Poison in the middle;
Thus is it with Flosi’s plan
As if a stick were thrown,
Thus is it with Flosi’s plan
As when a stick is thrown.
It seemed to him that he flung it eastward to the mountains, and that such fire rose from it that he did not see the mountains for it. It seemed to him the man rode eastward to the fire and disappeared there. Then he went in to his bed, and fell in a long swoon, but woke from it. He remembered all that had passed before his eyes, and told it to his father, who asked him to tell it to Hjalti Skeggjason. He went to Hjalti and told him. ‘Thou hast seen a gandreid,’[[417]] said Hjalti, ‘and it always forebodes great tidings’” (Njala, c. 125).
Before the burning of Njal the following omen, which proved true, appeared at his farm Bergthorshval:—
“Bergthóra (his wife) carried food to the table. Njal said: ‘Strange does this look to me now; I think I look all over the room, and that both the gable-walls are off, and the table and the food all covered with blood.’ All except Skarphédin were startled at this. He asked them not to grieve or look sorrowful so that people would talk of it” (Njala, c. 127).
“It happened when Gunnar and Kolskegg rode towards Rangá that blood fell on the halberd of Gunnar. Kolskegg asked why this was so. Gunnar answered that when this happened in other countries it was called blood-rain, and Olver bondi in Hising said that this usually foreboded great tidings” (Njala, c. 72).
Among these omens must be reckoned the so-called Urdarmáni (the moon of Urd), a peculiar kind of appearance of the moon which foreboded the death of many people.[[418]] There were also natural omens, good and bad. It was considered a good omen if a warrior saw a raven follow him when going to fight—the interpretation probably being that the raven followed a victor in order to eat the corpses of the enemy; it was also a good omen to see or meet two men conversing, or to hear a wolf howl. When a man who was slain by any kind of weapon fell on his face it was thought to be an omen that he would be revenged, and the vengeance would come down upon the man who stood just in front of him when he fell;[[419]] but to stumble when going to fight, or to hear the croaking of ravens, was considered a bad omen.