make a story out of them.
“For it befits us surely more than other men to bear us well, and
it is only what is looked for from us.”
Grim and Helgi came home ere the board was cleared, and men were
much struck at that. Njal asked why they had returned so quickly
but they told what they had heard.
Njal bade no man go to sleep, but to be ware of themselves.
127. THE ONSLAUGHT (1) ON BERGTHORSKNOLL
Now Flosi speaks to his men, “Now we will ride to Bergthorsknoll,
and come thither before supper-time.”
They do so. There was a dell in the knoll, and they rode
thither, and tethered their horses there, and stayed there till
the evening was far spent.
Then Flosi said, “Now we will go straight up to the house, and
keep close, and walk slow, and see what counsel they will take.”
Njal stood out of doors, and his sons, and Kari and all the
serving-men, and they stood in array to meet them in the yard,
and they were near thirty of them.
Flosi halted and said, “Now we shall see what counsel they take,
for it seems to me, if they stand out of doors to meet us, as
though we should never get the mastery over them.”
“Then is our journey bad,” says Grani Gunnar’s son, “if we are
not to dare to fall on them.”
“Nor shall that be,” says Flosi; “for we will fall on them though
they stand out of doors; but we shall pay that penalty, that many
will not go away to tell which side won the day.”
Njal said to his men, “See ye now what a great band of men they
have.”
“They have both a great and well-knit band,” says Skarphedinn;
“but this is why they make a halt now, because they think it will
be a hard struggle to master us.”
“That cannot be why they halt,” says Njal; “and my will is that
our men go indoors, for they had hard work to master Gunnar of
Lithend, though he was alone to meet them; but here is a strong
house as there was there, and they will be slow to come to close
quarters.”
“This is not to be settled in that wise,” says Skarphedinn, “for
those chiefs fell on Gunnar’s house, who were so nobleminded,
that they would rather turn back than burn him, house and all;
but these will fall on us at once with fire, if they cannot get
at us in any other way, for they will leave no stone unturned to
get the better of us; and no doubt they think, as is not
unlikely, that it will be their deaths if we escape out of their
hands. Besides, I am unwilling to let myself be stifled indoors
like a fox in his earth.”
“Now,” said Njal, “as often it happens, my sons, ye set my
counsel at naught, and show me no honour, but when ye were
younger ye did not so, and then your plans were better
furthered.”
“Let us do,” said Helgi, “as our father wills; that will be best
