The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald [15]
foot my dead body would trample! But often my wrongs have I wreaked In wrath on the mail-coated warrior -- On the stems of the sun of the ocean I have stained the wound-serpent for less!"
And again he said: --
(49) "With eld I am listless and lamed -- I, the lord of the gold of the armlet: I sit, and am still under many A slight from the warders of spear-meads. Though shield-bearers shape for the singer To shiver alone in the grave-mound, Yet once in the war would I redden The wand that hews helms ere I fail."
"Thy heart is not growing old, foster-father mine!" cried Halldor.
Upon that Bersi fell into talk with Steinvor, and said to her "I am laying a plot, and I need thee to help me."
She said she would if she could.
"Pick a quarrel," said he, "with Thordis about the milk-kettle, and do thou hold on to it until you whelm it over between you. Then I will come in and take her part and give thee nought but bad words. Then go to Vali and tell him how ill we treat thee."
Everything turned out as he had planned. She went to Vali and told him that things were no way smooth for her; would he take her over the gap (to Bitra to her father's:) and so he did.
But when he was on the way back again, out came Bersi and Halldor to meet him. Bersi had a halberd in one hand and a staff in the other, and Halldor had Whitting. As soon as Vali saw them he turned and hewed at Bersi. Halldor came at his back and fleshed Whitting in his hough-sinews. Thereupon he turned sharply and fell upon Halldor. Then Bersi set the halberd-point betwixt his shoulders. That was his death-wound.
Then they set his shield at his feet and his sword at his head, and spread his cloak over him; and after that got on horseback and rode to five homesteads to make known the deed they had done and then rode home. Men went and buried Vali, and the place where he fell has ever since been called Vali's fall.
Halldor was twelve winters old when these doings came to pass.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN How Steingerd Was Married Again.
Now there was a man named Thorvald, the son of Eystein, bynamed the Tinker: he was a wealthy man, a smith, and a skald; but he was mean-spirited for all that. His brother Thorvard lived in the north country at Fliot (Fleet); and they had many kinsmen, -- the Skidings they were called, -- but little luck or liking.
Now Thorvald the Tinker asked Steingerd to wife. Her folk were for it, and she said nothing against it; and so she was wed to him in the very same summer in which she left Bersi.
When Cormac heard the news he made as though he knew nothing whatever about the matter; for a little earlier he had taken his goods aboard ship, meaning to go away with his brother. But one morning early he rode from the ship and went to see Steingerd; and when he got talk with her, he asked would she make him a shirt. To which she answered that he had no business to pay her visits; neither Thorvald nor his kinsmen would abide it, she said, but have their revenge.
Thereupon he made his voice: --
(50) "Nay, think it or thole it I cannot, That thou, a young fir of the forest Enwreathed in the gold that thou guardest, Shouldst be given to a tinkering tinsmith. Nay, scarce can I smile, O thou glittering In silk like the goddess of Baldur, Since thy father handfasted and pledged thee, So famed as thou art, to a coward."
"In such words," answered Steingerd, "an ill will is plain to hear. I shall tell Thorvald of this ribaldry: no man would sit still under such insults."
Then sang Cormac: --
(51) "What gain is to get if he threatens, White goddess in raiment of beauty, The scorn that the Skidings may bear me? I'll set them a weft for their weaving! I'll rhyme you the roystering caitiffs Till rocks go afloat on the water; And lucky for them if they loosen The line of their fate that I ravel!"
Thereupon they
And again he said: --
(49) "With eld I am listless and lamed -- I, the lord of the gold of the armlet: I sit, and am still under many A slight from the warders of spear-meads. Though shield-bearers shape for the singer To shiver alone in the grave-mound, Yet once in the war would I redden The wand that hews helms ere I fail."
"Thy heart is not growing old, foster-father mine!" cried Halldor.
Upon that Bersi fell into talk with Steinvor, and said to her "I am laying a plot, and I need thee to help me."
She said she would if she could.
"Pick a quarrel," said he, "with Thordis about the milk-kettle, and do thou hold on to it until you whelm it over between you. Then I will come in and take her part and give thee nought but bad words. Then go to Vali and tell him how ill we treat thee."
Everything turned out as he had planned. She went to Vali and told him that things were no way smooth for her; would he take her over the gap (to Bitra to her father's:) and so he did.
But when he was on the way back again, out came Bersi and Halldor to meet him. Bersi had a halberd in one hand and a staff in the other, and Halldor had Whitting. As soon as Vali saw them he turned and hewed at Bersi. Halldor came at his back and fleshed Whitting in his hough-sinews. Thereupon he turned sharply and fell upon Halldor. Then Bersi set the halberd-point betwixt his shoulders. That was his death-wound.
Then they set his shield at his feet and his sword at his head, and spread his cloak over him; and after that got on horseback and rode to five homesteads to make known the deed they had done and then rode home. Men went and buried Vali, and the place where he fell has ever since been called Vali's fall.
Halldor was twelve winters old when these doings came to pass.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN How Steingerd Was Married Again.
Now there was a man named Thorvald, the son of Eystein, bynamed the Tinker: he was a wealthy man, a smith, and a skald; but he was mean-spirited for all that. His brother Thorvard lived in the north country at Fliot (Fleet); and they had many kinsmen, -- the Skidings they were called, -- but little luck or liking.
Now Thorvald the Tinker asked Steingerd to wife. Her folk were for it, and she said nothing against it; and so she was wed to him in the very same summer in which she left Bersi.
When Cormac heard the news he made as though he knew nothing whatever about the matter; for a little earlier he had taken his goods aboard ship, meaning to go away with his brother. But one morning early he rode from the ship and went to see Steingerd; and when he got talk with her, he asked would she make him a shirt. To which she answered that he had no business to pay her visits; neither Thorvald nor his kinsmen would abide it, she said, but have their revenge.
Thereupon he made his voice: --
(50) "Nay, think it or thole it I cannot, That thou, a young fir of the forest Enwreathed in the gold that thou guardest, Shouldst be given to a tinkering tinsmith. Nay, scarce can I smile, O thou glittering In silk like the goddess of Baldur, Since thy father handfasted and pledged thee, So famed as thou art, to a coward."
"In such words," answered Steingerd, "an ill will is plain to hear. I shall tell Thorvald of this ribaldry: no man would sit still under such insults."
Then sang Cormac: --
(51) "What gain is to get if he threatens, White goddess in raiment of beauty, The scorn that the Skidings may bear me? I'll set them a weft for their weaving! I'll rhyme you the roystering caitiffs Till rocks go afloat on the water; And lucky for them if they loosen The line of their fate that I ravel!"
Thereupon they