Lögberg-Heimskringla - 01.10.2018, Síða 15

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Lögberg-Heimskringla • 1. október 2018 • 15
with heaps of it; and, having spent half
the night thus, spent the other half in
restoring the gold to the chest in like
manner. The boy stood by and watched
him filling the chest again and gathering
all the stray coins together by sweeping
his great arms violently over the floor,
as if he dreaded to be interrupted before
he could get them all in, which the lad
fancied must be because the day was
approaching.
When the goblin had shut up the
coffer, he rushed past the lad as if to
get out of the hall; but the boy said to
him, “Do not be in too great a hurry.”
“I must make haste,” replied the
goblin, “for the day is dawning.”
But the boy took him by the sleeve
and begged him to remain yet a little
longer for friendship’s sake.
At this the goblin waxed angry,
and, clutching hold of the youth, said,
“Now you shall delay me no longer.”
But the latter clung tight to him,
and slipped out of the way of every
blow he dealt, and some time passed
away in this kind of struggle. It
happened, at last, that the giant turned
his back to the open door, and the boy,
seeing his chance, tripped him up and
butted at him with his head, so that the
other fell heavily backwards, half in
and half out of the hall, and broke his
spine upon the threshold. At the same
moment the first ray of dawn struck
his eyes through the open house door
and he instantly sank into the ground
in two pieces, one each side of the door
of the hall. Then the courageous boy,
though half dead from fatigue, made
two crosses of wood and drove them
into the ground where the two parts of
the goblin had disappeared. This done,
he fell asleep till the sun was well up
and the people came back to Skálholt.
They were amazed and rejoiced to find
him still alive, asking him whether he
had seen anything in the night.
“Nothing out of the common,” he
said.
So he stayed there all that day, both
because he was tired and because the
people were loathe to let him go.
In the evening, when the people
began as usual to leave the place, he
begged them to stay, assuring them
that they would be troubled by neither
ghost nor goblin. But in spite of his
assurances they insisted upon going,
though they left him this time without
any fear for his safety. When they were
gone, he went to bed and slept soundly
till morning.
On the return of the people, he told
them all about his struggle with the
goblin, showed them the crosses he
had set up and the chestful of money
in the hall, and assured them that they
would never again be troubled at night,
so they need not leave the place. They
thanked him most heartily for his spirit
and courage and asked him to name
any reward he would like to receive,
whether money or other precious
things, while inviting him to remain
with them as long as he chose. He was
grateful for their offers, but said, “I do
not care for money, nor can I make up
my mind to stay longer with you.”
Next day, he set about on his
journey and no persuasion could induce
him to remain at Skálholt. He said, “I
have no more business here, as you can
now, without fear, live in the bishop’s
house.” And taking leave of them all,
he directed his steps northwards into
the wilderness.
For a long time, nothing new befell
him, until one day he came to a large
cave, into which he entered. In a smaller
cave within the other, he found twelve
beds, all in disorder and unmade. As
it was yet early, he thought he could
do no better than employ himself in
making them, and having made them,
threw himself onto the one nearest the
entrance, covered himself up, and went
to sleep.
After a little while, he awoke and
heard the voices of men talking in the
cave, wondering who had made the
beds for them, saying that, whoever he
was, they were much obliged to him for
his pains. He saw, on looking out, that
they were twelve armed men of noble
aspect. When they had had supper, they
came into the inner cave and eleven of
them went to bed. But the twelfth man,
whose bed was next to the entrance,
found the boy in it, and calling to the
others, they rose and thanked the lad
for having made their beds for them,
and begged him to remain with them
as their servant, for they said that they
never found time to do any work for
themselves, as they were compelled
to go out every day at sunrise to fight
their enemies, and never returned till
night. The lad asked them why they
were forced to fight day after day?
They answered that they had over and
over again fought, and overcome their
enemies, but that, though they killed
them overnight, they always came to
life again before morning and would
come to the cave and slay them all in
their beds if they were not up and ready
on the field at sunrise.
In the morning the cavemen went
out fully armed, leaving the lad behind
to look after the household work.
About noon, he went in the same
direction the men had taken, in order to
find out where the battlefield was, and
as soon as he had saw it in the distance,
ran back to the cave.
In the evening, the warriors
returned weary and dispirited, but
they were glad to find that the boy had
arranged everything for them, so that
they had nothing more to do than eat
their supper and go to bed.
When they were all asleep, the
boy wondered to himself how it could
possibly come to pass that their enemies
rose every night from the dead. He was
so moved by curiosity that, as soon as
he was sure that his companions were
fast asleep, he took the weapons and
armour he found to fit him best and,
stealing out of the cave, made off in the
direction of the battlefield. There was
nothing to be seen at first but corpses
and trunkless heads, so he waited a little
while to see what would happen. About
dawn, he saw a mound nearby open and
an old woman in a blue cloak come out
with a glass vial in her hand. He noticed
her go up to a dead warrior and, having
picked up his head, smear his neck with
some ointment out of the vial and place
the head and trunk together. Instantly,
the warrior stood erect, a living man.
The hag repeated this to two or three,
until the boy, seeing now the secret of
the thing, rushed up to her and stabbed
her to death along with the men she had
raised, who were yet stupid and heavy
as if after sleep. Then, taking the vial,
he tried to see whether he could revive
the corpses with the ointment and found
that he could do so successfully. So he
amused himself for a while in reviving
the men and killing them again, till, at
sunrise, his companions arrived on the
field.
They were mightily astonished to
see him there and told him that they
had missed him as well as some of their
weapons and armor. But they rejoiced
to find their enemies lying dead on the
field instead of being alive and awaiting
them in battle and they asked the lad
how he had come up with the idea to go
to the battlefield at night and do what
he had done.
He told them all that had happened,
showed them the vial of ointment, and,
in order to prove its power, smeared
the neck of one of the corpses, who at
once rose to his feet but was instantly
killed again by the cavemen. They
thanked the boy heartily for the service
he had rendered them and begged him
to remain among them, offering him at
the same time money for his work. He
declared that he was quite willing, paid
or unpaid, to stay with them, as long as
they liked to keep him. The cavemen
were pleased with his answer and,
having embraced the lad, set to work
to strip their enemies of their weapons.
They made a heap of them, with the old
woman on the top, and burned them.
And then, going into the mound, they
took for themselves all the treasures
they found there.
After this, they proposed the game
of killing each other, to see how it was
to die, as they could restore one another
to life again. So they killed each other
but, by smearing themselves with the
ointment, they at once returned to
life. Now this was great sport for a
while. But once, when they had cut off
the head of the lad, they put it on again
backwards. And as the lad saw himself
from behind, he became mad with fear
and begged the men to release him by
all means from such a painful sight.
But when the cavemen ran to him and,
cutting off his head, placed it on the
right way again, he came back to his
full senses and was as fearless as ever
before.
The boy lived with them ever
afterwards and no more stories are told
about him.
This story is comes from the
collection of Jón Árnason (1819-
1888), Íslenzkar þjóðsögur og ævintýry
(Icelandic Folk Tales and Legends), as
translated by George E.J. Powell and
Eiríkur Magnússon.
“Then there fell down on to the floor of the kitchen half a giant – head,
arms, hands, and body, as far as the waist, and lay there motionless.”