The Greenlanders - Jane Smiley [269]
“What fights could the two of us share in?”
“It is not unknown to you that Ofeig is about.”
Kollgrim’s face darkened. Jon Andres went on, “It seems to me that the tangle of injuries between us is so snarled that every word does damage, whether or not damage is intended. But even so, I am persuaded now that Ofeig means to do ill in the district, and he is more than one man in his strength and cunning.”
“Folk in other districts say he is a devil among us.”
“Folk have often said that there is a devil in him. But he may be hunted down as bears are hunted down.”
Kollgrim smiled. “Bears are no longer hunted down, are they? So far have the Greenlanders fallen that their bearskin bedclothes are rat-eaten and thin. I have never killed a bear, although my father’s uncle killed many.”
“But we may kill this bear, if we put off our animosity.”
“You are too sanguine about both, it seems to me, but I will not kill you today, as you are unarmed.” And Kollgrim turned away and went into the steading, and it was the case that he did put off his feud with the other man, although it was with a taste of great bitterness in his mouth that he did so. And during the spring, the men of Vatna Hverfi looked about the district for Ofeig. It appeared that he had stayed for some time in the priest’s house at Undir Hofdi church and left that place in disarray, but no men saw him there. Jon Andres hesitated to kill him before he was outlawed at the Thing. Jon Andres had no meetings with Helga, but through the spring when Kollgrim went off hunting or snaring birds, two of Jon Andres’ armed men went to live at Gunnars Stead, and they were rough but polite, and helped around the steading with the lambing and the early spring manure spreading. Now the time for the Thing came on.
This was the summer of 1406, as men reckoned with their stick calendars, and of all of these, that of Finnleif Gudleifsson was the most accurate, and so men remarked among themselves that it had been eight years since the great hunger, and Greenland was full of the sound of children’s voices, but it seemed to folk that they could not hear these voices without sadness and fear, for men never know when the heavy hand of the Lord will fall upon them, for the Lord chooses which sins He will punish, and which He will not, and it is His power to know better than men do what pleases Him. Even so, it seemed to the Greenlanders that their children were a great treasure to them, and that they could not have enough of this treasure. In some steadings four or more children followed upon one another year by year, and the wife and all the servingwomen were round with more.
At this Thing, Bjorn Bollason the lawspeaker said all the laws that he could remember in one day, although it had always taken three days in the time of Osmund Thordarson. After that, cases were conducted, and Ofeig Thorkelsson was outlawed, with only a formal defense by his mother’s brother Hrolf. Men got together from every district, and the priest Eindridi Andresson with them, the men to discuss how the outlaw might be captured and killed, and the priest to say what would be done if Ofeig was indeed a devil. This priest was a hard and outspoken man, but he was not Sira Audun, and folk recalled with wonder how Sira Audun had knocked Ofeig down and sat upon his chest, praying loudly to the Lord. Sira Eindridi would be hard put to do such a thing, folk said.
Also at this Thing, Jon Andres Erlendsson asked again for the hand of Helga Gunnarsdottir, and Gunnar Asgeirsson did as folk said he should have done the year before, and consented to the marriage. Kollgrim Gunnarsson went about the assembly field at Brattahlid looking dark and ill-tempered, but indeed, he said nothing and threatened no one. And on the last day of the Thing, a peculiar affair took place, and it went as follows.
Bjorn Bollason had a large new booth, as befitted the lawspeaker, and his wife Signy and his daughter Sigrid arranged it attractively, and were hospitable about serving food to folk who were nearby, and so