Trafika Europe 14 - Italian Piazza

Lawrence Millman

every one of his bones shake. Of a sudden, he rose up and ran as best he could out of the Church. A few men gave pursuit, for they thought he might do some harm to himself. They fol lowed him to Stakkagynpa, a high cl iff jutting over the sea. And whether he leaped off the cl iff or whether he’d grown so large and ponderous that the rock spl it under him, the men could not say. But down he went, down into the sea, landing with a very loud splash. One of the men later swore that when he peered over the cl iff, he saw an enormous finback whale where Thorgeir had landed — a finback whale with a red head. And soon it happened that a huge redheaded whale was harrying boats in the bay of Faxafloi. Rhymes were made about how this whale would come up beneath a boat and capsize it with its great back, then thrash the water with its great tai l unti l everyone who’d been in the boat was drowned or battered to death or frequently both. A chieftain from Sudurnes named Bjarni , son of another Bjarni , composed a rhyme about the whale that began l ike this: Giants and two-headed ghosts

any fool can dispose of, but a red-headed whale

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