Trafika Europe 14 - Italian Piazza

The Saga of Redhead

bed and would not take food. Instead, she would alternately pray and beat herself with a hazel rod. A widowed woman, Nina, daughter of Bjorn, was sent by the parish to look after her. “Cheer up,” said Nina in order to comfort her, “for no one l ives beyond their fated day.” Hearing these words, Gudrun beat herself even harder, now using a birch rod. Early the next summer, the men of Sudurnes ven- tured out once again to Geirfugla Skerry in search of seabirds. As they approached the island, they observed a figure on the rocks. “No doubt a poacher from Keflavik,” said Keti l , son of Skapti. “Let it be a poacher,” remarked a man named Gunnar the Louse. “Worse things by far have been sighted here.” When the figure came down to the shore to meet them, they were more than a l ittle surprised to see that it was Thorgeir Redhead. They had expected to find his bones picked clean by the birds, but here was the fel low himself, seemingly as healthy as could be. “Thorgeir, is that real ly you?” the men said. For he was wearing a blue cloak of good cloth, but he had not been wearing this cloak when he was left on the skerry. “Yes, it is me,” he repl ied. He said he had not suffered in the least from exposure during the winter. On the

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