From this valley they tell me you’re leaving,
I shall miss your bright eyes and sweet smile
You will carry the sunshine with you,
That has brightened my life all the while…
I don’t remember the rest, except that it was not quite decent.
When he had finished, Hjalmar and Grim went over to see if the meat was done. I saw a glimmering of tears in my daughter’s eyes. «That was a lovely thing,» she said.
Ketill sat upright. The flames splashed his face with wild, running hues. There was a rawness in his tone: «Yes, we’ve found what this fellow can do: sit about and make pretty songs for the girls. Keep him for that, Ospak.»
Thorgunna whitened, and Helgi clapped hand to sword. I saw how Gerald’s face darkened, and his voice was thick: «That was no way to talk. Take it back.»
Ketill stood up. «No,» he said, «I’ll ask no pardon of an idler living off honest yeomen.»
He was raging, but he had sense enough to shift the insult from my family to Gerald alone. Otherwise he and his father would have had the four of us to deal with. As it was Gerald stood up too, fists knotted at his sides, and said. «Will you step away from here and settle this?»
«Gladly!» Ketill turned and walked a few yards down the beach, taking his shield from the boat. Gerald followed. Thorgunna stood with stricken face, then picked up his ax and ran after him.
«Are you going weaponless?» she shrieked.
Gerald stopped, looking dazed. «I don’t want that,» he mumbled. «Fists—»
Ketill puffed himself up and drew sword. «No doubt you’re used to fighting like thralls in your land,» he said. «So if you’ll crave my pardon, I’ll let this matter rest.»
Gerald stood with drooped shoulders. He stared at Thorgunna as if he were blind, as if asking her what to do. She handed him the ax.
«So you want me to kill him?» he whispered.
«Yes,» she answered.
Then I knew she loved him, for otherwise why should she have cared if he disgraced himself?
Helgi brought him his helmet. He put it on, took the ax, and went forward.
«Ill is this,» said Hjalmar to me. «Do you stand by the stranger, Ospak?»
«No,» I said. «He’s no kin or oath-brother of mine. This is not my quarrel.»
«That’s good,» said Hjalmar. «I’d not like to fight with you, my friend. You were ever a good neighbor.»
We went forth together and staked out the ground. Thorgunna told me to lend Gerald my sword, so he could use a shield too, but the man looked oddly at me and said he would rather have the ax. They squared away before each other, he and Ketill, and began fighting.
This was no holmgang, with rules and a fixed order of blows and first blood meaning victory. There was death between those two. Ketill rushed in with the sword whistling in his hand. Gerald sprang back, wielding the ax awkwardly. It bounced off Ketill’s shield. The youth grinned and cut at Gerald’s legs. I saw blood well forth and stain the ripped breeches.
It was murder from the beginning. Gerald had never used an ax before. Once he even struck with the flat of it. He would have been hewed down at once had Ketill’s sword not been blunted on his helmet and had he not been quick on his feet. As it was, he was soon lurching with a dozen wounds.
«Stop the fight!» Thorgunna cried aloud and ran forth. Helgi caught her arms and forced her back, where she struggled and kicked till Grim must help. I saw grief on my son’s face but a malicious grin on the carle’s.
Gerald turned to look. Ketill’s blade came down and slashed his left hand. He dropped the ax. Ketill snarled and readied to finish him. Gerald drew his gun. It made a flash and a barking noise. Ketill fell, twitched for a moment, and was quiet. His lower jaw was blown off and the back of his head gone.
There came a long stillness, where only the wind and the sea had voice.
Then Hjalmar trod forth, his face working but a cold steadiness over him. He knelt and closed his son’s eyes, as token that the right of vengeance was his. Rising, he said. «That was an evil deed. For that you shall be outlawed.»
«It wasn’t magic,» said Gerald in a numb tone. «It was like a… a bow. I had no choice. I didn’t want to fight with more than my fists.»
I trod between them and said the Thing must decide this matter, but that I hoped Hjalmar would take weregild for Ketill.
«But I killed him to save my own life!» protested Gerald.
«Nevertheless, weregild must be paid, if Ketill’s kin will take it,» I explained. «Because of the weapon, I think it will be doubled, but that is for the Thing to judge.»
Hjalmar had many other sons, and it was not as if Gerald belonged to a family at odds with his own, so I felt he would agree. However, he laughed coldly and asked where a man lacking wealth would find the silver.
Thorgunna stepped up with a wintry calm and said we would pay it. I opened my mouth, but when I saw her eyes I nodded. «Yes, we will,» I said, «in order to keep the peace.»
«Then you make this quarrel your own?» asked Hjalmar.
«No,» I answered. «This man is no blood of my own. But if I choose to make him a gift of money to use as he wishes, what of it?»
Hjalmar smiled. There was sorrow crinkled around his eyes, but he looked on me with old comradeship.
«Erelong this man may be your son-in-law,» he said. «I know the signs, Ospak. Then indeed he will be of your folk. Even helping him now in his need will range you on his side.»
«And so?» asked Helgi, most softly.
«And so, while I value your friendship, I have sons who will take the death of their brother ill. They’ll want revenge on Gerald Samsson, if only for the sake of their good names, and thus our two houses will be sundered and one manslaying will lead to another. It has happened often enough erenow.» Hjalmar sighed. «I myself wish peace with you, Ospak, but if you take this killer’s side it must be otherwise.»
I thought for a moment, thought of Helgi lying with his skull cloven, of my other sons on their garths drawn to battle because of a man they had never seen, I thought of having to wear byrnies every time we went down for driftwood and never knowing when we went to bed whether we would wake to find the house ringed in by spearmen.
«Yes,» I said, «you are right, Hjalmar. I withdraw my offer. Let this be a matter between you and him alone.»
We gripped hands on it.
Thorgunna gave a small cry and fled into Gerald’s arms. He held her close. «What does this mean?» he asked slowly.
«I cannot keep you any longer,» I said, «but belike some crofter will give you a roof. Hjalmar is a law-abiding man and will not harm you until the Thing has outlawed you. That will not be before midsummer. Perhaps you can get passage out of Iceland ere then.»
«A useless one like me?» he replied bitterly.
Thorgunna whirled free and blazed that I was a coward and a perjurer and all else evil. I let her have it out, then laid my hands on her shoulders.
«It is for the house,» I said. «The house and the blood, which are holy. Men die and women weep, but while the kindred live our names are remembered. Can you ask a score of men to die for your own hankerings?»
Long did she stand, and to this day I know not what her answer would have been. It was Gerald who spoke.
«No,» he said. «I suppose you have right, Ospak… the right of your time, which is not mine.» He took my hand, and Helgi’s. His lips brushed Thorgunna’s cheek. Then he turned and walked out into the darkness.
I heard later that he went to earth with Thorvald Hallsson, the crofter of Humpback Fell, and did not tell his host what had happened. He must have hoped to go unnoticed until he could arrange passage to the eastlands somehow. But of course word spread. I remember his brag that in the United States men had means to talk from one end of the land to another. So he must have looked down on us, sitting on our lonely garths, and not know how fast word could get around. Thorvald’s son Hrolf went to Brand Sealskin-boots to talk about some matter and of course mentioned the stranger, and soon all the western island had the tale.