The Eyrbyggja Saga on Arnkel

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 12 - Of Arnkel The Priest And Others.

• attestation: Arnkel son of Thorolf Haltfoot was the biggest and strongest man in the district, a lawman, temple-priest, and most fortunate in friends

  "Arnkel, son of Thorolf Haltfoot, dwelt at Lairstead by Vadils-head; he was the biggest and strongest of men, a great lawman and mighty wise, and was a good and true man, and before all others, even in those parts, in luck of friends and hardihood; he was withal a Temple-Priest"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 16 - Gunnlaug Is Witch-Ridden Geirrid Summoned, Of Thorarin.

• attestation: Arnkel swore an oath on the stall-ring that Geirrid did not harm Gunnlaug, and the twelve-man jury acquitted her

  "Arnkel the Priest went to the doom and made oath on the stall-ring that Geirrid had not wrought the hurt of Gunnlaug; Thorarin made oath with him and ten other men, and then Helgi gave the verdict for Geirrid."

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 20 - The End Of Katla And Odd.

• attestation: Arnkel and Thorarin rode to Mewlithe with twelve men and then proceeded to Holt to confront Odd

  "Arnkel and Thorarin heard this, they rode from home out to Mewlithe, twelve men all told"

• attestation: Arnkel recognized both illusions after leaving, suspecting first the rock and then the goat were actually Odd

  "Is it not in your mind that Odd was there in the likeness of that he-goat?"

• attestation: On the third search, Arnkel's men found only a house-boar under the ash-heap and still failed to find Odd

  "they saw nought quick save a house-boar that Katla owned, which lay under the ash-heap; and thereafter they fared away"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 21 - They Take Rede About The Blood-Feud.

• attestation: Arnkel convened Thorarin, Vermund, and Alfgeir to discuss whether to pursue legal settlement at the Thing or flee abroad

  "Arnkel called to him for a talk Thorarin his kinsman, Vermund, and Alfgeir, and asked them what kind of help they deemed the friendliest for them: whether they would ride to the Thing"

• attestation: Arnkel warned that pursuing legal action at the Thing could either lead to costly monetary atonements or escalation of the feud

  "either that peace will be brought about, and then will your purses be shaken in atoning all who were slain there, or were hurt before you. That too may hap for one thing if the riding to the Thing is risked, that the troubles may wax"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 22 - Snorri Summons Thorarin.

• attestation: Arnkel counseled restraint and refused to attack Snorri's larger force at Lairstead

  "Arnkel said that that should not be; "Snorri's law shall we bear," said he, and he said that only that should be wrought as things stood which need drove them to"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 25 - Of Vermund And Thorarin In Norway; Of Those Bareserks.

• attestation: Arnkel suggested Vermund give the berserkers to Stir, arguing Stir's domineering nature made them a fitting match

  "he put in a word that he had better give them to Stir, and said ir rather befitted him to have such men because of his overweening and iniquitous ways"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 26 - Of Vigfus And Swart The Strong. The Slaying Of Vigfus.

• attestation: Arnkel refused to take up Vigfus's case, saying it belonged to the Kiallekings and suggesting Stir should handle it

  "he put that off from him, and said that that belonged to the Kiallekings, the kin of Vigfus; and above all would he have the case go to Stir"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 27 - Arnkel Takes Up The Blood-Feud For Vigfus.

• attestation: Arnkel initially repeated his earlier refusal to take up the blood-suit for Vigfus

  "Arnkel said that he had said before whereto his mind was given about the suit"

• attestation: Arnkel recoiled but finally agreed to lead the suit, warning that Vigfus's kin would lose their lands before he would

  "Go," says he, "and say so much to the kin of Vigfus, that henceforward they waver not more in their help against Snorri the Priest, than I shall in the leading of the suit; but so my mind tells me that, however the case goes, they shall lay land under foot or ever I do"

• attestation: Arnkel recognized Vermund's cunning behind Thorgerd's gruesome stratagem

  "But I see that these thy doings are by Vermund's counsel; but no need will he have to egg me on wheresoever we brothers-in-law are in one place"

• attestation: In spring Arnkel prosecuted all participants in Vigfus's slaying except Snorri the Priest at the Thorsness Thing

  "in the spring Arnkel set afoot the case for the slaying of Vigfus against all those who had been at the slaying, except Snorri the Priest"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 30 - Of The Evil Dealings Of Thorolf Halt-Foot.

• attestation: Arnkel offered to ask Thorolf to compensate Ulfar for the stolen hay but doubted it would succeed

  "Arnkel said he would bid his father pay boot for the hay, but said that none the less it sorely misgave him that nought would come of it"

• attestation: Arnkel personally paid Ulfar for the stolen hay and then seized seven of Thorolf's oxen from the mountain pastures in retaliation

  "Arnkel paid Ulfar what he would for the hay; and when father and son next met, Arnkel claimed the price of the hay from his father"

• attestation: Arnkel slaughtered all seven of Thorolf's oxen for his own household, claiming them as payment for the hay

  "Arnkel let drive from the fells seven oxen of his father's, and had them all slaughtered for his own household needs"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 31 - Of Thorolf Halt-Foot And Snorri The Priest.

• attestation: Arnkel and his men saw the fire from Lairstead and rushed to rescue Ulfar, capturing the thralls

  "Arnkel and his men sat drinking at Lairstead, and when they went to bed they saw fire at Ulfar's-fell. Then they went thereto forthwith, and took the thralls, and slaked the fire"

• attestation: Arnkel had all six thralls hanged at Vadils-head the next morning

  "The next morning Arnkel let bring the thralls to Vadils-head, and there were they all hanged"

• attestation: The enmity between Arnkel and Thorbrand's sons ended their tradition of shared games

  "Nor might they henceforth have games together, which they had hitherto held, turn and turn about"

• attestation: At the Thorsness Thing, Arnkel claimed the thralls were lawfully killed as arsonists caught in the act

  "Arnkel claimed for himself a verdict of not guilty, and set that forth as a defence that the thralls were taken with quickfire for the burning of a homestead"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 32 - The Slaying Of Ulfar; Thorbrand's Sons Claim The Heritage.

• attestation: Arnkel backed Ulfar's claim to the inheritance, threatening force if necessary

  "Arnkel said that Ulfar should not be robbed of any man while their fellowship lasted and he might have his will"

• attestation: Arnkel saw a man running with a shield and recognized it as Ulfar's, deducing his friend had been murdered

  "Arnkel was out a-doors and saw how a man ran bearing a shield, and thought he should know the shield, and it came into his mind that Ulfar would not have given it up of his own good will"

• attestation: Arnkel ordered his men to kill the assassin on sight, suspecting his father's involvement

  "if this has befallen by my father's redes, and this man is Ulfar's banesman, then shall ye slay him, whoso he is, and not let him come before my eyes"

• attestation: Arnkel claimed all of Ulfar's property by right of the prior handsel, citing witnesses and denying Thorbrand's sons any share

  "Arnkel brought forward against it the witness of those who were near at the handsel Ulfar had given him, and said that he would uphold it, because he said it had never been lawfully called in question"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 33 - Of The Death Of Thorolf Halt-Foot.

• attestation: Arnkel refused to quarrel with Snorri over the wood, recognizing Thorolf's manipulative intent

  "Thou didst that for no friendship to me when thou gavest Snorri the wood, nor shall I do so much as for thy slandering to quarrel with Snorri about it"

• attestation: Arnkel entered the fire-hall and approached Thorolf from behind the seat, warning everyone not to face the corpse directly

  "Arnkel went into the fire-hall, and so up along it behind the seat at Thorolf's back, and bade all beware of facing Thorolf till his eyes were closed"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 34 - Thorolf Halt-Foot Walks; The Second Burial Of Him.

• attestation: Arnkel received a message and departed with twelve men carrying ropes and digging tools

  "the messenger goes, and tells Arnkel, and he got ready to go, and he and his were twelve in all, and had with them yoke-beasts, and ropes"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 37 - The Slaying Of Arnkel.

• attestation: Arnkel managed both Ulfar's-fell and Orligstead because nobody else dared settle there due to Thorbrand's sons' violence

  "He had under him both the lands of Ulfar's-fell and Orligstead, for no one could be got to dwell on the lands for fear of the violence of Thorbrand's sons"

• attestation: Arnkel habitually transported hay from Orligstead at night during new moons to avoid detection

  "in the winter it was Arnkel's wont to carry hay from Orligstead in the night in the new moons, because the thralls did other work at home by day"

• attestation: On a winter night before Yule, Arnkel set out for Orligstead with three thralls including Ofeig, using four oxen and two sledges

  "on a night of winter before Yule, Arnkel arose and waked three of his thralls, one of whom was called Ofeig. Goodman Arnkel went with them up to Orligstead. Four oxen they had, and two sledges withal"

• attestation: Arnkel was renowned as a tireless worker who kept his thralls laboring from sunrise to sunset

  "Arnkel was a great man for work, and made his thralls work all day from sunrise to sunset"

• attestation: Arnkel ordered his thralls to run home and rouse his followers while he defended the rickyard alone

  "Ye shall run home and wake up my following, and they will come quickly to meet me, but here in the rickyard is a good place to make a stand"

• attestation: The other thrall failed to raise help, instead assisting a fellow thrall with hay-carrying

  "when he came to the haybarn there was his fellow- thrall before him carrying in the hay. He called to the thrall as he ran to help bear in the hay to him"

• attestation: Arnkel improvised a weapon by tearing the runner from his sledge and took position in the high-walled garth

  "he tore the runner from under the sledge, and had it up into the garth with him. The garth was very high outside, and within it was heaped up high as well; and a good fighting-stead it was"

• attestation: Arnkel initially deflected spear attacks with the sledge-runner, breaking many shafts without being wounded

  "straightway they set on Arnkel, and chiefly with spear-thrust, which Arnkel put from him with the sledge-runner, and many of the spear-shafts were broken thereby, nor was Arnkel wounded"

• attestation: The sledge-runner broke at its mortice when it struck the garth wall, forcing Arnkel to switch to sword and shield

  "the sledge-runner was broken at the mortice, and part thereof fell out over the garth. Arnkel had laid his sword and shield against a hayrick, and now he took up his weapons and defended himself therewith"

• attestation: Arnkel made a last stand atop a hayrick before being overwhelmed and killed

  "Arnkel leapt up on to the hayrick, and defended himself thence for a space, but such was the end of the matter that he fell, and they covered him over there in the garth with hay"

Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 38 - The Blood-Suit For Arnkel.

• attestation: Arnkel's blood-suit fell to women heirs, weakening the prosecution of so noble a man's killing

  "After the slaying of Arnkel, the heritage and blood-suit fell to women, and for this reason the blood-suit was not pushed forward so strongly as men deemed they might have looked for over so noble a man"

• attestation: A new law was enacted barring women and men under sixteen from serving as plaintiffs in blood-suits

  "the rulers of the land made this law, that for the time to come no woman and no man under sixteen winters old should be suitors in a blood-suit"

• attestation: The inadequate outcome of Arnkel's case directly motivated the new blood-suit eligibility law

  "because the blood-suit was not so seemly as men deemed befitted such a chief as was Arnkel, the rulers of the land made this law"

• attestation: The blood-suit eligibility law remained in force permanently after its enactment

  "And that law has ever been holden to since."