homestead in the Vestribygd on the estate known as
Lysufjordr (shining firth). The man who was called Thorstein owned the
other half of the homestead. His wife was called Sigrid. Thorstein
went, during the autumn, to Lysufjordr, to his namesake, both he and
Gudrid. Their reception was a welcome one. They were there during the
winter. When little of the winter was past, the event happened there
that fever broke out on their estate. The overseer of the work was
named Garth. He was an unpopular man. He took the fever first and
died. Afterwards, and with but little intermission, one took the fever
after another and died. Then Thorstein, Eirik's son, fell ill, and
also Sigrid, the wife of his namesake Thorstein. [And one evening
Sigrid left the house, and rested awhile opposite the outer door; and
Gudrid accompanied her; and they looked back towards the outer door,
and Sigrid screamed out aloud. Gudrid said, "We have come forth
unwarily, and thou canst in no wise withstand the cold; let us even go
home as quickly as possible." "It is not safe as matters are,"
answered Sigrid. "There is all that crowd of dead people before the
door; Thorstein, thy husband, also, and myself, I recognise among
them, and it is a grief thus to behold." And when this passed away,
she said, "Let us now go, Gudrid; I see the crowd no longer."
Thorstein, Eirik's son, had also disappeared from her sight; he had
seemed to have a whip in his hand, and to wish to smite the ghostly
troop. Afterwards they went in, and before morning came she was dead,
and a coffin was prepared for the body. Now, the same day, the men
purposed to go out fishing, and Thorstein led them to the landing
places, and in the early morning he went to see what they had caught.
Then Thorstein, Eirik's son, sent word to his namesake to come to him,
saying that matters at home were hardly quiet; that the housewife was
endeavouring to rise to her feet and to get under the clothes beside
him. And when he was come in she had risen upon the edge of the bed.
Then took he her by the hands and laid a pole-axe upon her breast.
Thorstein, Eirik's son, died near nightfall. Thorstein, the franklin,
begged Gudrid to lie down and sleep, saying that he would watch over
the body during the night. So she did, and when a little of the night
was past, Thorstein, Eirik's son, sat up and spake, saying he wished
Gudrid to be called to him, and that he wished to speak with her. "God
wills," he said, "that t