“Slatte and Agne both say,” he continued, “that they were sitting in their cave during the storm, which was so severe that they were barely able to keep their fire from blowing out, when they heard groans outside. Slatte crept out and saw three figures moving in the rain with their skirts wrapped round their heads. At first he feared them to be trolls; and the women supposed him to be one when they saw his head suddenly appear from the earth, so that they quaked and screamed with terror. Realizing from this that they must be mortals, he approached and calmed them. They accepted his invitation to join him in his cave and seated themselves round the fire. The girls were very fatigued, and were sniveling with distress; but there were no tears coming from the widow, and she showed little evidence of exhaustion. She kept her eyes fixed upon them incessantly as she sat drying herself before the fire; she wanted her back rubbed, and every part of her body warmed with otter skins; then, after she had drunk of their hot ale like a thirsty mare, she became merry and took off most of her clothes. She did this, she explained to them, so that she might feel the heat more, since heat was what she needed most.
“Now, Slatte and Agne are both young,” continued Gudmund, “but not more foolish than the run of men; and they knew well enough what thoughts tend to enter the minds of widows when their glance falls on a man. When, therefore, she suggested that the girls should go into a corner of the cave to sleep, but said that she herself would remain awake to see that no harm came to them, the men’s suspicions were aroused and they exchanged a knowing glance. Both Agne and Slatte have assured me that they would gladly have obliged the widow had she come to them unaccompanied, but that it seemed to them an unmanly and dishonorable thing for the two of them to share a widow when there were two fair young women also present who might well be as eager for pleasure as she was; for had they done so, they would have been laughed at by every right-thinking person to whose ears the story might have come. So they seated themselves beside the young women and spoke calmingly to them and helped them to warm their feet at the fire. By this time the girls were in better spirits, having swallowed food and drink and become warm; they scarcely dared, however, to glance at the men and were shy of speech. This increased the men’s respect for them, for it testified to their modesty and good upbringing; and their liking for them became so strong that eventually they decided to draw lots for them, so that there should be no quarreling over who was to have which, and so that all should be satisfied. But when they suggested this, the widow, who had been growing more and more restless because no attention was being paid to her, jumped to her feet shrieking wildly. She protested that the girls must go home at once or terrible things would happen. They were young, she said, and able to endure the hardships of the night; but for herself she must beg hospitality until morning, since she was too fatigued and racked with backache to undertake the journey. This suggestion astonished the men, who asked her whether it was her intention to kill the girls; for this, they swore, she would certainly do if she drove them out into the wild forest to face the darkness and rain and all the evil things that lurked there. Such cruelty and wickedness they had never before heard the like of, and they would not allow it, for they were determined to protect the girls from her mad caprices. Nor, they told her further, were they so careless of their own safety that they were prepared to allow such a murderous character as she to remain in their cave; for if they did so, they could not be sure what might not happen to them while they were asleep. So they commanded her to go; she looked, they say, as strong as an ox, so that there would be little danger for her in the forest, and if she should encounter a bear or a wolf, the animal would certainly flee at the sight of her. Seizing hold of her, therefore, they ejected her from the cave, throwing her clothes after her. The next morning they thought it best to move on; and the girls, when they heard of this decision, volunteered to accompany them, to help them carry their traps and skins. There are witnesses present here at the Thing who have heard this from the girls’ own mouths. These young women are now married to Agne and Slatte and are well contented, and have already borne their husbands children.
“Now, I do not think,” concluded Gudmund, “that this business can properly be called woman-theft. The fact of the matter is that these men saved these young women’s lives, and that not once but twice; first when they took them into their cave and offered them warmth and shelter, and secondly when they prevented them from being driven out into the forest as the wicked widow would have done with them. The men are therefore willing to pay ordinary bride-money for them, but no more.”
Thus reasoned Gudmund, and his words were greeted with great acclamation by the Göings. The Virds, however, appeared to approve them somewhat less, and Askman and Glum would not relax their demand. Had the two men stolen the widow, they said, they could have had her cheaply; but virgins could not be considered as being in the same category as widows; nor would any wise man place much reliance on the defense that Gudmund had put up for them. They thought it only right that the Widow Gudny should receive compensation for the insults and injuries that had been done to her; they knew her well, and she had never shown herself to be as man-crazy as Gudmund had made her out to be. In this matter of her compensation, however, they would accept whatever sum might be offered, but they were not prepared to haggle over the young women.
Witnesses were then heard for both sides, both those who had heard the story from the young women’s lips, and those who had been addressed on the subject by the Widow Gudny on her return from the cave. Ugge and Sone agreed that this was a difficult case to judge; and the spirits of the assembly rose, for there appeared to be an excellent prospect of a four-handed combat, provided no unlucky chance intervened.
Ugge said that he felt half inclined to allow Sone to judge the case alone, because of his great wisdom and for their ancient friendship’s sake; but he could not persuade his chosen twelve to agree to this, and so Olof Summerbird was co-opted as third judge. This honor, he said, was one that gave him little joy, for much silver and several lives depended on the result of the case, so that whoever judged it would bring upon himself the hatred and abuse of many, however just his decision might be. At first he suggested, as a compromise, that the husbands should pay double bride-money instead of the treble portion that was demanded; but neither the Göings nor the Virds would have any of this. Gudmund said that Slatte was already in strained circumstances, it being impossible for those who lived by trapping otters and beavers to amass a fortune, because of the poor prices that were paid for skins nowadays; while Agne of Sleven had lost his whole inheritance through his father’s having been burned in his house. The most they could afford would be the ordinary bridal portion, and even that they would hardly be able to pay without assistance. The Vird representatives, on the other hand, thought that Glum and Askman were demanding no more than was reasonable.
“For,” they said, “we Virds have, ever since ancient times, held our women in great honor, and our neighbors must not be allowed to suppose that our virgins can be picked up cheap in any forest.”