THE SCENE: Arnkel, one of the great chieftains of early Iceland, made a serious miscalculation when he relied on his slaves to rescue him from a deadly situation.
THE TEXT: One of the slaves had already taken back a cartload of hay, and Arnkel and the others were at work on the next load. Then they saw that armed men were coming up from the foreshore. Ofeig was afraid that there might be trouble, saying, “The only thing to do is for us to go back home.”
“I think the best policy here is for each of us to do whatever he thinks best,” said Arnkel. “You should run home and wake up my supporters, who will get here quickly. The haystack is a good place to fight from, and I will defend myself from here if these men are hostile, because that seems better to me than running away. I will not weaken quickly. My men will arrive quickly to support me if you carry out your mission honourably.”
By the time Arnkel had said this, the slaves were on the run. Ofeig was the faster of the two. He was so scared that he nearly went out of his wits. He raced up into the mountain and fell into a waterfall and died. The waterfall is called Ofeigsfoss. The other slave ran back to the farm and as he went past the bar, his companion was there caring in the hay. He called out to the slave running past to help him bring in the hay, and it so happened that he had no objection to this work and joined him.
[…]
They went inside after they had finished unloading the hay, and took off their leather cloaks. Arnkel’s followers woke up and asked them where he was. It was as if the slave awoke from a dream, and he replied: “The truth is, he must be fighting Snorri the Godi at Orlygstadir now.”
The men leapt up, got dressed and went as quickly as they could over to Orlygsstadir, where they found their master Arnkel dead. His death was mourned by everyone because he had been the most accomplished of all men in ancient times.
– The Saga of the People of Eyri, 13th Century AD
