Trafika Europe 14 - Italian Piazza

Lawrence Millman

to wander the upland heaths.” “In mine as wel l ,” said the other, “but it is because of her that we now have the monster in our thral l.” And just as he said this, the whale let out an ungodly roar such as the demons make who l ive inside Hekla. For it had become stuck in the shal lows. The priests drew out their ram’s horns and blew loudly. Al l at once a group of men with spears and axes emerged from behind the rocks and boulders along the the shore, then dashed toward the water, shouting and yel l ing. The son of the chieftain Bjarni cal led for vengeance in his father ’s name and leaped onto the whale’s back. Then he proceeded to hack away wi ldly with a large broad axe. The others were right behind him. Again and again they plunged their weapons into the whale, whose body soon grew as red of hue as its head. It roared and slapped at them with its great tai l , but to no avai l. It was told that during this battle Gudrun had the strength of a berserk, and that she tried to stop the ki l l ing of the whale al l by herself, fal l ing on one man, then another, kicking them, biting them, and tearing at their hair. But no berserk, not even one driven by motherly love, can defeat so many weapon-wielding men. Thus she could not stop them from making a spear-cushion of her son.

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