The Eyrbyggja Saga on Frodis-water
Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 51 - It Rains Blood At Frodis-Water. Of Thorgunna, And How She Died And Was Buried At Skalaholt.
attestation: During haymaking at Frodis-water, a black cloud came from the north above Skor and settled directly over the homestead
"a black cloud-fleck came across the heaven from the north above Skor, and swiftly drew over the heavens, and thitherward straight over the stead"
attestation: The cloud brought supernatural darkness and a shower of blood that fell only on Frodis-water
"Then fell so great a rain from the cloud that all the hay that was spread was wetted; but the cloud drew off swiftly and the weather cleared. Then men saw that it had rained blood in that shower"
attestation: The blood rain occurred solely at Frodis-water and nowhere else
"Now that shower had come nowhere else but to Frodis-water"
Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 52 - The Beginning Of Wonders At Frodis-Water.
attestation: Frodis-water had a fire-hall with lock-beds, following the custom of the time
"At Frodis-water was there a great fire-hall, and lock-beds in therefrom, as the wont then was."
attestation: The fire-hall had two butteries on either side, one storing stock-fish and the other meal
"Out from the hall there were two butteries, one on either hand, with stock-fish stored in one, and meal in the other."
attestation: A half-moon apparition appeared along the wall on the evening the corpse-bearers returned, moving backward and counter-clockwise
"they saw how by the panelling of the house-wall was come a half-moon, and all might see it who were in the house; and it went backward and withershins round about the house"
attestation: The Moon of Weird appeared every evening for an entire week
"So a whole week this thing endured, that the Moon of Weird came in there evening after evening."
Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 53 - Now Men Die At Frodis-Water, More Wonders.
attestation: The shepherd at Frodis-water became withdrawn and distraught, talking to himself, and people believed he was bewitched
"the shepherd came in exceeding hushed. Little he said, and what he said was peevish; so men deemed it most like that he was bewitched, for he fared in distraught wise, and was ever talking to himself"
attestation: The shepherd died in his bed two weeks into winter after returning home one night
"when two weeks of winter were worn, the shepherd came home on a night, and went straight to his bed and lay down, and in the morning when men carne to him he was dead."
attestation: Six household members died one after another following Thorir's death, with the plague approaching Yule
"one after another died, till six were dead; and by then it was hard on the Yule-fast, though at that time there was no fasting in Iceland."
attestation: The stock-fish pile grew so large in the buttery that it filled the space to the tie-beam and the door could not open
"the pile of stock-fish was so heaped up in the buttery that it filled it up, so that the door might not be opened, and it went right up to the tie-beam"
attestation: Unseen forces were heard tearing the stock-fish from its skin at night
"they heard how the stock-fish was being riven out of its skin, but when men looked thereto, they found there nought quick."
attestation: A seal's head pushed up through the floor of the fire-hall on the same evening Thorod departed
"they saw how a seal's head came up through the floor of the fire-hall."
Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 54 - The Death Of Thorod Scat-Catcher; The Dead Walk At Frodis-Water.
attestation: The drowned men's arrival at their own funeral was interpreted through pre-Christian belief despite the household being nominally Christian
"in those days little of the olden lore was cast aside, though men were baptized and were Christian by name."
attestation: The household tried making fires in a different chamber, but both groups of ghosts followed them there too
"the evening next after were fires made in another chamber, and it was deemed that they would be less likely to come thither, but it fell not out so, and all went in the same way as the night before"
attestation: A mysterious tail as large as a singed ox-tail, short-haired and seal-like, appeared from the stock-fish heap
"up from the heap came a great tail as big as a singed neat's tail, and it was short- haired and seal-haired"
attestation: Both men and women tried to pull the tail from the stock-fish heap but it slipped through their hands, skinning their palms
"folk fared up on to the heap, both men and women, and tugged at the tail, and got nought done, and they thought none otherwise than that the tail was dead; but lo, as they pulled, the tail drew down through their hands, so that the skin came off the palms of those who had the firmest hold thereon"
attestation: Every fish in the lower part of the stock-fish heap was found torn from its skin after the tail incident
"every fish therein was found torn from the skin, so that there was no fish found in his skin in the lower part of the heap; but nought quick was found therein."
attestation: More women than men died during the renewed sickness, with six more deaths occurring after the tail appeared
"the sickness fell on folk anew after the tail was seen, and more women than men died; and yet six men died in that brunt."
attestation: The household at Frodis-water was reduced from thirty servants at harvest to seven, with eighteen dead and five fled
"At harvest-tide there had been thirty serving-folk there, but eighteen were dead, and five fled away, and but seven were left behind at Goi."
Chapter 1 - Herein Is Told How Ketil Flatneb Fares To West-Over-Sea. > Chapter 55 - A Door-Doom At Frodis-Water.
attestation: Each ghost rose and departed as its individual sentence was pronounced, with each speaking reluctant parting words
"each arose as the sentence fell on him, and all said somewhat at their going forth; but ever it seemed by the words of each that they were all loth to depart."
attestation: After the door-doom, the priest hallowed the house with holy water and sang mass, ending all hauntings permanently
"the priest bare hallowed water and the holy things throughout the house, and on the next day they sang all the hours and mass with great solemnity, and so there was an end thereafter to all walkings and hauntings at Frodis-water."