Transcribed from the 1916 Chatto & Windus edition by DavidPrice,
by
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
london
chatto & windus
1916
p. 2First Edition, October, 1916.
Second Edition, October, 1916.
p. 3This unpublished story, preserved among Mrs. Stevenson’s papers, is mentioned by Mr. Balfour in his lifeof Stevenson. Writing of the fables which Stevenson began before he had left England and “attacked again, and from time to time added to their number” in 1893, Mr. Balfour says: “The reference to Odin [Fable XVII] perhaps is due tohis reading of the Sagas, which led him to attempt a tale in the same style, called ‘The Waif Woman.’”
This is a tale of Iceland, the isle of stories, and of a thingthat befell in the year of the coming there of Christianity.
In the spring of that year a ship sailed from the South Isles to traffic, and fell becalmed inside Snowfellness. The winds had speeded her; she was the first comer of the year; and the fishers drew alongside to hear the news of the south, and eager folk put out in boats to see the merchandise and make prices. From the doors of the hall on Frodis Water, the house folk saw the ship becalmed and the boats about her, coming and p. 6going; and the merchants from the ship could see the smoke go up and the men and women trooping to their meals in the hall.
The goodman of that house was called Finnward Keelfarer, and his wife Aud the Light-Minded; and they had a son Eyolf, a likelyboy, and a daughter Asdis, a slip of a maid. Finnward was well-to-do in his affairs, he kept open house and had good friends. But Aud his wife was not so much considered: her mind was set on trifles, on bright clothing, and the admiration of men, and the envy of women; and it was thought she was not always so circumspect in her bearing as she might have been, but nothing to hurt.
On the evening of the second day men came to the house from sea. They told of the merchandise in the ship, which was well enough and to be had at easy rates, and of a waif woman thatsailed in her, no one could tell why, and had chests of clothes beyond comparison, fine p. 7coloured stuffs, finely woven, the best that ever came into that island, and gewgaws for a queen. At the hearing of that Aud’s eyes began to glisten. She went early to bed; and the day was not yet redbefore she was on the beach, had a boat launched, and was pullingto the ship. By the way she looked closely at all boats, but there was no woman in any; and at that she was better pleased, for she had no fear of the men.
When they came to the ship, boats were there already, and the merchants and the shore folk sat and jested and chaffered in the stern. But in the fore part of the ship, the woman sat alone, and looked before her sourly at the sea. They calledher Thorgunna. She was as tall as a man and high in flesh, a buxom wife to look at. Her hair was of the dark red, timehad not changed it. Her face was dark, the cheeks full, andthe brow smooth. Some of the merchants told that she was sixty years of age and others laughed and p. 8said she was but forty; but they spoke of her in whispers, for they seem