The Greenlanders - Jane Smiley [132]
Gunnar stood gazing upon the children, who had begun to drag the basket up the hillside. He said, “A man with four ships must leave.”
Now they were silent for a space, and then Birgitta said, “It seems to me that Gunnhild is fated to go with him, for just now I saw her vanish before me.” After this, they did not discuss the matter again.
Now the summer came on, and Birgitta gave birth to yet another daughter, and she was baptized with the name Johanna, and she was the largest of all the children, and born with a full head of hair and a tooth in her lower jaw, and people spoke of this, for such children, it is said, come into the world with ideas of their own. Birgitta found in herself an unaccountable dislike for this child, and left its care much to Gunnhild and Helga. Johanna was born while Olaf, Gunnar, and Finn were away for the seal hunt, and when Gunnar returned he looked for a long time at the baby and she lay awake without crying and looked back at him, and he declared himself pleased with her, and from this time Johanna stuck to her father as Kollgrim had always followed after his mother.
Of Kollgrim, there is this to say, that he was a great wanderer, and he was known at all the farmsteads round about and at Pall Hallvardsson’s priesthouse across the water. It happened at this time, while Gunnar was away hunting for seals and Birgitta was occupied with Johanna, that Kollgrim was walking past a neighboring farmstead and two boys, Hrolf and Hakon, came out of the byre with their dog, who was a large deerhound by breed, but not fully grown. This dog, seeing Kollgrim, broke away from the two boys and ran at Kollgrim, baring its teeth and knocking him down. Now Kollgrim felt a stone beside his hand and picked it up and brought it down hard on the dog’s head, so that the dog’s skull was broken and the dog died. Then the boys came up, and Kollgrim jumped to his feet, declaring it was unneighborly to set such a beast upon a guiltless passerby, and he fell upon Hrolf, the older boy, although without the stone, and he beat him. This boy was not quite Kollgrim’s age, and certainly not his size. Hakon ran to get a servingman, as the farmer, Harald, was also away on the seal hunt. This servingman was carrying a staff, and struck Kollgrim with it on the side of the head, and at this the boys ceased fighting.
When Gunnar and Harald returned from the seal hunt, Gunnar paid Harald two sealskins as compensation for the death of the dog and the beating of Hrolf. Birgitta was much annoyed to get nothing for the dog attack and the blow to Kollgrim’s head, and Gunnar and Birgitta had words about this. In addition, Kollgrim was forbidden visiting Haralds Stead, but he went there often anyway, for it seemed that now he would not or could not forbear teasing this boy Hrolf, as he had teased his grandfather and his sisters and Olaf and everyone else.
One day shortly after this, Birgitta sat down beside Lavrans, who now stayed beside the fire, for he was some sixty-five winters old or more. This was the first time Birgitta had gotten up after her confinement, and she carried the new baby with her to show to her father. For a little while, Lavrans held the child in his arms and admired her size and her clothing, for Birgitta had woven a new white shawl for her, and decorated it with handsome woven bands. Then Birgitta leaned over his shoulder and put her finger in the infant’s mouth and felt around gently until she found the tiny tooth, and she said, “Don’t folk say that such a tooth brings ill luck to the whole lineage?”
Lavrans replied, “Such a thing was never spoken in my hearing, but it may be.”
“I am afraid for the others.”
Now Lavrans looked at her for a while, and then he said, “Such pride as I had in you, which folk laughed at, and such doting as I fell into, which folk once marveled at, you show tenfold, and fivefold for the boy alone. The priests say it is a sin to love a child more than God Himself. The truth is that God is jealous and powerful and well pleased to take our cherished