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Updated: May 3, 2025
"I shall tell him you asked me," he said. That made her sorry she had asked, but she did not like to say tell him by all means, nor beg him not to tell. It turned out that Thorwald did tell him. Freydis said, "If you must marry, that is the man you should choose. Not a half-skald like my brother Thorstan, nor a pranking pie like Thorwald. You will have a master in Thore, and most women like that.
And Thorstan would not go either, though he kept away from Stockness, and saw nothing of Gudrid. Thorwald would have been glad of his help, for Thorstan was very strong and a man who could be depended upon; but he saw the trouble in his eyes and forbore to urge him. It came to this, then, that Thorwald was in sole command.
Thorstan Black left her, and returned presently with candles and a cross which he had made. So they laid out Thorstan Ericsson, and Thorstan Black watched him all the rest of the night. She stayed out the long and bitter winter alone in the house with Thorstan Black. No man could have been kinder to her than he was.
"Oh, sour face," he cried out, "let us hear what you have to say about all this." Thorstan was very hot, but he answered his father. "I think that Gudrid should not go, nor Thore either" which made Eric chuckle. When he was with her the next day, after a long time of brooding, Thorstan said that he hoped she would not go to Wineland. "I must go if Thore goes," she said over her needlework.
She scowled at him as if he were a stranger, and would not let him touch her. Gudrid was afraid to go near her. Once when she was out there on a wild moon-lit night, the others by the fire heard her cry aloud; and then she called on Thorstan. The two Thorstans looked at each other. Thorstan Black said, "It's you she wants. Go and talk to her." Thorstan Red went out.
The two hailed each other, and then the new-comer said, "They told me in the Settlement that you were under the weather here. It will have gone hard with you, I doubt. And your lady with you! Now I make known to you that I am Thorstan of this place, called commonly Thorstan Black, and at your service."
Meantime, with a dreadful fascination, she watched the doom settling like a storm about her husband Thore. She only saw it; he himself, now that he was better, was unconscious of anything impending. He talked hopefully of what he should do when Thorwald came home with news of Wineland, having forgotten his dark commerce with Thorstan.
But your life will be longer than his, and your end will be pious and that, too, you will desire before you reach it. And I pray you to take my body back to Ericsfrith and give me holy burial. Farewell, Gudrid, and have no fear for me." Gudrid, cold as a stone, sat on Thorstan Black's knee as if she had been a child, and stared at the figure of her love.
Thorstan avoided her, which made matters no better, but worse, rather; for she knew why he did it, and felt spotted, and longed to see him, and felt that she was accursed. So life drew along for that summer and autumn; and then the long Greenland winter began, with the dark and the clinging, frozen fog.
Thore seemed to make no stand against it, but took to his bed, from which Gudrid knew he would never rise. She waited on him hand and foot; he lay there watching her with his aching eyes, and wounded her to the heart. He hardly ever spoke, and seldom asked for anything. Thorstan used to come up most days to ask how he did. Gudrid knew quite well when he was on the road, and would tell Thore.
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