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herein.
So Gunnlaug abode there the winter through, ever heavy of mood.
Chapter XVI: How the Two Foes Met and Fought at Dingness
But on a day in spring Gunnlaug was walking abroad, and his
kinsman Thorkel with him; they walked away from the town, till on the
meads before them they saw a ring of men, and in that ring were two
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men with weapons fencing; but one was named Raven, the other
Gunnlaug, while they who stood by said that Icelanders smote light, and
were slow to remember their words.
Gunnlaug saw the great mocking hereunder, and much jeering was
brought into the play; and withal he went away silent.
So a little while after he said to the earl that he had no mind to bear
any longer the jeers and mocks of his courtiers about his dealings with
Raven, and therewith he prayed the earl to give him a guide to Lifangr:
now before this the earl had been told that Raven had left Lifangr and
gone east to Sweden; therefore, he granted Gunnlaug leave to go, and
gave him two guides for the journey.
Now Gunnlaug went from Hladir with six men to Lifangr; and, on
the morning of the very day whereas Gunnlaug came in in the evening,
Raven had left Lifangr with four men. Thence Gunnlaug went to
Vera-dale, and came always in the evening to where Raven had been the
night before.
So Gunnlaug went on till he came to the uppermost farm in the valley,
called Sula, wherefrom had Raven fared in the morning; there he stayed
not his journey, but kept on his way through the night.
Then in the morning at sun-rise they saw one another. Raven had got
to a place where were two waters, and between them flat meads, and
they are called Gleipnis meads: but into one water stretched a little ness
called Dingness. There on the ness Raven and his fellows, five together,
took their stand. With Raven were his kinsmen, Grim and Olaf.
Now when they met, Gunnlaug said, It is well that we have found
one another.
Raven said that he had nought to quarrel with therein; But now,
says he, thou mayest choose as thou wilt, either that we fight alone
together, or that we fight all of us man to man.
Gunnlaug said that either way seemed good to him.
Then spake Ravens kinsmen, Grim and Olaf, and said that they
would little like to stand by and look on the fight, and in like wise spake
Thorkel the Black, the kinsman of Gunnlaug.
Then said Gunnlaug to the earls guides, Ye shall sit by and aid
neither side, and be here to tell of our meeting; and so they did.
So they set on, and fought dauntlessly, all of them. Grim and Olaf
went both against Gunnlaug alone, and so closed their dealings with him
that Gunnlaug slew them both and got no wound. This proves Thord
Kolbeinson in a song that he made on Gunnlaug the Wormtongue:
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Grim and Olaf, great-hearts
In Gonduls din, with thin sword
First did Gunnlaug fell there
Ere at Raven fared he;
Bold, with blood be-drifted
Bane of three the thane was;
War-lord of the wave-horse
Wrought for men folks slaughter.
Meanwhile Raven and Thorkel the Black, Gunnlaugs kinsman, fought
until Thorkel fell before Raven and lost his life; and so at last all their
fellowship fell. Then they two alone fought together with fierce onsets
and mighty strokes, which they dealt each the other, falling on furiously
without stop or stay.
Gunnlaug had the sword Ethelreds-gift, and that was the best of
weapons. At last Gunnlaug dealt a mighty blow at Raven, and cut his leg
from under him; but none the more did Raven fall, but swung round up
to a tree-stem, whereat he steadied the stump.
Then said Gunnlaug, Now thou art no more meet for battle, nor will
I fight with thee any longer, a maimed man.
Raven answered: So it is, said he, that my lot is now all the worser
lot, but it were well with me yet, might I but drink somewhat.
Gunnlaug said, Bewray me not if I bring thee water in my helm.
I will not bewray thee, said Raven.
Then went Gunnlaug to a brook and fetched water in his helm, and
brought it to Raven; but Raven stretched forth his left hand to take it, but
with his right hand drave his sword into Gunnlaugs head, and that was
a mighty great wound.
Then Gunnlaug said, Evilly hast thou beguiled me, and done
traitorously wherein I trusted thee.
Raven answers, Thou sayest sooth, but this brought me to it, that I
begrudged thee to lie in the bosom of Helga the Fair.
Thereat they fought on, recking of nought but the end of it was that
Gunnlaug overcame Raven, and there Raven lost his life.
Then the earls guides came forward and bound the head-wound of
Gunnlaug, and in meanwhile he sat and sang:
O thou sword-storm stirrer,
Raven, stem of battle
Famous, fared against me
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Fiercely in the spear din.
Many a flight of metal
Was borne on me this morning,
By the spear-walls builder,
Ring-bearer, on hard Dingness.
After that they buried the dead, and got Gunnlaug on to his horse
thereafter, and brought him right down to Lifangr. There he lay three
nights, and got all his rights of a priest, and died thereafter, and was
buried at the church there.
All men thought it great scathe of both of these men, Gunnlaug and
Raven, amid such deeds as they died.
Chapter XVII: The News of the Fight Brought to Iceland
Now this summer, before these tidings were brought out hither to
Iceland, Illugi the Black, being at home at Gilsbank, dreamed a dream: he
thought that Gunnlaug came to him in his sleep, all bloody, and he sang
in the dream this stave before him; and Illugi remembered the song
when he woke, and sang it before others:
Knew I of the hewing
Of Ravens hilt-finned steel-fish
Byrny-shearingsword-edge
Sharp clave leg of Raven
Of warm wounds drank the eagle,
When the war-rod slender,
Cleaver of the corpses,
Clave the head of Gunnlaug.
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