Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/233

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The Oldest Icelandic Folk-lore.
225

and found him from home. Einarr returned immediately and pursued him.) Then Einarr ran as hard as he could, and as he came by Drangar he saw a troll carl sitting up there, rowing with his feet so that they struck the surf, and beating them together so that the spray rose from them, and he repeated a verse. (The verse is very obscure and corrupt, but to all appearance is unimportant.) Einarr gave no heed to this. They met at Mannfallsbrekkur, and fought there. No iron could cut Einarr's kirtle (which he had got from Hildigunn). (2. 7. in some MSS.)

Einarr was buried a short distance from Sigmund's mound, and his mound is always green, wdnter and summer. (Ibid.)

23. Thorbjörn the stout summoned Geirríd, daughter of Bægifót, on a charge of witchcraft, as his son Gunnlaug had died from injury when he went to learn (magical) wisdom from Geirríd. She was the mother of Thorarinn in Máfahlid, . . . who took an oath by the altar ring, and so stopped the case. (2. 9.)

24. (Of Ingimund.) Held the witch predicted that they should all settle in a land as yet undiscovered, west over the sea.[1] Ingimund said he would take care of that, but the witch said he would be unable to prevent it, and told him for a token that a hlutr (see below) had disappeared out of his purse, and would be found again when he dug the holes for his hall-pillars in that land. [Ingimund assisted King Harald at Hafrsfirth; the king encouraged him to go to Iceland, as he was discontented with Norway.] Ingimund said he had not intended to do so, but he sent two Finns in charmed shapes (hamfarir) to Iceland, to look for his hlutr; it was an image of Freyr, and made of silver. The Finns returned, and had discovered the hlutr, but were unable to get hold of it. They directed Ingimund to a dale between two woods, and told him all the lie of the land where he was to settle. [The place was Hof in Vatnsdal, in the N. of Iceland.[2]] (3. 2.)

25. [Thorsteinn and his brothers attack Hrolleif, and chase him away from his own house.] By this time Ljót (his mother) had come out, and walked backwards with her head between her legs


  1. Similarly it is said of Thorsteinn lunan, "it was foretold him that he should die in a land which was then uninhabited." (5. 7.)
  2. The details of his finding of the image are given in Vatnsdæla Saga, c. 15.