In Skrid, where a monastery was later built, there lived a man named Sigurd, his wife’s name was Helga. They had a son, Grim, who was raised in the West Fjords by his maternal uncle. At that time, on the Eidi farm there lived a man named Indridi with his wife Toura.
Once, Indridi lost her cow, and she was missing for six whole years. One day, while gathering his sheep in the mountains, Sigurd found this cow in a secluded valley. With her were six bulls, which she brought during this time. Sigurd brought them all to him. After some time, Indridi from Eidi came to Sigurd and began to trade these bulls, not all, but two or three, but Sigurd refused to sell them. Then Indridi declared that since the bulls grazed on his land without permission, it means they belonged to him. At the spring Thing, this lawsuit, among others, was sorted out. Sigurd openly told Indridi that the lawsuit was brought up unfairly. Indridi became angry and there, at the Thing, he killed Sigurd. He was captured, but he offered a ransom for the murder, and he was quickly released. From then on, Indridi began to fear for his life and established the following order in his house: he went to bed against the wall, in his wife’s place, and put on her headdress, and forced her to lie bare-haired and on the edge.
This went on until Grim was sixteen years old. One day a poor woman came to the farm where Grima's uncle lived, and Grim gave her some things. The owner of the farm, his uncle's wife, became angry and reproached Grim that his father had not yet been avenged. Grim could not bear this reproach and immediately got ready to set off. His uncle said goodbye to him warmly and said that from now on he should be called Grim from the Western Fjords.
Grim took the shortest route to his native place in the East and settled with his mother. One day he met a worker, Indridi from Eidi, who was driving a cow, over which there was a quarrel, and other cattle stolen from Grim’s mother. Grim killed the worker and announced murder. After this, Indridi began to fear for his life more than ever.
One day Grim decided to visit Eidi. In Indridi's house, men sat by the fire and discussed the women of their neighborhood. One of them called Helga, Grim's mother, the most absurd woman and added something else. Hearing this, Grim burst into the house, grabbed the man who had abused his mother, and finished him off by thrusting his head into the cauldron that hung over the fireplace, and he himself ran away. But he did not rest on this and began to dig a secret passage to the house in Eidi from a stream flowing nearby.
Christmas has come. Indridi invited his friends to the feast and also invited his brother Helgi. In the evening everyone began to go to bed. Helga was laid in the bed niche, in the place of the owners, and Indridi and his wife lay down on the bed that stood nearby. Many more guests slept in the same room. Grim had found out everything the day before and came to Indridi’s house at night. He carefully entered the room where the owners and guests were sleeping, and began to feel everyone, so as not to kill anyone. When his cold hand touched Indridi’s wife, she told her husband about it, and he, suspecting something was wrong, wanted to jump up, but Grim immediately pierced him with a sword. Indridi only managed to shout that he had been mortally wounded. People jumped up and began to catch the killer, one of the guests even grabbed Grim.
- Let me go, I’m also looking for the killer! - Grim told him and, as soon as he unclenched his hand, he dived into his secret passage and was gone.
It was unwise to go to his mother, where they would look for him, and he decided to pitch a tent for himself on the plateau.
Meanwhile, Helgi remembered that that night the killer seemed to have fallen through the ground, and decided to see if there was a hole somewhere. So he discovered an underground passage, but, as already mentioned, there was no trace of Grim himself.
Soon a man from Eidi happened to be driving along the plateau where Grim's tent stood. Grim, fearing that his enemies would now know where he was hiding, chased after this man and killed him. But after that it became dangerous to remain on the plateau, and he moved over the mountains to a widow. Helgi, who now lived in Eidi, resorted to all sorts of tricks to find Grim, and in the end got wind that he was living with a widow. This widow was a clairvoyant. She knew how to predict the future and warned Grim that Helgi was about to show up here. She advised Grim to leave the country on one of the ships that come to Cape Ingolva, and for now live on a lake where he can feed himself on fish.
Everything turned out as the widow predicted. Helgi came to her and asked where Grim was. The widow replied that Grim had indeed lived with her, but had now left, and Helgi returned home with nothing.
And Grim, as he was told, went to the lake, built himself a hut and began to fish. He soon discovered that every night part of his catch was missing, so he decided to keep watch and find out what was going on. At night, a giant came to Grim's hut, tied a fish, put the bundle on his shoulder and left. Grim caught up with him and thrust a spear into his back, but the giant only quickened his pace and hurried to his cave. His daughter was waiting for him there. He showed her the wound inflicted on him by Grim from the Western Fjords, asked his daughter to bury him in a cave and died. The giant's daughter wanted to bury her father as he asked, but the grave turned out to be small. Grim, who was following on the giant's heels, saw and heard everything. He entered the cave, and the giant’s daughter began to reproach him for killing her father. Grim consoled her as best he could and offered to help bury the giant. She agreed, and he, gathering all his strength, pushed the giant into the grave, filled it up and went home.
At night, the giant rose from his grave, came to the hut and attacked Grim. Grim defended himself, and the ghost did not defeat him. And when dawn broke, he came to the cave, dug the giant out of the grave and burned him at the stake. After talking with the giant's daughter, Grim quickly got along with her, they took all the property that was in the cave, moved it to Grim's hut and lived there peacefully until spring. In the spring a ship came and dropped anchor off Cape Ingolva. Grim, having learned about this, got ready for a long journey and said goodbye to his Beloved. But before they parted, she gave him a magic belt - the one who wore it could not love another woman.
Grim left Iceland and arrived in Norway. At that time, King Harald, the son of Sigurd, ruled there, and he took Grim into his squad. For Christmas, the king gave a rich feast. Grim put on the belt given to him by the giant's daughter and immediately began to yearn for her. The king noticed that Grim was sad and asked him what was the matter. And Grim told him about the giant's daughter. And in the spring, the king gave Grim a ship so that he could go to Iceland and bring his bride from there. Grim sailed to Cape Ingolva, went ashore and went straight to Lake Grima, which had been called that way since he lived there. By the lake he found the giant's daughter, with her was a little boy who had been born while he was overseas. She was very happy when she saw Grim, and he invited her to go to Norway with him. They took the child, loaded all their goods onto the ship and safely reached the shores of Norway, and there the giant’s daughter and her son were baptized and accepted the Christian faith.
How long had they lived in Norway, no, but Grim just wanted to return home forever. Together with his wife, the daughter of a giant, he left Norway and returned to Iceland. On one of the islands where the giants lived, Grim went ashore and unloaded his ship. He drove the giants from the island, and killed those who did not want to leave and, having cleared the entire island, settled there with his family. He had a large offspring.
Since then, this island has been called Grimsey, or Grima Island, and it is located in Eyjafjord. Grim's descendants still live there today. This is the end of the fairy tale.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru