Grettir the Strong, an Icelandic Saga | Page 8

and their
ships kept together. Onund said:
"Hallvard and I were aforetime deemed
worthy in storm of swords to

bear us.
With one foot now I step on the ship
towards Iceland. The
poet's day is o'er."
They had a rough passage with cross winds, mostly from the south, so
that they drifted away to the north. They made Iceland right in the
North, at Langanes, where they regained their reckonings. The ships
were near enough to each other for them to speak
together. Asmund
said they had better make for Eyjafjord, and this was agreed to. They
kept under the land and heavy weather set in from the south-east. Just
as Onund was tacking, the yard was carried away; they lowered the sail
and were driven out to sea. Asmund got under the lee of Hrisey, where
he waited until a fair wind set in which took him up to Eyjafjord. Helgi
the Lean gave him the whole of Kraeklingahlid, and he lived at
SouthGlera. A few years later his brother Asgrim came to Iceland and

took up his residence at North-Glera. His son was Ellidagrim the
father of Asgrim.
CHAPTER IX
ONUND SETTLES IN KALDBAK
Onund Treefoot was driven away from the shore for several days, after
which the wind shifted and blew towards the land. Then they made
land again, which those of them who had been there before recognised
as the western coast of the Skagi peninsula. They sailed in to
Strandafloi, almost to Sudrstrandir. There came rowing towards them a
ten-oared boat with six men on board, who hailed the sea-going ship
and asked who was their captain. Onund told them his name and asked
whence they came. They said they were the men of Thorvald from
Drangar. Then Onund asked whether all the land round that coast was
occupied; they answered there was very little left at Sudrstrandir and
none at all in the North. So Onund asked his men whether they would
seek some land further to the West or take that of which they had just
been told. They said they would first explore a little further. They
sailed in along the coast of the bay and anchored off a creek near Arnes,
where they put off in a boat to the shore.

Here dwelt a wealthy man named Eirik Snare, who had taken the land
between Ingolfsfjord and Ofaera in Veidileysa. On hearing that Onund
had arrived in those parts, he offered to let him have such portion as he
needed from his own lands, adding that there was little land which had
not already been taken up. Onund said he would first like to see what
there was.
Then they went further into the bay past some fjords and came to
Ofaera, where Eirik said: "Here is what there is to see. From here down
to the lands of Bjorn is unoccupied." A high range of mountains, on
which snow had fallen, rose from beside the river. Onund looked at the
mountains and spoke a verse:
"My lands and my might have drifted away
as drifts the ship on the
ocean.
My friends and my home I have left behind me,
and bartered
my acres for Kaldbak."
"Many a man," answered Eirik, "has lost so much in Norway that it
may not be mended. I expect too that nearly all the lands in the main
districts have been taken, so that I will not urge you to leave these parts
and seek elsewhere. I will keep to my word and let you have whatever
lands of my own you may require."
Onund said he would take advantage of his offer, and in the end he took
some of the Ofaera land and the three creeks Byrgisvik, Kolbeinsvik,
and Kaldbaksvik as far as Kaldbak's Cliff.
Afterwards Eirik gave him
Veidileysa with Reykjarfjord and the outer part of Reykjanes on that
side. Nothing was settled about the drift which came to the coast,
because there was so much of it that every one could have what he
wanted. Onund made his home in Kaldbak and had a large household.
His property increased and he had another house in Reykjarfjord.
Kolbeinn lived in Kolbeinsvik and for some years Onund lived quietly
at home.
CHAPTER X
OFEIG GRETTIR IS KILLED. VISIT OF ONUND TO AUD THE

DEEP-MINDED
Onund was a man of such valour that few, even of those whose limbs
were sound, could measure themselves against him. His name, too, was
renowned throughout the whole country on account of his ancestry. It
happened that a dispute arose between Ofeig Grettir and one
Thorbjornm called Jarlakappi, which ended in Ofeig being killed by
Thorbjorn in Grettisgeil near Haell. The feud was taken up by Ofeig's
sons who assembled a large force of men. Onund Treefoot was sent for,
and in the spring he rode South to