THE SCENE: Thorstein Dromund earned great fame for himself when he travelled halfway across the world – from Iceland all the way to Greece – just to kill the man who had slain his brother, Thorbjorn Hook.
THE TEXT: Thorstein Dromund kept watch to see if he could identify Hook, but did not manage to because there were so many people there. He could not sleep and was very displeased with his lot, feeling that he had suffered a great loss.
The next thing that happened was that the Varangian Guard was supposed to go on a mission to quell fightin in the country. It was their custom and law to hold a Weapon Taking before they left, and they did so this time too. When the Weapon Taking was made, all the Varangians were obliged to asse,ble with any others who intended to go on the mission with them, to display their weapons. Both Thorstein and Hook turned up. Hook was the first of the two to show his weapon; he had the short-sword Grettir’s Gift with him. When he showed it to the others, many people admired it and said it was a fine weapon, but that the chip on the edge was a great flaw, and asked how it came about.
Hook said it was a tale worth the telling.
“The first ting that happened was that out in Iceland,” he said, “I killed a warrior called Grettir the Strong, who was the toughest and bravest man there. No one could defeat him until I appeared. Because I was fated to defeat him I managed to overcome him, even though he had many times the might that I did. When I chopped off his head with the sword, a chip broke from the edge.”
The people standing nearby said that he must have had a hard head and showed the sword to each other. Thorstein realized from this which man was Hook and asked to see the short-sword like the others. Hook passed it over, since most of them praised his courage and exploits and he though that this man would do so, too, naturally unaware that Thorstein or any of Grettir’s kinsmen were present.
Dromund took hold of the sword and immediately wielded it and struck at Hook. The blow hit him on the head with such force that it sank down to his jaws. Hook dropped down dead to the ground, ignobly.
Everyone was dumbfounded. The emperor’s treasurer seized Thorstein at once and asked for an explanation as to why he had committed such an atrocity at a sacred assembly.
Thorstein said he was Grettir the Strong’s brother, adding that he had never managed to take revenge for him until then. Many of the Varangians agreed that this strong man must have been important, considering that Thorstein had travelled so far across the world to avenge him.
– The Saga of Grettir the Strong, 14th Century AD
