THE SCENE: The author of Eyrbyggja’s Saga has a gift for sketching the kind of detail that really make a scene come alive. Never is that more apparent that the below passage, where a conflict between a farmer and his mad bull is described with a vivid immediacy.
THE TEXT: When Thorodd was told how Glaesir was behaving, he rushed outside at once. There was a pile of wood stacked beside the outer door, and Thorodd took a large birch log and swung it over his shoulder, holding it by its branches. Then he ran down into the meadow to face the bull. When Glaesir saw him coming, he held his position and turned towards him. Thorodd shouted at him, but the bull was no more submissive for that. Then Thorodd hoisted the log and brought it down between the bull’s horns with such force that the log split apart at the branches. Glaesir bridled at the blow and charged Thorodd, who grabbed him by the horns and swung him to the side. This went on for a while, with Glaesir charging and Thorodd jumping out of the way and forcing him to one side or the other, until Thorodd began to tire. Then he leapt up on to the bull’s neck and clasped his arms below his throat, lying there on the bull’s head between his horns, in the hope of tiring him out. But the bull raced back and forward across the field with him on top.
Thorodd’s servants saw that the situation was looking very dangerous, but they did not dare to intervene without weapons. They went inside to get their weapons, and when they came back out, they ran down to the field with spears and other weapons. When the bull saw that, he drove his head down between his legs and twisted his head about so that he got one of his horns under Thorodd. Then he suddenly tossed his head, sending Thorodd’s torso into the air so that he seemed to be performing a headstand on the bull’s neck. As Thorodd fell back, Glaesir swung his head under him so that one of his horns plunged into Thorodd’s belly, making him sink down at once. Thorodd’s hands went loose, and the bull charged across the field and down to the river with a terrifying roar.
Thorodd’s servants raced after Glaesir, chasing him all the way across Geirvor and on until they came to bog beneath the farm at Hellar. There the bull charged out into the bog and sank down, never to come up again. The place has been called Glaesiskelda ever since. When the servants came back up to the home meadow, Thorodd was gone. He had gone back into the farmhouse, and when they came inside, they found him lying dead in his bed.
– The Saga of the People of Eyri, 13th Century AD
[Image Credit: Dying Bull by Pablo Picasso]
