his hour be given to me for my own, and the
further completion of my plan." Thorstein, the franklin, went to find
Gudrid, and waked her; begged her to cross herself, and to ask God for
help, and told her what Thorstein, Eirik's son, had spoken with him;
"and he wishes," said he, "to meet with thee. Thou art obliged to
consider what plan thou wilt adopt, because I can in this issue advise
thee in nowise." She answered, "It may be that this, this wonderful
thing, has regard to certain matters, which are afterwards to be had
in memory; and I hope that God's keeping will test upon me, and I
will, with God's grace, undertake the risk and go to him, and know
what he will say, for I shall not be able to escape if harm must
happen to me. I am far from wishing that he should go elsewhere; I
suspect, moreover, that the matter will be a pressing one." Then went
Gudrid and saw Thorstein. He appeared to her as if shedding tears. He
spake in her ear, in a low voice, certain words which she alone might
know; but this he said so that all heard, "That those men would be
blessed who held the true faith, and that all salvation and mercy
accompanied it; and that many, nevertheless, held it lightly." "It
is," said he, "no good custom which has prevailed here in Greenland
since Christianity came, to bury men in unconsecrated ground with few
religious rites over them. I wish for myself, and for those other men
who have died, to be taken to the church; but for Garth, I wish him to
be burned on a funeral pile as soon as may be, for he is the cause of
all those ghosts which have been among us this winter." He spake to
Gudrid also about her own state, saying that her destiny would be a
great one, and begged her to beware of marrying Greenland men. He
begged her also to pay over their property to the Church and some to
the poor; and then he sank down for the second time.] It had been a
custom in Greenland, after Christianity was brought there, to bury men
in unconsecrated ground on the farms where they died. An upright stake
was placed over a body, and when the priests came afterwards to the
place, then was the stake pulled out, consecrated water poured
therein, and a funeral service held, though it might be long after the
burial. The bodies were removed to the church in Eiriksfjordr, and
funeral services held by the priests. After that died Thorbjorn. The
whole property then went to Gudrid. Eirik received her into his
household, and looked well af