CHAP.  LXVI

Osvif and Gest die

That winter Osvif fell ill and died, and a great loss that was deemed, for he had been the greatest of sages.  Osvif was buried at Holyfell, for Gudrun had had a church built there.  That same winter Gest Oddliefson fell ill, and as the sickness grew heavy on him, he called to him Thord the Low, his son, and said, “My mind forebodes me that this sickness will put an end to our living together.  I wish my body to be carried to Holyfell, for that will be the greatest place about these countrysides, for I have often seen a light burning there.”  Thereupon Gest died.  The winter had been very cold, and there was much ice about, and Broadfirth was laid under ice so far out that no ship could get over it from Bardistrand. [Sidenote:  The funeral of Gest and Osvif] Gest’s body lay in state two nights at Hegi, and that very night there sprang up such a gale that all the ice was drawn away from the land, and the next day the weather was fair and still.  Then Thord took a ship and put Gest’s body on board, and went south across Broadfirth that day, and came in the evening to Holyfell.  Thord had a good welcome there, and stayed there through the night.  In the morning Gest’s body was buried, and he and Osvif rested in one grave.  So Gest’s soothsaying was fulfilled, in that now it was shorter between them than at the time when one dwelt at Bardistrand and the other in Saelingsdale.  Thord the Low then went home as soon as he was ready.  That next night a wild storm arose, and drove the ice on to the land again, where it held on long through the winter, so that there was no going about in boats.  Men thought this most marvellous, that the weather had allowed Gest’s body to be taken across when there was no crossing before nor afterwards during the winter.

CHAP.  LXVII

The Death of Thorgils Hallason, A.D. 1020

Thorarin was the name of a man who lived at Longdale:  he was a chieftain, but not a mighty one.  His son was named Audgisl, and was a nimble sort of a man.  Thorgils Hallason took the chieftainship from them both, father and son. [Sidenote:  Snorri advises Audgisl] Audgisl went to see Snorri Godi, and told him of this unfairness, and asked him to help.  Snorri answered only by fair words, and belittled the whole affair; but answered, “Now that Halla’s-grig is getting too forward and swaggering.  Will Thorgils then happen on no man that will not give in to him in everything?  No doubt he is a big man and doughty, but men as good as he is have also been sent to Hel.”  And when Audgisl went away Snorri gave him an inlaid axe.  The next spring Thorgils Hallason and Thorstein the Black went south to Burgfirth, and offered atonement to the sons of Helgi and his other kinsmen, and they came to terms of peace on the matter, and fair honour was done (to Helgi’s side).  Thorstein paid two parts of the atonement for the manslaughter, and the third part Thorgils was to pay, payment being due at the Thing.  In the summer Thorgils rode to the Thing, but when he and his men came to the lava field by Thingvellir, they saw a woman coming to meet them, and a mighty big one she was.  Thorgils rode up to her, but she turned aside, and said this—­