface. The larger of these stones rest on the top of the hill, and they diminish in size towards the bottom of the valley.

Here is Bjarg! This little farm with its red gables and grass-grown roof, and its green tún in a dell full of buttercups! I stood on the rocky platform in front of the house to survey the landscape over which Grettir's eyes must have roamed so often. Below us was the river plaintively murmuring over a floor of pebbles. Beyond it swelled up the heithi, over which lies the road traversed by Grettir, when

he rode to avenge his brother's murder. Beyond it rises a snowy mountain head. Turning south, the eye ranges over the wild deserts of Tvidogra and Arnarvatns-heithies, to the faint white cupola of Eireks Jökull, thirty-seven miles distant, beneath which the poor outlaw spent many years of his exile.

I inquired for the spot where rested Grettir's head, and was shown a green mound in the tún. The saga states that the head was buried in the church at Bjarg, but there is no church there now, nor any trace of one.

I obtained permission to examine the mound at the cost of a dollar, and dug into it till we came to a large stone which we were unable to move without levers. As no iron bars which would serve the purpose were to be discovered in the house, I was obliged to leave the stone where I found it. It may possibly cover the spot where lies the skull, but it is more probably an erratic block which the possessors of Bjarg have been unable to remove, and have accordingly covered with earth.

No remains of antiquity have been found at the farm, nor are they likely to be found, as Icelanders never dig. The only vestige of olden times, which I could procure in the island, was a spear-head of the Sturlúnga period, which was discovered in the sand near Myvatn, the day before my arrival there. It is shaped like a knife tapering to a point, and is of highly wrought steel. The blade is twelve inches long, and an inch and a third broad at the broadest part. It was originally fastened into its pole by five nails, one of which has a head turned in a scroll to allow of a bunch of feathers being attached to it.

On our way back to Melr, we visited the priest of Statharbakki, who showed us a handsome brass woman's saddle, covered with embossed griffins, cherubs, and flowers. It was of seventeenth-century workmanship, and had the date, and the name of the maker, in Icelandic characters on the side. The priest informed me of the existence of a large stone lying on its side, and curiously carved, in the tún of Thorfastathr on the opposite side of the river. river with Grímr, and visited the farm.

I at once crossed the
We were shown the

stone in question, which is about twelve feet long. The only marks on it are these :——

in heathen times, for sacrificial purposes, or at a later period,

for the incantations of witchcraft, I cannot say.

This table of Icelandic magical signs, I give for the benefit of those of my readers who dabble in the black art.

Below Melr is the cairn of Kormak; it has been opened, the Archdeacon told me, but was found to contain nothing.

The Middle-frith is full of historic interest, for not only does the Gretla relate to it, but also the Sagas of Kormak, Thorth hretha, and the Banded-men. The latter contains an account of a law-suit, so spirited, so full of curious interest, and giving such a lively picture of the manner in which litigation was carried on in the eleventh century, that I shall epitomize it now for the benefit of the reader, as I did at Melr on that Sunday evening for the amusement of my friend, Mr. Briggs.

The Story of the Banded-Men. *

(Eleventh Century.)

AT Melr, in Mithfjord, lived a worthy, straightforward sort of a man, Oddr by name; he was rich, for he had been much in commerce, and every cruise had been attended with success.

Oddr was, unfortunately, on no very good terms with his father, who lived at Reykir, beyond the river; and it is difficult to say which was in the wrong. Certainly Oddr had left home without saying good-by to his father; but then, the old gentleman had treated him shabbily, and had invariably kept him at a distance.

Now that Oddr was rich, pride kept the old man from claiming relationship, and Oddr's resentment had not yet cooled, so they never met, though they lived within sight of each other. It happened that Oddr was involved in strife with a vile fellow named Uspak, who had murdered Vali, their mutual friend, in mistake for Oddr. Uspak had influential kinsmen, yet there was little chance of their taking up his cause, at least, so thought Oddr, when he commenced legal proceedings against the culprit, with a view to getting him outlawed. Having summoned witnesses to the murder, Oddr went to Althing, the general council, as summer drew nigh,

* Banda-manna Saga. I use the word banded-men instead of confederates, as it is a more exact rendering of the Icelandic name.

hoping to get his action through court without difficulty. All went on smoothly for a time, and he came at last to summoning the defendant to take legal exception to the suit.

Now it happened that two relations of the accused, Styrmir and Thorarinn, were sitting near the Doomring, chatting. Quoth the former, "Do you hear, friend? There goes the summons for exception to be taken! what do you intend doing?"

"Letting the action proceed, of course," answered Thorarinn; "it is perfectly just. Oddr has excellent reason for desiring a villain like Uspak to be punished."

"That is all very well! but remember the delinquent is a relation."

"I care naught about that!" said Thorarinn.

"Perhaps not," spoke Styrmir; "but you must consider that all sorts of ill-natured things will be said of you, if you let a cousin be outlawed, without lifting your little finger to help him. There is a flaw in the action, and that you must see as clearly as myself."

"I have noticed it all along," broke in Thorarinn.

"Then why on earth don't you answer the summons! This Oddr tosses his head, as though no one dare oppose him. In a little while you will find that he has become so powerful and arrogant, that he will tread us all underfoot."

"As you like then!" answered Thorarinn; "but I have a presentiment that our meddling with a bad cause like this will only bring us into trouble."

"Not it!" exclaimed Styrmir, starting from his seat, and walking to the doomring. "Oddr!" called he, "I take exception! The action is wrongly set on foot. You have summoned your ten witnesses at home, that is against the law; they should have been summoned at the Thing, and not in the district where you live. Thus your action breaks down."

Oddr was silent, and thought the matter over, then, finding that the exception was legitimate, he withdrew, and returned to his booth.