pledges of good faith. I will therefore ask you this, my sons,
not to spoil these things in any way.”
Skarphedinn stroked his brow, and smiled scornfully. So they all
go to the Court of Laws.
Hall went to meet Flosi and said, “Go thou now to the Court of
Laws, for now all the money has been bravely paid down, and it
has been brought together in one place.”
Then Flosi bade the sons of Sigfus to go up with him, and they
all went out of their booths. They came from the east, but Njal
went from the west to the Court of Laws, and his sons with him.
Skarphedinn went to the middle bench and stood there.
Flosi went into the Court of Laws to look closely at the money,
and said, “This money is both great and good, and well paid
down, as was to be looked for.”
After that he took up the scarf, and waved it, and asked, “Who
may have given this?”
But no man answered him.
A second time he waved the scarf, and asked, “Who may have given
this?” and laughed, but no man answered him.
Then Flosi said, “How is it that none of you knows who has owned
this gear, or is it that none dares to tell me?”
“Who?” said Skarphedinn, “dost thou think, has given it?”
“If thou must know,” said Flosi, “then I will tell thee; I think
that thy father the `Beardless Carle’ must have given it, for
many know not who look at him whether he is more a man than a
woman.”
“Such words are ill-spoken,” said Skarphedinn, “to make game of
him, an old man, and no man of any worth has ever done so before.
Ye may know, too, that he is a man, for he has had sons by his
wife, and few of our kinsfolk have fallen unatoned by our house,
so that we have not had vengeance for them.”
Then Skarphedinn took to himself the silken scarf, but threw a
pair of blue breeks to Flosi, and said he would need them more.
“Why,” said Flosi, “should I need these more?”
“Because,” said Skarphedinn, “thou art the sweetheart of the
Swinefell’s goblin, if, as men say, he does indeed turn thee into
a woman every ninth night.”
Then Flosi spurned the money, and said he would not touch a penny
of it, and then he said he would only have one of two things:
either that Hauskuld should fall unatoned, or they would have
vengeance for him.
Then Flosi would neither give nor take peace, and he said to the
sons of Sigfus, “Go we now home; one fate shall befall us all.”
Then they went home to their booth, and Hall said, “Here most
unlucky men have a share in this suit.”
Njal and his sons went home to their booth, and Njal said, “Now
comes to pass what my heart told me long ago, that this suit
would fall heavy on us.”
“Not so,” says Skarphedinn; “they can never pursue us by the laws
