when he came to see her, and how he sat by his mother
for a long time, and they talked of many things. [Sidenote:
Bolli questions his mother] Then Bolli said, “Will
you tell me, mother, what I want very much to know?
Who is the man you have loved the most?” Gudrun
answered, “Thorkell was the mightiest man and
the greatest chief, but no man was more shapely or
better endowed all round than Bolli. Thord, son
of Ingun, was the wisest of them all, and the greatest
lawyer; Thorvald I take no account of.”
Then said Bolli, “I clearly understand that
what you tell me shows how each of your husbands was
endowed, but you have not told me yet whom you loved
the best. Now there is no need for you to keep
that hidden any longer.” Gudrun answered,
“You press me hard, my son, for this, but if
I must needs tell it to any one, you are the one I
should first choose thereto.” Bolli bade
her do so. Then Gudrun said, “To him I
was worst whom I loved best.” “Now,”
answered Bolli, “I think the whole truth is
told,” and said she had done well to tell him
what he so much had yearned to know. Gudrun grew
to be a very old woman, and some say she lost her
sight. Gudrun died at Holyfell, and there she
rests. [Sidenote: The end of Gellir] Gellir,
Thorkell’s son, lived at Holyfell to old age,
and many things of much account are told of him; he
also comes into many Sagas, though but little be told
of him here. He built a church at Holyfell, a
very stately one, as Arnor, the Earls’ poet,
says in the funeral song which he wrote about Gellir,
wherein he uses clear words about that matter.
When Gellir was somewhat sunk into his latter age,
he prepared himself for a journey away from Iceland.
He went to Norway, but did not stay there long, and
then left straightway that land and “walked”
south to Rome to “see the holy apostle Peter.”
He was very long over this journey; and then journeying
from the south he came into Denmark, and there he
fell ill and lay in bed a very long time, and received
all the last rites of the church, whereupon he died,
and he rests at Roskild. Gellir had taken Skofnung
with him, the sword that had been taken out of the
barrow of Holy Kraki, and never after could it be got
back. When the death of Gellir was known in Iceland,
Thorkell, his son, took over his father’s inheritance
at Holyfell. Thorgils, another of Gellir’s
sons, was drowned in Broadfirth at an early age, with
all hands on board. Thorkell Gellirson was a
most learned man, and was said to be of all men the
best stocked of lore. Here is the end of the
Saga of the men of Salmon-river-Dale.
* * * * *