At the same time, two masters lived in Episcopal Mesopotamia, whose skills were very different from each other. One of them was the bond Eirik Melkjörsson from Bergov Dvor. He made a model of the solar system, but died before he finished the mechanism that set everything in motion.
The other was the bond of Illhugi from Drumboddsstadir. He was very skilled in working iron, but especially wood. He never used a plane, but used an ax for everything.
One day he was on a farm at night, and there was a learned carpenter there. In the evening they were asked to make a trough for milk. Illhuga had no tools with her except an ax and a drill. The carpenter had all the tools he usually used. They began to compete, and the carpenter was slightly ahead. Then water was poured into the troughs, and the carpenter’s trough began to leak, but Illhugi’s trough did not.
Illhugi diligently did everything that was required in Skaulholt. They say that he made a lumberjack's ax from the Giantess Battle axe, which belonged to Skarpkhedin. The last time it was used for execution was in Skálholt. Some say that Illhugi made twelve axes from it, others say fewer, and this is more likely. They also say that this ax was the last of all the weapons to be taken out of the country.
Illhugi was one of the best shipbuilders of his time, but he was very demanding of the material and seemed to foresee the future. One day he came to where people were making a ship. He told them:
– You are not very careful if you take “windy” oak for the ship.
They didn't pay any attention to it. The wind hit the ship and it broke into pieces.
One day, as often happened, he was called to make a ship, and as soon as they brought him the material for the keel, he said:
– This is a “bloody” oak; and I don’t want to make a ship out of this wood.
No attention was paid to this, and he had to use this tree. Then he said:
“This ship will make a fragile little boat, but I will still make sure that the keel never falls off.”
This ship broke up at sea.
Illhugi said that he did not know a cemetery in Iceland in which he would least like to lie than in Stad in Grindavik, but this, however, was destined to be so. And one day he was called to build a ship in Grindavik, and he said that he was doing it under duress.
He explained that there are three reasons for this: the first is that the ship will become a fragile boat; the second - that this would be the very last ship he made; but he did not name the third. When the ship was completely ready, Illhugi fell ill and died, and was buried in Stade. His prophecy regarding the ship was confirmed.
The son of Illhuga was Jorund, the father of the bond Thorstein of Brunavadlakot, whose hand was cut off by Gottsvein Gottsveinsson, the father of Einar of Mirarhus (or Paulshus) on Cape Seltjarnarnes, and his brothers. Now they have grown up and are excellent masters, like all their ancestors.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru