Booming and quaking.
Cracking and breaking,
Down crashed the rafters
And roofbeams sturdy.
Torrent of flames burst forth seething and vicious.
On rushed the fire-demons, raging. malicious.
Smoke-columns blazing rose up from the holocaust.
The gable alone stood like rock in an ocean vast.
Then both were dead
Njall and Bergthora.
Gone was Kari.
Cremated Grimur.
Hewn down Helgi.
Hedinn remained
Pinned at the gable
And scornfully grinned.
Orange-red embers
Glisten and crackle.
Blood-tinted lightbeams
Play on the hero.
They shine on his teeth and pale sharp-featured countenance,
Changing in hue. while the blaze billows leap and dance.
Twisting from firetongues a flamewreath all flittering,
Encircling the warrior. brilliantly glittering.
His hands were holding
Battle-Ogre.
"How art thou. my ax!
Heating somewhat?
Thou wouldst not he
So blue and arid
Were there aught else
Than flames to sunder."
Red-rays prophetic
Of future bloodsheds.
Glowed on the ax-head's
Trenchant edges.
Skarphedinn grinned at the shining steel: "I know thee,
Ax of mine. out from the flames bring regards from me",
Swinging the vengeance-filled weapon with power. he
Buried it deep in the core of the gable-tree.
Hannes Hafstein [Hannes Þórður Pétursson Hafstein] (1861 – 1922) Iceland
Translated by Gudmund J. Gislason
Source: The Icelandic Canadian, Volume 38, No. 2, Winter 1979
Skarphedinn Njalsson was the eldest son of Njall Thorgeirsson at Bergporshvall (Bergthorsknoll) in southern Iceland the protagonist of the famous 13th-century work Njal's Saga. In 1011 Skarphedinn and a number of other members of his father Njall's household perished as their enemies besieged them and set fire to their home.
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