Icelandic Justice

by Brett Rutherford

     Adapted from the Old Norse

And he of you, one or the other
that shall rail against the settlement
of a dispute, or deny atonement made,
or break an oath he was bidden to swear:

Hunt him we shall, as we hunt the wolf,
to the far hills and the icy crevasse,
even to the mouth of Hel, wherever wolf
would flee, him we shall follow,
to the earth's last Christian church we hunt him,
even in the heathen place of offerings
we shall hunt and find him;

we shall seek him as far as fire burns,
to the last meadow where earth-grass greens,
to any place where sons their mother summon
to hearth-side, to the last mother's bearing
of the last son of her line we seek him,

at any place where any wanderer
kindles his lonely fire, we find him out,
to any sea that ships sail, to any isle
where the fugitive' shield shines
in a foreigner's battles, we know
his name and by his name we find him.

Can he find a place where no sun shines,
where no snow settles white on hillocks,
where waters lie flat with no fish-fin upon it,
where there is no shade or shard of fir
to give him shelter or kind kindling.

Oh, let him fly with a fair wind behind him.
Let him have winds of fame in his new-found name.
We shall find him out, as sure as sky turns,
as sure as thee earth lets us walk upon it
and not sink down to quicksand, as sure as wind
blows sails, and waters went to the sea,

as long as one mean churl casts seed
into the earth at ice-break,

as long as there is bread to eat and mead
to comfort our long-arm quest,
he shall not evade the Law!