A little while after, Njal called on men to go along with him.
Then the sons of Sigfus, and Njal’s sons, and Kari Solmund’s son,
all of them fared with him and they rode east to Swinefell.
There they got a hearty welcome.
The day after, Njal and Flosi went to talk alone, and the speech
of Njal ended thus, that he said, “This is my errand here, that
we have set out on a wooing-journey, to ask for thy kinswoman
Hildigunna.”
“At whose hand?” says Flosi.
“At the hand of Hauskuld, my fosterson,” says Njal.
“Such things are well meant,” says Flosi, “but still ye run each
of you great risk, the one from the other; but what hast thou to
say of Hauskuld?”
“Good I am able to say of him,” says Njal; “and besides, I will
lay down as much money as will seem fitting to thy niece and
thyself, if thou wilt think of making this match.
“We will call her hither,” says Flosi, “and know how she looks on
the man.”
Then Hildigunna was called, and she came thither.
Flosi told her of the wooing, but she said she was a proudhearted
woman.
“And I know not how things will turn out between me and men of
like spirit; but this, too, is not the least of my dislike, that
this man has no priesthood or leadership over men, but thou hast
always said that thou wouldest not wed me to a man who had not
the priesthood.”
“This is quite enough,” says Flosi, “if thou wilt not be wedded
to Hauskuld, to make me take no more pains about the match.”
“Nay! ” she says, “I do not say that I will not be wedded to
Hauskuld if they can get him a priesthood or a leadership over
men; but otherwise I will have nothing to say to the match.”
“Then,” said Njal, “I will beg thee to let this match stand over
for three winters, that I may see what I can do.”
Flosi said that so it should be.
“I will only bargain for this one thing,” says Hildigunna, “if
this match comes to pass, that we shall stay here away east.”
Njal said he would rather leave that to Hauskuld, but Hauskuld
said that he put faith in many men, but in none so much as his
foster-father.
Now they ride from the east.
Njal sought to get a priesthood and leadership for Hauskuld, but
no one was willing to sell his priesthood, and now the summer
passes away till the Althing.
There were great quarrels at the Thing that summer, and many a
man then did as was their wont, in faring to see Njal; but he
gave such counsel in men’s lawsuits as was not thought at all
likely, so that both the pleadings and the defence came to
naught, and out of that great strife arose, when the lawsuits
could not be brought to an end, and men rode home from the Thing
unatoned.
