1 34 Norivay and the Norzvegians 



husband to insult the family of Njal, or to avenge the 

 slights which she conceives herself to have received 

 from it, she casts about to find otlier instruments. One 

 of these is Sigmund, an Easterling (Norwegian), who 

 had come out to Iceland. ' He was a great voyager and 

 a comely and courteous man, tall too, and strong. He 

 was a man of proud spirit and a good skald (bard), and 

 well trained in most feats of strength. He was noisy 

 and boisterous, and given to gibes and mocking.' Hall- 

 gerda first egged on Sigmund to slay a servant of Njal, 

 one Thord Freemansson. Then, when that business 

 was pacified, and Gunnar had paid atonement for 

 Thord, Hallgerda one day made Sigmund sing a mock- 

 ing stanza on Njal and on his sons. Njal had no 

 beard, so Hallgerda christened him ' the beardless carle;' 

 and on hearing that he was casting dung over his land, 

 she asked wliy he did not cast some over his beard. 

 And to Njal's sons she straightway gave the name of 

 dung-beardlings. 



' And now do pray,' she said, ' give some stave about 

 them, Sigmund, and let us get some good by thy gift 

 of song.' 



So Sigmund sang some satiric verses, which the 

 gossips carried to the ears of Bergthora, the wife of 

 Njal. Njal's sons were Skarphedinn, Grim, and Helgi. 

 These three were the children of Bergthora ; and Haus- 

 kuld was their bastard brother. The sons were all 

 grown men, and two of them were married, but they 

 stayed with their families in the house of their father 

 and mother. They were all strong men, Skarphedinn, 

 we are told, had dark crisp hair and fine eyes. But his 

 face was ashen pale. Grim, too, had dark hair, but was 



