THE SCENE: The scene below, in which Gisli sneaks around his sister’s pitch-black house at night in order to kill her husband Thorgrim, is so vivid, tense, and bone-chilling that it would fit right into a modern slasher movie.
THE TEXT: [Gisli] stood still and listened to see whether anyone was awake. He discovered that they were all asleep. He walked father into the house and up to the bed closet where his sister, Thordis, and Thorgrim slept. The door was pulled to, and they were both in bed. He went to the bed, felt about inside it and touch his sister’s breast. She was sleeping on the near side.
Then Thordis said, “Why is your hand so cold, Thorgrim?” – and thereby woke him up.
Thorgrim replied, “Do you want me to turn towards you?”
She thought it had been his hand that touched her. Gisli waited a little longer, warming his hand inside his tunic, while they couple fell asleep again. Then he touched Thorgrim lightly, waking him. Thorgrim thought that Thordis had roused him and he turned towards her. Gisli then pulled the bedclothes off them with one hand, and with the other he plunged [his spear] Grasida through Thorgrim so that he stuck fast in the bed.
Then Thordis cried out, “Everyone wake up. Thorgrim, my husband, has been killed!”
Gisli turned quickly towards the byre, leaving the way he had planned. All then men at Saebol were exceedingly drunk, and no one knew what to do. They had been caught off guard, and therefore did nothing that was either useful or appropriate in the situation.
– Gisli Sursson’s Saga, 13th Century AD
