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slaying, then Gunnar said, “This has happened ill, and no tidings

could come to my ears which I should think worse; but yet we will

now go at once and see Njal. I still hope he may take it well,

though he be sorely tried.”

So they went to see Njal, and called him to come out and talk to

them. He went out at once to meet Gunnar, and they talked, nor

were there any more men by at first than Kolskegg.

“Hard tidings have I to tell thee,” says Gunnar; “the slaying of

Thord Freedmanson, and I wish to offer thee selfdoom for the

slaying.”

Njal held his peace some while, and then said, “That is well

offered, and I will take it; but yet it is to be looked for that

I shall have blame from my wife or from my sons for that, for it

will mislike them much; but still I will run the risk, for I know

that I have to deal with a good man and true; nor do I wish that

any breach should arise in our friendship on my part.

“Wilt thou let thy sons be by, pray?” says Gunnar.

“I will not,” says Njal, “for they will not break the peace which

I make, but if they stand by while we make it they will not pull

well together with us.”

“So it shall be,” says Gunnar. “See thou to it alone.”

Then they shook one another by the hand, and made peace well and

quickly.

Then Njal said, “The award that I make is two hundred in silver,

and that thou wilt think much.”

“I do not think it too much,” says Gunnar, and went home to his

booth.

Njal’s sons came home, and Skarphedinn asked whence that great

sum of money came, which his father held in his hand.

Njal said, “I tell you of your foster-father’s Thord’s slaying,

and we two, Gunnar and I, have now made peace in the matter, and

he has paid an atonement for him as for two men.”

“Who slew him?” says Skarphedinn.

“Sigmund and Skiolld, but Thrain was standing near too,” says

Njal.

“They thought they had need of much strength,” says Skarphedinn,

and sang a song —

“Bold in deeds of derring-do,

Burdeners of ocean’s steeds,

Strength enough it seems they needed

A11 to slay a single man;

When shall we our hands uplift?

We who brandish burnished steel —

Famous men erst reddened weapons,

When? if now we quiet sit?”

“Yes! when shall the day come when we shall lift our hands?”

“That will not be long off,” says Njal, “and then thou shalt not

be baulked; but still, methinks, I set great store on your not

breaking this peace that I have made.”

“Then we will not break it,” says Skarphedinn, “but if anything

arises between us, then we will bear in mind the old feud.”

“Then I will ask you to spare no one,” says Njal.

44. SIGMUND MOCKS NJAL AND HIS SONS

Now men ride home from the Thing; and when Gunnar came home, he

said to Sigmund, “Thou art a more unlucky man than I thought, and

turnest thy good gifts to thine own ill. But still I have made

peace for thee with Njal and his sons; and now, take care that

thou dost not let another fly come into thy mouth. Thou art not

at all after my mind, thou goest about with jibes and jeers, with

scorn and mocking; but that is not my turn of mind. That is why

thou gettest on so well with Hallgerda, because ye two have your

minds more alike.”

Gunnar scolded him a long time, and he answered him well, and

said he would follow his counsel more for the time to come than

he had followed it hitherto. Gunnar told him then they might get

on together. Gunnar and Njal kept up their friendship though the

rest of their people saw little of one another. It happened once

that some gangrel women came to Lithend from Bergthorsknoll; they

were great gossips and rather spiteful tongued. Hallgerda had a

bower, and sate often in it, and there sate with her her daughter

Thorgerda, and there too were Thrain and Sigmund, and a crowd of

women. Gunnar was not there, nor Kolskegg. These gangrel women

went into the bower, and Hallgerda greeted them, and made room

for them; then she asked them for news, but they had none to

tell. Hallgerda asked where they had been overnight; they said

at Bergthorsknoll.

“What was Njal doing?” she says.

“He was hard at work sitting still,” they said.

“What were Njal’s sons doing?” she says; “they think themselves

men at any rate.”

“Tall men they are in growth,” they say, “but as yet they are all

untried; Skarphedinn whetted an axe, Gim fitted a spearhead to

the shaft, Helgi riveted a hilt on a sword, Hauskuld strengthened

the handle of a shield.”

“They must be bent on some great deed,” says Hallgerda.

“We do not know that,” they say.

“What were Njal’s housecarles doing?” she asks.

“We don’t know what some of them were doing, but one was carting

dung up the hill-side.”

“What good was there in doing that?” she asks.

“He said it made the swathe better there than anywhere else,”

they reply. “Witless now is Njal,” says Hallgerda, “though he

knows how to give counsel on everything.”

“How so?” they ask.

“I will only bring forward what is true to prove it,” says she;

“why doesn’t he make them cart dung over his beard that he may be

like other men? Let us call him `the Beardless Carle’: but his

sons we will call `Dungbeardlings’; and now do pray give some

stave about them, Sigmund, and let us get some good by thy gift

of song.”

“I am quite ready to do that,” says he, and sang these verses:

“Lady proud with hawk in hand,

Prithee why should dungbeard boys,

Reft of reason, dare to hammer

Handle fast on battle shield?

For these lads of loathly feature —

Lady scattering swanbath’s beams (1) —

Shaft not shun this ditty shameful

Which I shape upon them now.

He the beardless carle shall listen

While I lash him with abuse,

Loon at whom our stomachs sicken,

Soon shall bear these words of scorn;

Far too nice for such base fellows

Is the name my bounty gives,

Een my muse her help refuses,

Making mirth of dungbeard boys.

Here I find a nickname fitting

For those noisome dungbeard boys, —

Loath am I to break my bargain

Linked with such a noble man —

Knit we all our taunts together —

Known to me is mind of man —

Call we now with outburst common,

Him, that churl, the beardless carle.”

Thou art a jewel indeed,” says Hallgerda; ” how yielding thou art

to what I ask!”

Just then Gunnar came in. He had been standing outside the door

of the bower, and heard all the words that had passed. They were

in a great fright when they saw him come in, and then all held

their peace, but before there had been bursts of laughter.

Gunnar was very wroth, and said to Sigmund, “Thou art a foolish

man, and one that cannot keep to good advice, and thou revilest

Njal’s sons, and Njal himself who is most worth of all; and this

thou doest in spite of what thou hast already done. Mind, this

will be thy death. But if any man repeats these words that thou

hast spoken, or these verses that thou hast made, that man shall

be sent away at once, and have my wrath beside.”

But they were all so sore afraid of him, that no one dared to

repeat those words. After that he went away, but the gangrel

women talked among themselves, and said that they would get a