THE SCENE: Age ain’t nothing but a number, as is demonstrated in the passage below, where the eighty-year-old Hrut confronts a fully-armed horse thief (Eldgrim) who is stealing from Hrut’s nephew Thorleik.
THE TEXT: Hrut greeted him, and Eldgrim returned the greeting, but rather tardily. Hrut asked him where he was going with the horses.
“I won’t try to hide if from you,” replied Eldgrim, “even though I’m away of the kindship between you and Thorleik: I’ve come to fetch these horses, and I don’t intend him ever to see them again. Go and warn Thorleik if you want to, “said Eldgrim, “for as you can see I left home so equipped that I would be only too pleased if Thorleik and I happened to meet.” And with that he brandished the barbed spear he was holding. He had a helmet on his head and was girded with a sword, and carried a shield at his side; and he was wearing a coat of mail.
“I won’t allow my nephew Thorleik to be robbed if I can help it, even though there’s little love lost between us.”
“Do you mean you’re going to try to take the horses away from me?” said Eldgrim.
Hrut replied, “I shall give you other stud-horses if you will let these go, thought they may not be quite as good as these ones.”
“That’s all very well, Hrut,” said Eldgrim, “but now that I’ve got my hands on Thorleik’s horses you won’t take them off me, either with bribes or threats.”
Then Hrut replied, “I think the choice you’re making will be the worst for both of us.”
Elgrim now tried to get away, and spurred his horse; and when Hrut saw this he raised his halberd and drove it between Eldgrim’s shoulder-blades so hard that the coat of mail burst open at the impact and the halberd came out through his chest. Eldgrim fell dead from his horse, as was only to be expected. Hrut then covered up the body; the place is called Eldgrimsholt, and lies to the south on Kambsness. Hrut was eighty years of age when he killed Eldgrim, and his prestige was greatly enhanced by it.
– Laxdaela Saga, 13th Century AD
[Image Credit: Reza Afshar]
