35. The Robber Gang

After Skeggi, the cow herd who had lost Mikla-Tit, was sent away by Ketil, he wandered about Iceland, taking work here and there. The older he got, the less he got along with his employers. Finally, he could not find work at all. He had some trouble and was outlawed in the East Quarter. He fled to the North Quarter and began robbing people’s houses there. Other men joined him and the gang became quite a nuisance. Some of the godis in the North sent men after the robbers, but couldn’t catch up to them. After a while, though, they made things so difficult for Skeggi that he left and moved into the West. He made a place for himself across the bay on a little spit of land and built a turf wall across it spiked with sharpened posts. So, when people came after him, if Skeggi saw that he was outnumbered, he had his men go out the back and take to the boats. They would row away to another place and wait for the force to leave, then row back and repair the wall and go on as before.

Gunnar had a friend named Alf who lived near the bay. He had foreshore rights on the beach below his farm, though his godi, Snorri, had a claim on a certain amount of the driftage. One day a whale was stranded on Alf’s beach and he sent for his friend Gunnar to come share in the butchering.

Alf’s men made a good start on the whale and had cut away a large amount of meat when one of them looked up and saw boats rowing toward them from across the bay. They knew that it was Skeggi and his gang. One or two of them took fright and Gunnar yelled to them, “Come on, we’ll fight them together!” But they ran away.

Skeggi landed on the beach. “I see you’ve butchered a whale for us.”

“Not for you,” growled Gunnar. He was unarmed but picked up a stone and threw it hard. One of Skeggi’s men ducked and the stone struck the man behind him, who dropped to the ground. The first man raised his head and Gunnar said, “Don’t worry. I’ve got your share right here!” and threw another stone.

Skeggi rushed forward and struck Gunnar with the hammer of his axe. Gunnar was stunned and fell to the ground. When he came to his senses, Skeggi and his men were halfway back to their place, boats full of whalemeat.

Gunnar said to Alf, “I thought you had more courage than that.”

Alf said, “They outnumbered us two to one. I’m going to report this to Snorri godi.” He grinned. “Snorri does not take kindly to being robbed. I think we’ll be taking a boat trip soon.”

“All right,” said Gunnar, “And I’ll tell my godi, Hallvard, that I’ve been attacked. I’ll fetch my weapons, too. Then we’ll all meet back here.”

 

When Hallvard heard what had happened his expression turned grim. “I’ll send for all the men around and we’ll teach this Skeggi a lesson!”

So Hallvard gathered the men in the district. Colm, Thrain, Gunnar, Ketil, and some others all gathered above the beach. The younger men -- Orm, Styr, Frosti --- were there as well. Altogether about twenty men rode with Hallvard.

Hallvard was grinning and Colm said, “You seem cheery enough.”

“This is the kind of event you hope for. You can’t make it happen; you just have to be ready when it occurs. Grandfather taught me that.”

“Why would you hope for robbers to invade our district?”

Hallvard said, “Because driving them out will give us a task that will draw people together. We need something like this to make every man value his neighbor a little more.”

“Doesn’t the thought of facing these ruffians bother you?”

“No. I think they are no match for us. And this is just what we need to get all the prople to pull together. We will defeat these thieves and then men will be able to talk about it after; they will tell tales over their beer. It will be a good thing for the community.”

“If all goes well for us,” said Colm.

“Of course it will,” laughed Hallvard. “Don’t I have the best fighting man in the area riding beside me right now?”

“I would never call myself that.” Colm never thought of himself as a fighter. Now he had developed a belly that hung over his saddle. It came upon him without warning; one day he woke up and realized that he was no longer lean and hard.

“You are a modest man,” said Hallvard.

“No. I have seen great fighters and I do not want to be numbered among them. They were good for little else.”

“All right,” said Hallvard. “Then let me say, great fighter or no, I would not prefer any other man beside me and I know Grandfather felt the same way.”

Colm said nothing but he worried about the fight ahead. He would never welcome an event like this. He would never lead men into violence and say that it was a good thing. Colm realized he was not a leader. I have found my place, he thought, free and with some status, but only so much. For a moment his thoughts were tinged with bitterness but he stifled that line of thinking. Long ago he had learned to discipline the emotions that might doom him. Geirrid! He thought, Geirrid had a mind like Hallvard, seeing men from a distance, measuring them, using them. But Geirrid could never be a leader here. He was only a slave's son.This was the way of things and there was no possibility of shifting Fate.

Snorri had also brought forces up to the whale carcass. There were only about ten riders, but more than twenty more were rowing up from the west. Snorri and Hallvard made plans. The boatmen would cross the bay and keep Skeggi’s forces from escaping that way. They would wreck the boats on the beach and attack any vessel that pushed away from shore. They would not rush the thieves’ house but let the horsemen ride around to the palisaded wall and attack it.

“I told my men to bring many arrows,” said Snorri.

“That was smart,” said Hallvard. “We can sit back and pick them off.”

Gunnar snorted to hear this. He was determined to return Skeggi’s blow, only he meant to use the edged side of his axe.

Hallvard told Snorri, “Skeggi used to work for Ketil Tree-Foot. Ketil let him go when Skeggi was still young. Colm said then that Skeggi would be a problem in the future.”

Snorri looked at Colm. “So you can forsee the future?”

Colm shrugged. “It doesn’t take much foresight to understand that unemployed young men may become a problem. Skeggi wasn’t a bad man then. We should have taken better care of him in this area. I blame myself for not speaking up sooner.”

Hallvard said, “It wasn’t your fault. These things happen.”

“Yes, but we should try to avoid them.”

Snorri said, “I’ll think about this for a while but I think Colm has a point.”

 

The boats drew up to the beach then and Snorri explained the plan to the oarsmen. It was late at night in mid-summer. The sun set for only a few hours at that time of year. They agreed to wait until first light, about two hours away. The oarsmen sat on the beach, talking and joking, waiting for dawn. The horsemen rode around to the palisade, but stayed well back.

Colm could make out the wall ahead in the gray dawn. It looked like a good site to defend. The sky began to lighten and Snorri told his men to make a lot of noise. He wanted the bandits to all come to the palisade, leaving the boats unguarded. When he judged that most of them had run up to the wall, he told those with bows to start shooting. Arrows flew at the palisade, some going between the sharpened stakes. A man screamed as an arrow found him. The bandits pulled back from the wall and the archers lifted their shots over it. Skeggi’s men began running back into the house. He turned and yelled at them to stand fast and hold the wall, but they were determined to run through the house and row away in the boats.

Gunnar kicked his horse into a gallop and rode straight at the wall where Skeggi was standing. The archers stopped shooting and watched. Gunnar reached up with his axe and hooked it on a stake. He pulled himself up with the axe and climbed onto the wall. Skeggi saw him coming and charged forward. Gunnar grasped a stake with his left hand and pulled it straight up, out of the wall, then he hurled it at Skeggi. The point struck him in the shoulder, although it didn’t pierce him very deeply. Skeggi stumbled and clutched at his shoulder. Gunnar jumped down on the ground. He brought his axe overhead in a mighty arc and split Skeggi open from shoulder to waist.

Meanwhile, Skeggi’s men had run out the back of the house to discover that their boats had been wrecked. Then the archers in boats began shooting at them. Two men fell and the others rushed back into the house and out toward the wall again. Skeggi’s body was still pouring blood and they halted, horrified, when they saw it. Gunnar went back over the palisade and ran to his horse. The archers let loose a volley that struck into the men swarming from the house. They milled in confusion for a few moments, then took cover inside.

“All right,” said Snorri, “Let’s clean out this rat’s nest.”

They took their time dismantling a section of the wall. Then they rode into the yard and readied their weapons. Snorri gave the men inside the house a good long look at the force lined up against them, then called on them to surrender. There were only eight or so and they soon walked out into the morning, their hands empty. One or two men started forward to kill them but Snorri stopped them. “I think we’ve shed enough blood,” he said. He looked over at Alf and Gunnar.

“There’s plenty of meat still on that whale,” said Alf.

“I’ve got what I came for.” Gunnar grinned and held up his bloody axe.

“All right,” said Snorri. He turned to Hallvard. “Do you agree?”

“Of course, so long as no harm comes to us from this. After all they haven’t killed anyone yet.” He gestured at the thieves huddled in the yard. “Let’s see what kind of men we have here and then decide what to do with them.”

 

Three men, including Skeggi, were dead. Four others were wounded, two seriously enough so that it was thought they would not survive. Colm walked over to one of them, a man who had taken an arrow in his guts. He recognized him immediately. “Adals!”

“Hello, Colm.” Adals grinned. “I’d get up and embrace you but I’m a little indisposed right now. Do you think you could give me a hand with this arrow?” Colm knelt beside the man and examined his wound. He smelt the blood on his fingers. “No need for that,” said Adals. “I know already that I will die, but it is bleeding that will kill me and it won’t be very long.”

Colm broke the arrow off so that only an inch or so protruded from the wound. Frosti dropped beside him. “Adals!”

“Well, Frosti, have you some magic herbs that will cure this wound or do you only treat horses?”

Frosti shook his head. “Nothing will cure this,” he said.

“No, I think not.” Adals grasped Frosti’s hand. “How are you? And how is my daughter?”

“We are well. I am married to Thurid Three-mothers and Freydis to Styr Egilsson. I have four children and Freydis has a daughter.”

“Ah, well, tell her not to name any of her children after me. I have not done well by this name.” He began to shake a little. “It is so cold. Is there a blanket?” Neither Frosti nor Colm moved. It was warm in the summer sun. “Listen, Frosti,” said Adals, “Tell Braga I am sorry to have left her that way. The truth is, I lacked the courage to face people and tell them what a failure I was at farming.” Adals’ voice was becoming weaker.

“Oh, no one is born a farmer.” Frosti was weeping.

“No. Well, once I had a success; I killed a man who had come here to do damage and that was something that won me praise. So I thought, perhaps I could be a fighter; Skeggi might get us a ship and we could all go raiding. But all we did was steal food from people’s plates. Whalemeat!” Adals groaned. Then he said, “Tell your mother...” But his voice had fallen so low that Colm could not make out the words. Then Adals was dead.

“What was it he said?” asked Frosti.

Colm shook his head. “Just tell Braga that his last thought was of her. Perhaps she will be pleased at that.”

Frosti looked down at the corpse of his step-father. “I suppose she had little enough pleasure of him otherwise.” He grimaced. “This might have been my end.”

“No, Frosti, I told you before, you are made of better stuff.” But Frosti only shook his head.

The sun climbed higher in the sky and Snorri and Hallvard began to assess the captured thieves. Colm saw that most of them were young, runaways from a father who beat them too often, perhaps, or a farmer who worked them too much or just foolish boys full of romantic notions of being a robber. Maybe, he thought, they were young enough to learn how to be a useful man. He looked at Skeggi’s ruined corpse and remembered him as the youth who had neglected his duties for the sake of a roll in the hay. Many a sixteen-year-old would have made the same choice! Still, Skeggi caused a problem that could have developed into a serious feud with many dead. So, Colm thought, how to deal with these matters? He was struck that Snorri had offered mercy to these young men. Perhaps that was the way a Christian godi should act. It helped that none of Skeggi’s gang had killed anyone.

When Hallvard asked if any of his followers would take on any of the gang, Frosti stepped forward immediately to accept one as a farmhand. Colm also took one of the robbers, a young man named Cran, to install on a secondary farm that he had purchased from Svart’s widow. The man who ran it was steady and wise, Colm thought, and perhaps could bring this fellow around. Cran was a bit older than some of the others but Colm thought he looked intelligent enough to learn.

Colm asked Hallvard, “Did everything go as you hoped?” It seemed to him that both the young godis had done well, far better than he himself could have done.

“Yes. We all shared a useful experience. We outdid the men in the North Quarter, too.” Hallvard shook his head. “Of course, Snorri will get most of the credit.”

“Does that bother you?”

“Snorri seems wise enough. That was a good idea, to show mercy to these men. Still, I don’t want to bend my knee to him.” Hallvard shrugged. “For now, this is good enough.”

So everyone went home, well pleased with their work.