Gisli in Sæból by C.E. St. John-Mildmay 1866
"Now Eyjolf and his kinsmen press on hard, for they felt that their fame and honour lay on it. Then they thrust at him with spears, so that his entrails fall out; but he swept up the entrails with his shirt and bound the rope round the wound.
Then Gisli called out and said they had better wait a while:
"Wife so fair, so never failing,
So truly loved, so sorely cross'd,
Thou wilt often miss me wailing,
Thou wilt weep thy hero lost.
But my soul is stout as ever ,
Swords may bite, I feel no smart
Father! better heirloom never
Owned thy son than hardy heart."
That was Gisli's last song, and as soon as ever he had suing it he rushes down from the crag and smites Thord, Eyjolf's kinsman, on the head, and cleaves him down to the belt, but Gisli fell down on his body and breathed his last.
But they were all much wounded, Eyjolf's companions. Gisli there lost his life with so many great and sore wounds that it was a wonder to see. They say that he never turned his heel, and none of them saw that his strokes were lighter, the last than the first. There now ends Gisli's life, and it has always been said he was the greatest champion--though he was not lucky in all things.
Now they drag him down to the flat ground, and take away his sword, and bury him there in the gravel, and so go down to the sea. There on the sea-shore the sixth man breathed his last. Eyjolf offered Auda to take her with him, but she would not. After that Eyjolf fares home to Otterdale, and there, that same night, the seventh man breathes his last. An eighth lies bedridden from wounds twelve months, and then dies. As for the rest, they were healed, and got nothing but shame for their pains.
It has been said, in short, by one and all that there never was a more famous defence made by one man in times of which the truth is known."
-Gísli Saga, Ch.18
Source:
http://sagasteads.blogspot.com/2010/11/emergency-first-aid-and-death-of-gisli.html
Quote:
https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/gto/gto23.htm
Then Gisli called out and said they had better wait a while:
"Wife so fair, so never failing,
So truly loved, so sorely cross'd,
Thou wilt often miss me wailing,
Thou wilt weep thy hero lost.
But my soul is stout as ever ,
Swords may bite, I feel no smart
Father! better heirloom never
Owned thy son than hardy heart."
That was Gisli's last song, and as soon as ever he had suing it he rushes down from the crag and smites Thord, Eyjolf's kinsman, on the head, and cleaves him down to the belt, but Gisli fell down on his body and breathed his last.
But they were all much wounded, Eyjolf's companions. Gisli there lost his life with so many great and sore wounds that it was a wonder to see. They say that he never turned his heel, and none of them saw that his strokes were lighter, the last than the first. There now ends Gisli's life, and it has always been said he was the greatest champion--though he was not lucky in all things.
Now they drag him down to the flat ground, and take away his sword, and bury him there in the gravel, and so go down to the sea. There on the sea-shore the sixth man breathed his last. Eyjolf offered Auda to take her with him, but she would not. After that Eyjolf fares home to Otterdale, and there, that same night, the seventh man breathes his last. An eighth lies bedridden from wounds twelve months, and then dies. As for the rest, they were healed, and got nothing but shame for their pains.
It has been said, in short, by one and all that there never was a more famous defence made by one man in times of which the truth is known."
-Gísli Saga, Ch.18
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| Gisli in Sæból. From 'The Story of Gisli the Outlaw', trans. Sir G. W. Dasent (Edinburgh, 1866). |
Source:
http://sagasteads.blogspot.com/2010/11/emergency-first-aid-and-death-of-gisli.html
Quote:
https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ice/gto/gto23.htm
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