meant to defend the suit at law, and that the ring must have been
given him for that.”
They were all agreed that it must be so. Then Gizur spoke to
them, “Now has Mord Valgard’s son, my son-in-law, undertaken a
suit, which all must think most hard, to prosecute Flosi; and now
my wish is that ye share the other suits amongst you, for now it
will soon be time to give notice of the suits at the Hill of
Laws. We shall need also to ask for more help.”
Asgrim said so it should be, “but we will beg thee to go round
with us when we ask for help.” Gizur said he would be ready to
do that.
After that Gizur picked out all the wisest men of their company
to go with him as his backers. There was Hjallti Skeggi’s son,
and Asgrim, and Kari, and Thorgeir Craggeir.
Then Gizur the White said, “Now will we first go to the booth of
Skapti Thorod’s son,” and they do so. Gizur the White went
first, then Hjallti, then Kari, then Asgrim, then Thorgeir
Craggeir, and then his brothers.
They went into the booth. Skapti sat on the cross bench on the
dais, and when he saw Gizur the White he rose up to meet him, and
greeted him and all of them well, and bade Gizur to sit down by
him, and he does so. Then Gizur said to Asgrim, “Now shalt thou
first raise the question of help with Skapti, but I will throw in
what I think good.”
“We are come hither,” said Asgrim, “for this sake, Skapti, to
seek help and aid at thy hand.”
“I was thought to be hard to win the last time,” said Skapti,
“when I would not take the burden of your trouble on me.”
“It is quite another matter now,” said Gizur. “Now the feud is
for master Njal and mistress Bergthora, who were burnt in their
own house without a cause, and for Njal’s three sons, and many
other worthy men, and thou wilt surely never be willing to yield
no help to men, or to stand by thy kinsmen and connections.”
“It was in my mind,” answers Skapti, “when Skarphedinn told me
that I had myself borne tar on my own head, and cut up a sod of
turf and crept under it, and when he said that I had been so
afraid that Thorolf Lopt’s son of Eyrar bore me abroad in his
ship among his meal-sacks, and so carried me to Iceland, that I
would never share in the blood feud for his death.”
“Now there is no need to bear such things in mind,” said Gizur
the White, “for he is dead who said that, and thou wilt surely
grant me this, though thou wouldst not do it for other men’s
sake.”
“This quarrel,” says Skapti, “is no business of thine, except
thou choosest to be entangled in it along with them.”
Then Gizur was very wrath, and said, “Thou art unlike thy father,
though he was thought not to be quite cleanhanded; yet was he
ever helpful to men when they needed him most.”
“We are unlike in temper,” said Skapti. “Ye two, Asgrim and
thou, think that ye have had the lead in mighty deeds; thou,
