There was an old woman at Bergthorshvol called Saeunn. She was wise in many ways and could fortell the future, but she was very old and the Njalssons called her doddering because she talked so much, and yet much of it came true. One day she grabbed a stick and went around the house to a pile of chickweed. She hit the pile and cursed it for being so contemptible.Speaking of underestimating the women.Skarphedin laughed at this and asked why she was carrying on so over a pile of chickweed.
The old woman spoke: “This chickweed will be taken and set afire when Njal is burned in his house, along with my foster-daughter Bergthora–put it in water,” she said, “or burn it as fast as you can.”
“We won’t do that,” said Skarphedin, “for if this is not here something else will be found with which to start the fire, if that is what’s fated.”
The old woman kept nagging about the chickweed pile all summer, that it should be taken inside, but it never was.
Am I remembering right that someone similarly cursed the mistletoe that was destined to kill Balder?