Thurid

“ Groping with my hands along the face of the rocks to which the craft was moored, I discovered a narrow ledge which I knew must be the avenue taken by those who had come before me. That they could be none other than Thurid and his party I was convinced by the size and build of the boat I had found.
Calling to Woola to follow me I stepped out upon the ledge. The great, savage brute, agile as a cat, crept after me. ”

“ As Thurida continued to urge her request, Thorgunna accompanied her to Froda, the house of Thorodd, where the seamen deposited a huge chest and cabinet, containing the property of her new guest, which Thurida viewed with curious and covetous eyes. So soon as they had pointed out to Thorgunna the place assigned for her bed, she opened the chest, and took forth such an embroidered bed coverlid, and such a splendid and complete set of tapestry hangings, and bed furniture of English linen, interwoven with silk, as had never been seen in Iceland. ”

“ Of the Haunting at Thorhall-stead; and how Thorhall took a Shepherd by the rede of Skapti the Lawman, and of what befell thereafter.
There was a man hight Thorhall, who dwelt at Thorhall-stead, in Shady-vale, which runs up from Waterdale. Thorhall was the son of Grim, son of Thorhall, the son of Fridmund, who settled Shady-vale. Thorhall had a wife hight Gudrun. Grim was their son, and Thurid their daughter; they were well-nigh grown up.
[95]
Thorhall was a rich man, but mostly in cattle, so that no man had so much of live-stock as he. He was no chief, but an honest bonder he was. ”

“ Thorodd promised solemnly to fulfil every particular to the letter.
The complaint now rapidly gained ground, and before many days Thorgunna was dead. The farmer put her corpse into a coffin; then took all the bed-furniture into the open air, and, raising a pile of wood, flung the clothes on top of it, and was about to fire the pile, when, with a face pale with dismay, forth rushed Thurida to know what in the name of wonder her husband was about to do with those treasures of needlework, the coverlet, sheets, and curtains of the strange lady's bed. ”

“ Her shipmates said that they were sure she had such treasures with her as would be hard to get in Iceland.
Thurida, the housewife at Frida, was envious and covetous of these precious goods, and received Thorgunna into her home in hopes, by some means, to possess herself of them, especially the embroidered hangings of a bed; but Thorgunna refused to part with them. “I will not lie in the straw for thee, though thou art a fine lady, and thinkest great things of thyself.” Thorgunna made her own terms with Thurida and Master Harold, and set up her bed at the inner end of their hall. ”

“ Thurida opened her eyes very wide, and asked her guest to share bed-clothes with her.
“Not for all the world,” replied the strange lady, with sharpness; “I’m not going to pig it in the rushes, for you, ma’am!”
An answer which, the Saga writer assures us, did [Pg 76] not particularly gratify the good woman of the house.
Thorgunna was stout and tall, disposed to become fat, with black eyebrows, a head of thick bushy brown hair, and soft eyes. She was not much of a talker, not very merry, and it was her wont to go to church every day before beginning her daily task. ”

“ Thorbjorg, Olaf's daughter, was of women the most beautiful and stout of build. She was called Thorbjorg the Stout, and was married west in Waterfirth to Asgeir, the son of Knott. He was a noble man. Their son was Kjartan, father of Thorvald, the father of Thord, the father of Snorri, the father of Thorvald, from whom is sprung the Waterfirth race. Afterwards, Vermund, the son of Thorgrim, had Thorbjorg for wife. Their daughter was Thorfinna, whom Thorstein Kuggason had for wife. Bergthora, Olaf's daughter, was married west in Deepfirth to Thorhall the Priest. ”

“ Thuria, a great and glorious orb, swinging swift across the vaulted dome of the blue-black night, so low that she seemed to graze the hills, a gorgeous spectacle that held the girl now beneath the spell of its enchantment as it always had and always would.
"Ah, Thuria, mad queen of heaven!" murmured Tara of Helium. "The hills pass in stately procession, their bosoms rising and falling; the trees move in restless circles; the little grasses describe their little arcs; and all is movement, restless, mysterious movement without sound, while Thuria passes." ”

“ At Thurles we meet the main line of the Great Southern and Western. Thurles, originally a Danish town and the scene of the battle between the Norsemen and Irish, afterwards became a fortalice of the Knights Templars. Here, by the bridge across the Suir, the remains of the old settlement are still to be seen. Four miles distant, standing by the banks of the river, [Pg 129] surrounded by tall trees, are the remains of the once great Cistercian Holy Cross Abbey. It was built in 1168-69 to house the relic of the True Cross sent by the Pope to Brian Boru's grandson, Donald, King of Thomond. ”

“ The little town of 2,000 inhabitants is close to the spot where the Thuyère falls into the Lot. It lies in the angle where two lovely valleys meet. The Thuyère comes down from the Cantal mountains, and as it reaches Entraygues it spreads out over a broad smooth bed of pebbles, its water as clear as rock-crystal; and when the morning sun looks down upon it over the vine-clad hills, it is like something that has been seen in the happiest of dreams. There is a castle at Entraygues, and, as in the case of the one at Estaing, it is now used as a convent and school. ”

“ I. Throughout the thirteenth century Thuringia continued the centre and stronghold of German sanctity. The life of St. Elizabeth at the Wartburg had gone up from its midst like a purifying altar-flame to heaven. When she died in 1231, hundreds of men and women came in tears to honour the wasted body wrapped in its worn Franciscan cloak, lying dead in the poor little house at Marburg. From the memory of her life, from the pilgrimages to her tomb, a tradition and ideal of saintliness spread among the people. Fifteen years later, it was in Thuringia that the Pope found his champion. ”

“ When the south-westerly winds bring great seas raging into the bay, with towering white combers dashing in upon the sands, the Thurlestone finds a voice and calls with a sound of roaring, all over this countryside. The rustics say that at such times you shall hear the bellowing of the Thurlestone ten miles distant. ”

“ The Thuringians seem at one time to have occupied territories stretching from the Elbe not far from Hamburg to the Danube at Ratisbon; but about 531 their empire was overthrown by the united Franks and Saxons. The north part of their lands fell to the Saxons, and was known for some time as the North Thuringian gau; the district to the south of the Thuringian Forest was called Franconia after its conquerors; and the name Thuringia was restricted almost to the narrow limits to which it now properly applies. ”

“ Nestled under the side of the hill on which the great castle of Thuron stands, this little chapel, with its sharp-pointed spire, is in fine contrast to the huge cliff and massive walls; but there is a look of age about it and the old houses near which renders the whole scene in perfect keeping.
On leaving the river to explore our way up to Thuron, we enter one of those beautiful valleys into which the hills so constantly break; a clear trout-stream runs through it, and the mountains close it in on all sides. ”

“ Theuderich collected a large army, marched into Germany in 530, procured the services of 9,000 Saxons as allies, and met the Thuringians on the river Unstrut, not far from where the city of Halle now stands. Hermanfried was taken prisoner, carried to France, and treacherously thrown from a tower, after receiving great professions of friendship from his nephew, Theuderich. His family fled to Italy, and the kingdom of Thuringia, embracing nearly all Central Germany, [Pg 73] was added to that of the Franks. The northern part, however, was given to the Saxons as a reward for their assistance. ”

“ He married Margaret, daughter of the emperor Frederick II., in 1254, and in 1265 received from his father Thuringia and the Saxon palatinate. His infatuation for Kunigunde of Eisenberg caused his wife to leave him, and after her death in 1270 he married Kunigunde, who had already borne him a son, Apitz or Albert. He wished to make Apitz his successor in Thuringia, a plan which was resisted by his two elder sons, and a war broke out which lasted until 1307, when he abandoned Thuringia, in return for a yearly payment, but retained the title of landgrave (see Thuringia.) ”

“ The later fortunes of the Ostrogothic princess who thus migrated from Ravenna to the banks of the Elbe were not happy. A proud and ambitious woman, she is said to have stimulated her husband to make himself, by fratricide and civil war, sole king of the Thuringians. The help of one of the sons of Clovis had been unwisely invoked for this operation. So long as the Ostrogothic hero lived, Thuringia was safe under his protection, but soon after his death dissensions arose between Franks and Thuringians ”

“ In New York, Thurley took another method when pessimism interrupted common sense routine. She went to the piano and practised until her throat gave warning to cease and she could again face the world as the wild-rose-with-a-prophecy-of-the-hothouse-variety Thurley, baby of the great “family,” an interesting young goddess who seldom voiced an opinion but who could sweep away opinions if she sang a ballad (unbeknownst to her present audience) with thoughts of Dan or Philena or the old days in the wagon as the inspiration! ”

“ When finally the Thuringi saw that they were being fiercely cut to pieces and when their king Hermenfred had taken to flight, they turned their backs and came to the stream Unstrut. And there such a slaughter of the Thuringi took place that the bed of the stream was filled with heaps of corpses, and the Franks crossed upon them as if on a bridge to the further shore. ”

“ Thou, the friend of the king, and a priest, who hath dared—?”
“Go quickly, my son,” the dying voice entreated; and Thorgills sped away to find Father Tuathal.
“Maidoch, child,” said the dying martyr, “if thou must stay in this wild land, it were well for thee to have the care and the shield of a Christian lord. So if thou canst place thy hand in that of yon faithful Thorgills, it were a safe future for thee. Thy noble father will follow me soon.”
“Oh, no! No! no!” the girl cried, weeping passionately. “I cannot wed, I cannot live in Norway. No, my father! I would die in so sinful a land. ”

“ THURSO, a municipal and police burgh, and seaport of Caithness, Scotland. Pop. (1901) , 3723. It is situated at the mouth of the Thurso, on Thurso Bay, 21 m. N.W. of Wick, and 319 m. N. of Edinburgh by the North British and Highland railways, the most northerly town in Scotland. Coaches run daily to Mey and Wick and every day a mail-car goes to Tongue, in Sutherlandshire, about 40 m. west. ”

“ They heard this and were angry at such a wrong, and with heart and mind they attacked Thuringia. And Theodoric took his brother Clothar and his son Theodobert to help him and went with his army. And the Thuringi prepared stratagems against the coming of the Franks. For they dug pits in the plain where the fight was to take place, and covering the openings with thick turf they made it seem a level plain. So when they began to fight, many of the Frankish horsemen fell into these pits and it was a great obstacle to them, but when this stratagem was perceived they began to be on their guard. ”

“ Abbat Thurstan agreed to keep the score of men that had been brought up to Ely in the bark, but he demurred about receiving and entertaining, as the commander of these men, the dark stranger with the hooked nose and sharp eye. Hereward said that the stranger was a man remarkably skilled in the science of war, and in the art of defending places. Thurstan asked whether he were sure that he was not a spy of the Normans, or one that would sell himself to the Normans for gold? Then the Lord of Brunn told what he knew, or that which he had been told, concerning the dark stranger. ”

“ Thorir had no difficulty in getting into conversation with Oli, and in reply to his questions about the conditions in Norway, he told how the earl was so mighty a man that none durst speak but as he would. Yet he admitted that many mighty men, yea, all the people, would be most fain and eager to have a king for the land come of the blood of Harald Fairhair.
"Now when they had oft talked in this wise, Olaf bringeth to light before Thorir his name and kin, and asked his rede, what he thought of it, if Olaf should fare to Norway, whether the bonders would take him for king. ”

“ Thured said she would take the risk of that. "Then I lay thereon this spell," said Giermund, "That this sword shall do to death the man in your family in who would be the greatest loss, and in a manner most ill-fated." After that Thured went home to Herdholt. Olaf had then come home, and showed his displeasure at her deed, yet all was quiet. Thured gave Bolli, her cousin, the sword Footbiter, for she loved him in no way less than her brothers. Bolli bore that sword for a long time after. After this Giermund got a favourable wind, and sailed out to sea, and came to Norway in the autumn. ”

“ For he is “the best of all good company,” and has always a good tale to tell, either of the ghosts he has himself seen up at the Wartburg, or else some pretty Thuringian legend to narrate, or one of his last clever little sketches to show; for the Major paints as tastily as he sings, and his old Thuringian songs, when accompanied by himself on the “zitter,” the national instrument of the country, are things quite unique, as well for the gracefulness of the execution as for the quaintness of the simple ditties. Nor are ladies, at such a time, entirely absent from the company ”