THE SCENE: While being chased by bounty-hunters, the outlaw Gisli knocks on a farmer’s door seeking refuge. Fortunately for him, the farmer was known as “Ref the Sly”, and along with his wife Alfdis he figured out a simple and effective plan for hiding Gisli.
THE TEXT: Then Ref said to Alfdis, “Now, I’m going to give you a new bedfellow.” And he took off all the bed covering and told Gisli to lie down on the straw. Then he put the covers back over him and now Alfdis lay on top of him. “And now you stay put,” said Ref, “whatever happens.”
Then he asked Alfdis to be as difficult to deal with as possible and to act as madly as she could. “And don’t hold yourself back,” said Ref. “Say whatever comes into your mind. Swear and curse as much as you like. I’ll go off to talk with them and say whatever occurs to me.”
When he went out again he saw some men coming. These men had come to search for Gisli and to capture him if they found him. They asked, “Do you mind if we search you and the farm?” “Of course not,” said Ref, “please do.”
They went in, and when Alfdis heard the noise they were making she asked what gang of thugs was out there and what kind of idiots barge in on people in the middle of the night. Ref told her to calm down, and she responded with a flurry of foul language that they were unlikely to forget. They continued to search the place even so, but not as carefully as they might have done if they had not had to suffer such a torrent of abuse from the farmer’s wife. Having found nothing, they left and wished the farmer well. He, in return, wished them a good journey.
– Gisli Sursson’s Saga, 13th Century AD
