CHAPTER LXXXVI.

HRAPP’S VOYAGE FROM ICELAND.

There was a man named Kolbein, and his surname was Arnljot’s son; he was a man from Drontheim; he sailed out to Iceland that same summer in which Kolskegg and Njal’s sons went abroad.  He was that winter east in Broaddale; but the spring after, he made his ship ready for sea in Gautawick; and when men were almost “boun,” a man rowed up to them in a boat, and made the boat fast to the ship, and afterwards he went on board the ship to see Kolbein.

Kolbein asked that man for his name.

“My name is Hrapp,” says he.

“What wilt thou with me?” says Kolbein.

“I wish to ask thee to put me across the Iceland main.”

“Whose son art thou?” asks Kolbein.

“I am a son of Aurgunleid, the son of Geirolf the fighter.”

“What need lies on thee,” asked Kolbein, “to drive thee abroad?”

“I have slain a man,” says Hrapp.

“What manslaughter was that,” says Kolbein, “and what men have the blood-feud?”

“The men of Weaponfirth,” says Hrapp, “but the man I slew was Aurlyg, the son of Aurlyg, the son of Roger the white.”

“I guess this,” says Kolbein, “that he will have the worst of it who bears thee abroad.”

“I am the friend of my friend,” said Hrapp, “but when ill is done to me I repay it.  Nor am I short of money to lay down for my passage.”

Then Kolbein took Hrapp on board, and a little while after a fair breeze sprung up, and they sailed away on the sea.

Hrapp ran short of food at sea, and then he sate him down at the mess of those who were nearest to him.  They sprang up with ill words, and so it was that they came to blows, and Hrapp, in a trice, has two men under him.

Then Kolbein was told, and he bade Hrapp to come and share his mess, and he accepted that.

Now they come off the sea, and lie outside off Agdirness.

Then Kolbein asked where that money was which he had offered to pay for his fare?

“It is out in Iceland,” answers Hrapp.

“Thou wilt beguile more men than me, I fear,” says Kolbein; “but now I will forgive thee all the fare.”

Hrapp bade him have thanks for that.  “But what counsel dost thou give as to what I ought to do?”

“That first of all,” he says, “that thou goest from the ship as soon as ever thou canst, for all Easterlings will bear thee bad witness; but there is yet another bit of good counsel which I will give thee, and that is, never to cheat thy master.”

Then Hrapp went on shore with his weapons, and he had a great axe with an iron-bound haft in his hand.

He fares on and on till he comes to Gudbrand of the Dale.  He was the greatest friend of Earl Hacon.  They two had a shrine between them, and it was never opened but when the Earl came thither.  That was the second greatest shrine in Norway, but the other was at Hlada.