THE SCENE: The great hero Sigmundur did many incredible things in his life. But when he and his brother Thorir got stranded in the icy seas of the Faroe Islands, he tragically discovered that there were limits to what his heroism could achieve.
THE TEXT: For a long while Sigmundur, Thorir, and Einar swam in the direction of South Island, the closest land, thought it was still distant across a mile of open sea.
When they had swum nearly halfway across the channel, Einar gasped, “We’re not going to make it.”
Sigmundur called back that they would make it: “Just grab onto my shoulders, Einar!”
Einar clutched his back, and Sigumundur and Thorir swam on.
Then Thorir, who was falling behind, called out to Sigmundur, “My brother, how long are you going to drag a dead man behind you?”
“I didn’t know I was,” said Sigmundur, letting Einar go.
They kept swimming until they were three-fourths of the way across the channel.
Then Thorir said, “All of our lives, Sigmundur, we’ve been together. You’ve been my only family, and I’ve been yours. But now it seems likely that our dear partnership is coming to an end. I’ve swam as far as I can. I want you to save yourself … save your own life, and forget about me. Because you’ll die, my brother, if you try to save me too.”
“That’s not going to happen; we’re not going to be separated like this,” insisted Sigmundur. “Either we make it to shore together or not at all.”
Sigumundur started floating and swimming with Thorir clutching his shoulders. Thorir was so faint that he could barely hang on. Sigmundur swam onward until he reached South Island. Sigmundur was exhausted and the choppy surf at the island kept buffeting him away from shore, but after a while he drifted onto the beach, where Thorir slid off his shoulders. He was dead. Sigumundur crawled up on the shore, so weak that he couldn’t walk, and slithered up onto the rocks, finally collapsing in a bed of seaweed at the first light of dawn. There he lay until the sun was fully up.
– The Faroe-Island (Færeyinga) Saga, 13th Century AD
