SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

138 Saga-Book of the Viking Society
furthermore, a great friend of Gul'5mundr Arason, by now
bishop of H6lar, whose quarrels with the secular powers
were at this time reaching a new pitch of intensity. So
it was a perfectly natural outcome of family loyalty that
led Aron into the company of the bishop's men when the
dispute became acute. At Christmas in 1221 H6lar was
evacuated under threat of attack by Sighvatr's eldest son,
Tumi, who then occupied the cathedral establishment
while Gul'5mundr and some seventy of his followers,
including Eyj6lfr and Aron, set up camp on the island of
Malmey in Skagafjoror. Here they had great difficulty in
keeping themselves alive, especially as Tumi's coastguards
prevented foraging parties from landing on the mainland.
In February of 1222 it was decided to send a raiding
party to H6lar under the leadership of Eyj6lfr, Aron, and
a third man, Einarr skemmingr. Here Aron had his first
taste of combat. The outcome of the raid was the death
of Tumi. Although Non apparently inflicted a great
wound on Tumi, his part in the murder is not made
explicit, but it is clear that Sturla held him largely
responsible because he later had him outlawed for the
deed. An earlier reprisal on a larger scale was the huge
armed expedition which Sighvatr and Sturla mounted two
months later against the bishop's new hideout on the
island of Grimsey. In this, the notorious Grimseyjarfor
of April 1222, the defenders were hopelessly outnumbered.
Aron, using Tumi Sighvatsson's weapons, was fiercely
attacked by Sturla in person, and left for dead on the
foreshore, but with the assistance of Eyj6lfr he managed
to escape to the mainland and out of Sturla's vengeful
reach for the time. Eyj6lfr himself was not so
fortunate. Wounded and crippled by Sturla's men, his
last heroic stand ended beneath their spears on the
skerry to which he had swum.
Now the story turns to an account of Aron's
wanderings around Iceland, a tale of continual concealment,
pursuit by Sturla's flugumenn, hardship, privation,