Then the earl said, “Well, then, slay them to-morrow, but bind
them fast to-night.”
“So, I ween, it must be,” says Sweyn; “but never yet have I met
brisker men than these, and I call it the greatest manscathe to
take their lives.”
“They have slain two of our briskest men,” said the earl, “and
for that they shall be slain.”
“Because they were brisker men themselves,” says Sweyn; “but
still in this it must be done as thou willest.”
So they were bound and fettered.
After that the earl fell asleep; but when all men slept, Grim
spoke to Helgi, and said, “Away would I get if I could.”
“Let us try some trick then,” says Helgi.
Grim sees that there lies an axe edge up, so Grim crawled
thither, and gets the bowstring which bound him cut asunder
against the axe, but still he got great wounds on his arms.
Then he set Helgi loose, and after that they crawled over the
ship’s side, and got on shore, so that neither Hacon nor his men
were ware of them. Then they broke off their fetters, and walked
away to the other side of the island. By that time it began to
dawn. There they found a ship, and knew that there was come Kari
Solmund’s son. They went at once to meet him, and told him of
their wrongs and hardships, and showed him their wounds, and said
the earl would be then asleep.
“Ill is it,” said Kari, “that ye should suffer such wrongs for
wicked men; but what now would be most to your minds?”
“To fall on the earl,” they say, “and slay, him.”
“This will not be fated,” says Kari; “but still ye do not lack
heart, but we will first know whether he is there now.”
After that they fared thither, and then the earl was up and away.
Then Kari sailed in to Hlada to meet the earl, and brought him
the Orkney scatts, so the earl said, “Hast thou taken Njal’s sons
into thy keeping?”
“So it is, sure enough,” says Kari.
“Wilt thou hand Njal’s sons over to me?” asks the earl.
“No, I will not,” said Kari.
“Wilt thou swear this,” says the earl, “that thou wilt not fall
on me with Njal’s sons?”
Then Eric, the earl’s son, spoke and said, “Such things ought
not to be asked. Kari has always been our friend, and things
should not have gone as they have, had I been by. Njal’s sons
should have been set free from all blame, but they should have
had chastisement who had wrought for it. Methinks now it would
be more seemly to give Njal’s sons good gifts for the hardships
and wrongs which have been put upon them, and the wounds they
have got.”
“So it ought to be, sure enough,” says the earl, “but I know not
whether they will take an atonement.”
Then the earl said that Kari should try the feeling of Njal’s
sons as to an atonement.
