Chapter IX
WHAT HONOR DEMANDS
 They now ran before
a hard wind, blowing off the inland ice, the ship leaning sharply to port,
and the people of Brattahlid fell away swiftly behind them. Those skiffs
which Thord commanded were soon left vainly rowing in the ship's wake, as
it swept down the center of the fjord and past where the sea's arm bent
round the land, on the Brattahlid side. When they had run past that point,
the Leifssons' farmhouses disappeared entirely from view, nor could any of
the small vessels, which now could be seen coming at them from the shore,
get close enough to hail them.
"It's unlikely
they can shut us in now," shouted Vragi, "so long as the wind
holds; and in my opinion this is no false breeze."
"Then we must
not let up until we have made open sea," Sigtrygg replied.
"I won't argue
with that," Vragi said, "but I think we must now give some
thought to naming this ship of ours, before we have gone much further, for
that is the custom in other countries. It would be the height of arrogance
to expect a good voyage, if we do not look to our luck now."
Sigtrygg said that,
in that case, he wanted to call the ship the Thjodhild. But Vragi advised
against this, "for," said he, "I do not think that woman is
destined to bring you much luck."
"I'd offer the
name of the little serving maid," Arnliot said, "but I did not
ask it of her."
"She is called
Fridgerd," said Sigtrygg, "but that is no fit name for this
ship, however small and bare she is, for she has already carried us out of
harm's way and will now take us across the open sea, if this wind
holds."
"Then we must
name her for her attributes, however humble these appear, for it never
pays to be overly proud. And that is especially so when you are sailing on
the seas," said Vragi. "And now I propose we call her Gull, for
she takes to the wind like one of those birds, and with any luck she will
run thus all the way to Vinland."
"Have it your
own way," Sigtrygg said, "though I'd have named her
otherwise."
The little ship,
newly named the Gull, now sped across the face of the fjord, without any
slackening of her pace, for the wind was still at their backs and the sea
was calm. They easily went past and around the small boats the farmers of
Eiriksfjord sent out to nip at their heels and Sigtrygg ranged his crew
along the ship's two sides to watch for any boats which might get too
close, though there no longer seemed to be much likelihood of that.
Sigtrygg now went up
to Thorolf the Icelander, who was sitting somewhat slumped over in his
place, and asked him if things had gone well enough, to his way of
thinking.
"I'd have been
happier to avoid that pin-prick your kinsman gave me earlier,"
Thorolf replied, "but the wind came up just when it was needed, and
that, I think, is a sign of your luck in this matter."
"Then why do
you find it so difficult to leave your seat, Icelander?" Sigtrygg
asked and Thorolf replied that he preferred to sit where the view was
best, and now he let his chin slide onto his chest. Sigtrygg could see
that the man was very pale, for the blood he had lost, and he gave orders
to the others to lay Thorolf lengthwise in the middle of the ship. Asmund,
who had accompanied Thorolf out of Iceland, now asked Sigtrygg if he
thought his companion would live.
"That
depends," Sigtrygg answered, "on how deep the spear point lodged
and how much blood has been lost. But I will certainly do what I can in
this matter."
He told the crewmen
to bring strips of cloth and he took these and bound up the wound, which
was a deep, sideways gash in the man's hip and thigh.
"I have
certainly seen worse than this," he said, "but I have seen
better, too."
Vragi now told the
crew they must look to their posts and leave the healing arts to their
ship's skipper, "for Sigtrygg knows, better than most, what harm a
spear can do and how to stanch the blood flow, if that can be done."
Asmund said:
"It would be an ill thing for this man to lose his life when there is
but one year left to his outlawry, and we could as easily have stood in
Greenland, however harsh the country."
Sigtrygg now put
water on the man's lips and piled the remaining cloth under his head,
saying there was not much else to be done, till they could bring the Gull
to land. But Asmund stood over his friend, without speaking, until
Sigtrygg sought to rise and then he held out his hand to him. Sigtrygg
grasped it firmly and drew himself to his feet.
At that moment they
heard a loud voice shouting at them and, when they looked up, they could
see that it was Vragi. His voice had an urgent tone to it, too, and every
man of them now looked out over the ship's bow, on the starboard side, in
the direction in which he seemed to be pointing. Vragi said: "Hop to,
lads, for there is a vessel not far up ahead which is coming out to greet
us. And she is a sailing ship."
Sigtrygg asked him
what he had seen and where and Vragi told him he had only to look for
himself, "for the sail is there for all to see, heading out from the
land."
Sigtrygg could now
make out the ship, too. She was not much bigger than the Gull and leaning
to starboard as she ran across the face of the wind, making right for
them. Her crew was rowing vigorously to offset the Gull's advantage, with
the wind at her stern. "I did not think they could put out a ship so
large in this short a time," said Sigtrygg, "nor do I see how we
can hope to outrun them, now."
"It would have
taken a man of great speed and stamina to get this far ahead of us by
land," Vragi said, "to give them the time to launch her. Yet,
perhaps, they have not fitted her out as well as they might."
He now pulled hard
on the helm and told the crew to get to their places by the oars, for they
must do whatever they could to push the Gull ahead of the wind. Sigtrygg
seated himself in Thorolf's place and took his oar, and every man of them
did as much, for the new ship was closing rapidly with them since it was
fully crewed and its men were fresh.
"I think we
shall have some hard fighting, afterall," Arnliot said, "and I,
for one, am not sorry for that. It was not manly to fly from these
Eirikssfjord farmers without striking a few blows."
"There'll be
plenty of opportunity for blows now," Sigtrygg agreed, "though I
think it had been better to leave this place in quieter fashion."
The second ship was
soon running alongside the Gull, to starboard, and within hailing
distance. The men on board her began to shout, but Sigtrygg and his crew
offered no response. Now a man in full war gear stood up on the other
ship's deck, his helmet glinting brightly in the Greenland sun, and he
asked where Sigtrygg might be found.
"I'm at the
oars, like the rest of my crew," Sigtrygg shouted back, "but who
is asking?"
The man answered
that there was no one there with any more right to be asking than Girstein
Eiriksson, and now he said Sigtrygg must drop sail and row back to
Brattahlid, "for our kinsman's blood has been shed and compensation
must be paid for it."
"There's no use
hoping for that," Sigtrygg replied, "or do you think I took this
ship out on the fjord for nothing more than a pleasure cruise in the warm
morning sun?"
"It does not
matter what purpose you had in mind, kinsman," Girstein said,
"for Lambi has been speared like a walrus coming up out of the ice
for air, and there must be a payment for that."
"In that
case," answered Sigtrygg, "you would do well to look to that
spear which struck him down, for I gave him back only what he first sought
to give to me. And we have a man on board who is now near death because of
that blow."
Girstein said that
all of this must be sorted out with the Leifssons at Brattahlid and he
told them to turn their vessel about, "for otherwise I am charged to
take your ship and the men on board her."
"Then you will
find it harder going than you had cause to think before, kinsman, for we
are making for the open sea, whatever anyone else says."
Girstein now told
his helmsman to steer into Sigtrygg's ship and snap her oars and the two
ships slid toward each other, side against side. Vragi told the Gull's
crew to ship their oars at once and he pulled hard on the rudder, driving
the ship's stern against Girstein's vessel. At this, Girstein's crew let
fly their spears and, with these, grappling hooks to catch the Gull's
side. But Vragi caught the sea's swell with his turn and his ship rose up
above the other and the hooks fell into the sea.
Girstein said:
"We will ram and sink you kinsman, if you don't heave to, so we can
board that ship of yours."
"Certainly one
of us will sink the other," Sigtrygg agreed, "and then we will
see who cares most to finish his journey."
Girstein told his
crew to come about and drive their prow into Sigtrygg's vessel, but Vragi
had held the ship too close to the other for that, giving them no
maneuvering room. "Jump the distance between our two boats, if you've
a mind to," Vragi shouted laughing at them, "for you'll never
get any closer to us than this."
Girstein now said
that if Sigtrygg had any hopes of getting a settlement with his kinsmen,
he must give over his flight and the ship now, "for blood must first
be assuaged, before other matters can be settled, whatever the causes of
that mishap when you tried to sail past Brattahlid."
"This is
certainly a different song than I heard from you when you helped me get
hands on my ship," Sigtrygg replied. "Or do you now wish to undo
that deed of yours which opened the Leifssons' boat house to me, where my
property was hid?"
"The only way
now, kinsman," said Girstein, "is to make good the slaying of
Thjodhild's brother which, if I'd had my way, had been the deed left
undone."
"And what does
Thjodhild say to that?" asked Sigtrygg.
"She did not
speak when they rowed Lambi in, but I saw her weeping in the surf,"
was Girstein's reply. "And that, too, is no light debt which now must
be repaid."
"Was it for her
brother then or me, that she shed those tears?" asked Sigtrygg.
"Both,"
said Girstein, "for you threw the weapon which took his life. Now
give over that ship of yours and I will offer to stand by you and get the
best settlement I can, though it's unlikely any of the men aboard your
ship, even if dead, will be accounted the equal of Lambi Gunnarsson."
Vragi now asked
Sigtrygg if he wanted to lower their sail, but Sigtrygg said they were to
keep on, just as before, "and then we'll see if my kinsman's crew has
the stuff which our boys have."
The two ships now
ran before the wind, each trying to gain advantage over the other. Vragi
told them to pull at the rigging and tighten up the sail, but Girstein's
vessel held just as close to them as before, despite this, and then the
Eiriksfjordmen began to move out ahead of them. Girstein shouted, "I
don't see how you can hope to outsail me, kinsman, for I have spent these
last years travelling about on ships, while you have been walking the
ice," and he urged his helmsman to steer into Sigtrygg's ship in
hopes of turning her into the wind.
Sigtrygg told his
crew they must take out whatever weapons they had brought with them,
"for now there will be fighting," and he ran to the ship's
starboard side, his sword and shield raised.
"It would be
better to cut the ropes which hold their sail," said Vragi, "but
that is no light feat, and I've not seen it done on a moving ship since I
was a young man."
"Where is the
best place for that?" Sigtrygg asked.
Vragi replied that
they must cut through the ropes which held the sail to the ship's frame
"and that is near the sail's base, for there's no hope of cutting her
higher than that."
Sigtrygg now asked
for all the spears which they had on board and Asmund collected these,
both those which they had carried onto the ship and those which others had
thrown against them, and he laid them hastily out on the deck. Then he
bent down and looked them over and selected the two which he thought best
suited for his purpose. He chose a long spear with a very broad blade and
a shorter one, which he held carefully in his hands, testing its weight
and balance. He also took a small axe and thrust it into his belt, after
which he gave his sword and shield to Asmund and told him to go stand at
the ship's prow and "be prepared to make a fight of it." He then
took a length of rope and wound it around his waist, and then he went up
behind the Icelander, looping the other end of his rope around the peak of
the Gull's prow.
"Let them run
out ahead of us," Sigtrygg said, and his crew dropped their oars deep
below the water line and held them there for a single stroke. At this,
Girstein's ship suddenly lurched ahead of the Gull and Girstein, when he
saw they had taken the lead, told his rowers they were now to turn across
the Gull's path and drive the fleeing ship back into the wind.
With a great shout,
the Eiriksfjordmen pulled up their oars on the port side, but stroked
harder to starboard, and their helmsman cut the rudder so that the ship
which Girstein sailed now slammed its side up against Sigtrygg's prow,
rocking that vessel from stem to stern and sending a shiver through the
beams which held her together. Asmund lost his footing where he stood but
Sigtrygg, who was right behind him, pushed him forward, nearly into the
Eiriksfjord ship. When the Eiriksfjordmen saw that Asmund was hanging over
their vessel, with his sword raised, they rushed to attack him and now he
had hard going against the swords and spears they were thrusting at him.
Sigtrygg stood in close behind him but kept well out of the reach of the
swordsmen on the other ship.
When he saw that the
momentum of the two ships had brought them close enough, and all the
Eiriksfjord crew, on that side of the ship, were trying to get at Asmund,
Sigtrygg took the long spear he had chosen earlier and reached out from
behind the Icelander and snagged the other ship's rigging with the broad
side of the blade. Then he began to pull at it, cutting it through.
Girstein was
standing forward of the mast and now, when he saw what Sigtrygg was trying
to do, he ran into the melee, shouting at his men to seize the spear from
Sigtrygg's hands, rather than continuing to exchange useless sword strokes
with Asmund at the ship's prow. When they heard these words and saw
Sigtrygg's blade doing its work, Girstein's crew left off worrying Asmund
and began at once to strike, with all their weapons, at the shaft of
Sigtrygg's long spear. Girstein, himself, now seized a blanket of wadmal
and threw it over the spear point and then he threw a line of rope over
that. All the men of his crew then flung themselves onto the long spear
and began to contend with Sigtrygg for the weapon, so that Sigtrygg was no
longer able to maintain his grip on it. With one final tug, they pulled it
out of his hands and into their ship.
Then Sigtrygg pulled
tight on the rope with which he had bound himself to his ship's prow and
leaped onto the gunwale, the smaller spear in his right hand. Balancing
himself precariously on that narrow ledge with the rope taut, he now
stretched himself to his full height and raised the second spear over his
head. Then he hurled it hard into the deck of the Eiriksfjord ship, over
the heads of that ship's crew. There it struck, deep in the planking, with
a loud thud and, there, too, the rope which bound the lower part of the
sail to the ship's hull, on the starboard side, leapt apart, split by the
spear's edge, leaving the sail flapping uselessly in the wind at its lower
end. Then Sigtrygg ran swiftly up along the ship's rail, before anyone on
the other ship could act, and struck with his axe at the nearer rope,
severing that one, as well, so that the sail came completely away from the
lower bonds which held it.
"Now row us
backwards, as quickly as you can," Sigtrygg commanded and his crew
reversed their oar strokes, pulling their vessel back and away from the
other ship.
"That was
well-done," cried Vragi, "for I have seen it cut with sword or
axe, but never by spear throw. And that on the first cast."
Girstein, when he
saw what had occurred, told his crew to row their ship about, after
Sigtrygg, but Vragi now guided the Gull away from the struggling
Eiriksfjord vessel, and the Eiriksfjorders must row hard behind, if they
would overtake them.
"Let each man
apply himself to his own oar now," Vragi said to the men on board
Sigtrygg's ship, "and give this wind some help; then we'll see what
our little bird can do," and he guided them out and away from the
other vessel. The Gull now sailed on ahead, for Girstein's men must first
tie down their loosened sail before they could hope to make the most of
the wind again, which was now blowing steadily and strongly off the inland
ice. And, though it did not take them overlong to repair their rigging,
the Gull rushed on before them, seizing the lead and holding it
thereafter.
Sigtrygg told his
crew members they must now hold to their purpose and not let up on the
oars, "for it is unlikely they will let me do to them again, what we
have now accomplished, if once they catch up with us hereafter," he
said, and everyone on board agreed that this was certainly the case.
Thus, it happened
that Sigtrygg and his crew took their ship out of Eiriksfjord, though
Girstein Eiriksson pursued them hotly, until they were well past Eirik's
Isle, which lies at the mouth of the fjord, and were come into the open
sea. Then Girstein let up the chase and hove to, for he said there was no
use taking a shipload of farmers into unknown parts, adding that it was
"not unlikely the harsh western sea will do our work for us, in any
event." |