The Hrafnkel's Saga (Hrafnkels saga Freysgoða) on Eyvindr

The Story of Hrafnkell, Frey's Priest

• attestation: Eyvindr travelled to Norway and then to Constantinople, where he served the Greek king and was honourably received.

  "Eyvindr became a traveller, and went to Norway, where he dwelt for the first winter; from there he went abroad into foreign lands, coming at last to a stay in Constantinople, where he was right honourably received by the Greek king"

• attribution: Eyvindr Bjarnason returned to Iceland after seven winters abroad, having greatly improved himself in manners and become a brisk man.

  "there came a certain ship into Reiðarfjörðr, the master of which was Eyvindr Bjarnason, who had been abroad for seven winters together. Eyvindr had bettered himself greatly as to manners, and had now become the briskest of men."

• attestation: Eyvindr rode from the ship to Hrafnkelsdalr with a party of six, including an Icelander he had taken from poverty abroad as his attendant.

  "They were five in company together, and a sixth there was, an attendant of Eyvindr, an Icelander by kin, and a relative of his. This youth Eyvindr had redeemed from poverty, and brought him now home in his own company, and had done to him as to himself"

• attestation: A serving woman saw Eyvindr's party crossing the Jökulsá ford and ran to wake Hrafnkell, shaming him into action by taunting his former bravery.

  "A certain woman was there by the waterside washing her linen, and, seeing the men travelling, the handmaiden gathers up her linen and rushes homeward ... running into the house herself ... she took up the wood, saying: "Sooth, indeed, are most of the old saws; 'so one grows craven as one grows old'""

• attestation: The handmaid identified Eyvindr by his fair shield and declared him worth taking in revenge against Sámr.

  ""Now Eyvindr Bjarnarson has just crossed the river at the ford of Skuli, riding with a shield so fair that it beamed again; surely he is so much of a man as to be worth taking in revenge.""

• attestation: Eyvindr's young attendant spotted Hrafnkell and eighteen men following them across the heath at Bessagötur, a boggy mire, and urged Eyvindr to flee.

  "the youth looked back and said to Eyvindr: "Some men there be riding after us, no less than eighteen in number, among whom there is one, a big man on his horse, riding in blue raiment, and to me he seems to bear the likeness of Hrafnkell, the priest""

• attribution: Eyvindr refused to flee, saying he had done nothing to offend Hrafnkell and would not run before any test.

  "Eyvindr said he felt no desire to ride so hurriedly away, "for I know not who the men may be, and many a man would find a matter good to laugh at if I should run away before it came to any trial at all.""

• attestation: Eyvindr's men urged him twice to ride away—first when Hrafnkell was far back, then when the bogs lay between them—but Eyvindr each time refused.

  "Now Eyvindr's men bade him ride away, now all trammels are past, "And thou wilt have time to reach Aðalból while the bog-land lies between thee and Hrafnkell." Eyvindr answered: "I mean not to fly away from any man to whom I never did any harm.""

• attestation: Eyvindr and his men took position on a hummock on a windswept neck of land and waited for Hrafnkell without speaking.

  "So now they rode upon the neck of the land where some small hills rise above the ground. On this neck, spurring off from the mountain, there was a certain hummock and a windswept place surrounded by high banks. Up to this spot Eyvindr rode, and got there off his horse and waited for them."

• attestation: The site of Eyvindr's death gave its name to the surrounding landscape: Eyvindr-hummock, Eyvindr-hills, and Eyvindr-dale.

  "In these parts, even to this day, the hummock is called Evindr-hummock, the mountains Eyvindr-hills, the valley Eyvindr-dale."