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Updated: May 3, 2025
Thorstan shouted to his host, who came to him in a hurry. "She's gone," said Thorstan Red. Thorstan Black and he went out together, but by now she had passed through the garth and was deep in the snow beyond. They got her home at last, but she was quite mad and fought against them all the way. They put her to bed and kept her there by main force until she was exhausted.
I shall be with them soon and perhaps you will see me there. It has been bad enough other winters, but none so bad as this. There are strangers here that's how it is. We shall never quiet them till we have burned the bodies. That's the only way." "They shall be burned, mistress," said Thorstan. "I will see to it." She looked at him queerly, with one eyebrow arching into her hair.
Not altogether so, for he had lost his lightness of heart, and with that his decision and blunt common sense. Gudrid, who had fought, as it seemed to her, against fate, and prevailed, was unhappy that he should care so little to be with her. She did not know that he avoided her. But it was so. He spent most of his time at Brattalithe, where he had taken a great fancy for Thorstan.
Towards the end as Thorstan Black knew it must be he persuaded Gudrid to lie down at night while he kept watch by the bed. And so she did. The poor girl was worn out, and went to sleep almost at once. About midnight she was awakened. Thorstan Black stood by the bed with a taper. She gaped at him, cold to the bones. "Come, my dear," he said. "He is asking for you." She said nothing.
She could not say anything to him, she dared not touch him. His head sank forward, and he fell back in the bed and lay still. Thorstan Black touched him. He was stone cold. The good giant thought now of Gudrid only, and talked to her gently for a long while, comforting her. He promised that he would never forsake her until he had brought her safely home to Ericsfrith.
For I see very well that you love me because you love this boy, and did not until he came." She looked gently at him, half excusing herself. "I liked you well, and was grateful." "Ah, yes, maybe," he said, "but that was not how you loved Thorstan Ericsson." She said: "I was younger then, and I loved him so much because our time was short.
Come home now, and leave me no more." So said old Eric Red, a man not easily downed by fate. He made Thorstan Black free of Brattalithe for as long as he would, and promised him the best land that he had. So they all went ashore, and Freydis hailed Gudrid and made much of her. Freydis was not changed at all.
They were up with her all night, and she died in the small hours of the morning. There was nothing for it but to bury her in the snow. Gudrid laid her out while Thorstan and his host were making the coffin. She put candles at her head and feet in the Christian fashion, with a cross of wood between her hands. Then she knelt by the bed to watch the corpse.
It was odd that Thore, whom she could never love, had made her happy, while Thorstan whom she could have loved, it was certain, would never do that. In the course of that year the great event was the home-coming of Leif, Eric Red's eldest son.
It was as if he had newly awoken out of sleep, and was himself again as she had first known him. She, as if knowing his mind, leaned towards him. He kissed her forehead, and lay down again. In a few moments more he was dead. When they had laid him out, and lighted tapers about him, Thorstan said: "Do you now go and sleep, and I will sit up with him."
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