Part 12 (1/2)
”And Kol said: 'Then this thing will happen: thou wilt never wish to give it up. And yet I tell thee, this sword will bite whatever it falls on, nor can its edge be deadened by spells, for it was forged by the dwarfs, and its name is Graysteel. And make up thy mind,' he said, 'that I will take it very ill indeed if I get not my sword back when I ask for it.'
”So Gisli took the sword and slew Bjorn with it, and got good fame for this feat. And time rolled on, and he gave not back the sword; and one day Kol met him, and Gisli had Graysteel in his hand, and Kol had an ax.
”And Kol asked if the sword had done him good service at his great need, and Gisli was full of its praises.
”'Well, now,' said Kol, 'I should like it back.'
”'Sell it to me,' said Gisli.
”'No,' said Kol.
”'I will give thee thy freedom for it,' said Gisli.
”'I will not sell it,' said Kol.
”'I will also give thee land and sheep and cattle and goods as much as thou wantest,' said Gisli.
”'I will not sell it a whit more for that,' said Kol.
”'Put thy own price on it in money, and I will get thee a fair wife also,' said Gisli.
”'There is no use talking about it,' said Kol. 'I will not sell it, whatsoever thou offerest. It has come to what I said would happen: that thou wouldst not give me back my weapon when thou knewest what virtue was in it.'
”'And I too will say what will happen,' said Gisli. 'Good will befall neither of us; for I will _not_ give up the sword, and it shall never come into any man's hand but mine, if I have my will.'
”Then Kol lifted his ax, and Gisli drew Graysteel, and they smote at each other. Kol's blow fell on Gisli's head, so that it sank into the brain; and Graysteel fell on Kol's head, and his skull was shattered, and Graysteel broke asunder. Then, as Kol gave up the ghost, he said:
”'It had been better that thou hadst given me my sword when I asked for it, for this is only the beginning of the ill fortune I will bring on thy kith and kin forever.'
”And so it has been. For a thousand years the tellings-up of our family are full of troubles that this thrall's curse has brought upon us. Few of our men have grown gray-headed; in the sea and on the battlefield they have found their graves; and the women have had sorrow in marriage and death in child-bearing.”
”It was an evil deed,” said David.
”It was a great curse for it also; one thousand years it has followed Gisli's children.”
”Not so! I believe it not! Neither the dead nor the living can curse those whom G.o.d blesses.”
”Yet always the Borsons have had the worst of ill fortune. We three only are now left of the great earls who ruled in Surnadale and in Fjardarfolk, and see how poor and sorrowful we are. My life has been woven out of grief and disappointment; Vala will never walk; and as for your own youth, was it not labor and sorrow only?”
”I believe not in any such spaedom. I believe in G.o.d the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. And as for the cursing of man, dead or alive, I will not fear what it can do to me. Gisli was indeed well served for his mean, ungrateful deed, and it would have been better if the berserker Bjorn had cut his false heart out of him.”
”Such talk is not like you, David. I can see now that your father did right to keep these b.l.o.o.d.y stories from your hearing. There is no help in them.”
”Well, I know not that. This night the minister was talking to me about taking a wife. If there be truth or power in Kol's curse, why should any Borson be born, that he or she may bear his spite? No; I will not marry, and--”
”In saying that you mock your own words. Where, then, is your trust in G.o.d? And the minister is right; you ought to take a wife. People think wrong of a young man who cannot fix his heart on one good woman. There is Christina Hey. Speak to her. Christina is sweet and wise, and will make a good wife.”
”I met Asta Fae as I came here. Very pretty indeed is her face, and she has a way to win any heart.”
”For all that, I do not think well of Asta. She is at the dance whenever there is one, and she has more lovers than a girl should have.”