CHAPTER XIII

Thorgrim Settles at Bjarg and marries.  His son Asmund visits Norway and marries twice

After these events Thorgrim and his brothers divided up the property between them.  Thorgrim took the movable property and Thorgeir the lands.  Then Thorgrim went inland to Midfjord and bought some land at Bjarg with the aid of Skeggi.  He married Thordis, the daughter of Asmund from Asmund’s peak who had land in Thingeyrasveit.  They had a son named Asmund, a great man and strong, also wise, and notable for his abundance of hair, which turned grey very early.  He was called Longhair.

Thorgrim occupied himself with the management of his estate and kept all the men of his household hard at work.  Asmund did not want to work, so that he and his father got on rather badly together.  This continued until Asmund was grown up, when he asked his father to give him the means to go abroad.  Thorgrim said he should have little enough, but he gave him some ready cash.  So Asmund went away and soon increased his capital.  He sailed to divers lands, became a great trader and very wealthy.  He was popular and enjoyed good credit, and had many friends among the leading men of Norway.

One autumn Asmund was in the East on a visit to a certain magnate named Thorsteinn.  His family came from the Upplands, and he had a sister named Rannveig who had excellent prospects.  Asmund asked this girl in marriage and obtained her through the interest of her brother Thorsteinn; he settled there for a time and was highly thought of.  He and Rannveig had a son named Thorsteinn, who became a handsome man, strong, and with a powerful voice.  He was very tall and rather sluggish in his movements, wherefore he was nicknamed Dromund.  When young Thorsteinn was half grown up his mother fell ill and died, and Asmund cared no more for Norway.  Thorsteinn was taken over by his mother’s relations along with his property, while Asmund went on voyages and became famous.

Asmund came in his ship to Hunavain, where Thorkell Krafla was chief of the Vatnsdalers.  On hearing of Asmund’s arrival Thorkell went to the ship and invited him to stay, and Asmund went to visit him in Marsstadir in Vatnsdal where he lived.  Thorkell was a son of Thorgrim, the Godi of Karnsa, and a man of great experience.  This was soon after the arrival of Bishop Fridrek and Thorvald the son of Kodran, who were living at Laekjamot when these events happened, preaching Christianity for the first time in the North of the island.  Thorkell and many of his men received the prima signatio.  Many things might be told of the dealings between the bishop’s men and the Northerners, which, however, do not belong to this saga.