The Life and Death of Cormac the Skald [Iceland] | Page 5

of the ale-horn
Looking out of a form so
bewitching,
Would a bridegroom count money to buy it
He must
bring for it ransom three hundred.
The curls that she combs of a
morning,
White-clothed in fair linen and spotless,
They enhance the
bright hoard of her value, --
Five hundred might barely redeem
them!"
Said the maid, "It's give and take with the two of ye! But thou'lt put a
big price upon the whole of her!" He answered: --
(8)
"The tree of my treasure and longing,
It would take this whole
Iceland to win her:
She is dearer than far-away Denmark,
And the
doughty domain of the Hun-folk.
With the gold she is combing, I
count her
More costly than England could ransom:
So witty, so
wealthy, my lady
Is worth them, -- and Ireland beside!"
Then Tosti came in, and called Cormac out to some work or other; but
he said: --
(9)
"Take m swift-footed steel for thy tiding,
Ay, and stint not the
lash to him, Tosti:
On the desolate downs ye may wander
And drive
him along till he weary.
I care not o'er mountain and moorland
The
murrey-brown weathers to follow, --
Far liefer, I'd linger the morning

In long, cosy chatter with Steingerd."
Tosti said he would find it a merrier game, and went off; so Cormac sat
down to chess, and right gay he was. Steingerd said he talked better
than folk told of; and he sat there all the day; and then he made this
song: --

(10)
" 'Tis the dart that adorneth her tresses,
The deep, dewy grass
of her forehead.
So kind to my keeping she gave it,
That good comb
I shall ever remember!
A stranger was I when I sought her
0. Sweet stem with the dragon's hoard shining --" With gold like the
sea-dazzle gleaming -- The girl I shall never forget."
Tosti came off the fell and they fared home. After that Cormac used to
go to Gnupsdal often to see Steingerd: and he asked his mother to make
him good clothes, so that Steingerd might like him the most that could
be. Dalla said there was a mighty great difference betwixt them, and it
was far from certain to end happily if Thorkel at Tunga got to know.
CHAPTER FOUR
How Cormac Liked Black-Puddings.
Well Thorkel soon heard what was going forward, and thought it would
turn out to his own shame and his daughter's if Cormac would not
pledge himself to take her or leave her. So he sent for Steingerd, and
she went home.
Thorkel had a man called Narfi, a noisy, foolish fellow,
boastful, and
yet of little account. Said he to Thorkel, "If Cormac's coming likes thee
not, I can soon settle it."
"Very well," says Thorkel.
Now, in the autumn, Narfi's work it was to slaughter the sheep. Once,
when Cormac came to Tunga, he saw Steingerd in the kitchen. Narfi
stood by the kettle, and when they had finished the
boiling, he took
up a black-pudding and thrust it under Cormac's nose, crying: --
(11)
"Cormac, how would ye relish one?
Kettle-worms I call them."
To which he answered: --
(12)
"Black-puddings boiled, quoth Ogmund's son,
Are a dainty, --
fair befall them!"

And in the evening when Cormac made ready to go home he saw Narfi,
and bethought him of those churlish words. "I think, Narfi," said he, "I
am more like to knock thee down, than thou to rule my coming and
going." And with that struck him an axehammer -blow, saying: --
(13)
"Why foul with thy clowning and folly,
The food that is
dressed for thy betters?
Thou blundering archer, what ails thee
To
be aiming thy insults at me?"
And he made another song about: --
(14)
"He asked me, the clavering cowherd
If I cared for -- what was
it he called them? --
The worms of the kettle. I warrant
He'll be
wiping his eyes by the hearth-stone.
I deem that yon knave of the
dunghill
Who dabbles the muck on the meadow
0. Yon rook in his mud-spattered raiment -- Got a rap for his noise --
like a dog."
CHAPTER FIVE
They Waylay Cormac: And The Witch Curses
Him.
There was a woman named Thorveig, and she knew a deal too much.
She lived at Steins-stadir (Stonestead) in Midfiord, and had two sons;
the elder was Odd, and the younger Gudmund. They were great
braggarts both of them.
This Odd often came to see Thorkel at Tunga, and used to sit and talk
with Steingerd. Thorkel made a great show of friendship with the
brothers, and egged them on to waylay Cormac. Odd said it was no
more than he could do.
So one day when Cormac came to Tunga, Steingerd was in the

parlour and sat on the dais. Thorveig's sons sat in the room, ready to
fall upon him when he came in; and Thorkel had put a drawn sword on
one side of the door, and on the other side Narfi had