has wrongly summoned; but he may not be prosecuted for that at
this Thing; and now thou shalt go back.”
He does so, and told Mord and Asgrim all, word for word, that
Thorhall had said.
Then Mord went to the court, and took witness, and swore an oath
that the greater part of the inquest was rightly summoned, and
said then that he had set the prosecution on its feet again, and
then he went on, “And so our foes shall have honour from
something else than from this, that we have here taken a great
false step.”
Then there was a great roar that Mord handled the suit well; but
it was said that Flosi and his men betook them only to quibbling
and wrong.
Flosi asked Eyjolf if this could be good law, but he said he
could not surely tell, but said the Lawman must settle this
knotty point.
Then Thorkel Geiti’s son went on their behalf to tell the Lawman
how things stood, and asked whether this were good law that Mord
had said.
“More men are great lawyers now,” says Skapti, “than I thought.
I must tell thee, then, that this is such good law in all points,
that there is not a word to say against it; but still I thought
that I alone would know this, now that Njal was dead, for he was
the only man I ever knew who knew it.”
Then Thorkell went back to Flosi and Eyjolf, and said that this
was good law.
Then Mord Valgard’s son went to the court and took witness. “I
take witness to this,” he said, “that I bid those neighbours on
the inquest in the suit which I set on foot against Flosi Thord’s
son now to utter their finding, and to find it either against him
or for him; I bid them by a lawful bidding before the court, so
that the judges may hear it across the court.”
Then the neighbours on Mord’s inquest went to the court, and one
uttered their finding, but all confirmed it by their consent; and
they spoke thus, word for word, “Mord Valgard’s son summoned nine
of us thanes on this inquest, but here we stand five of us, but
four have been challenged and set aside, and now witness has been
home as to the absence of the four who ought to have uttered this
finding along with us, and now we are bound by law to utter our
finding. We were summoned to bear this witness, whether Flosi
Thord’s son rushed with an assault laid down by law on Helgi
Njal’s son, on that spot where Flosi Thord’s son wounded Helgi
Njal’s son with a brain, or a body, or a marrow wound, which
proved a death-wound, and from which Helgi got his death. He
summoned us to utter all those words which it was lawful for us
to utter, and which he should call on us to answer before the
court, and which belong to this suit; he summoned us, so that we
heard what he said; he summoned us in a suit which Thorgeir
Thorir’s son had handed over to him, and now we have all sworn an
