great wound and fell; he rose up again at once.
Then they passed on to the Waterfirthers’ booth, and then Hall
and Ljot came from the east across the river, with all their
band; but just when they came to the lava, a spear was hurled out
of the band of Gudmund the Powerful, and it struck Ljot in the
middle, and he fell down dead at once; and it was never known
surely who had done that manslaughter.
Flosi and his men turned up round the Waterfirther’s booth, and
then Thorgeir Craggeir said to Kari Solmund’s son, “Look, yonder
now is Eyjolf Bolverk’s son, if thou hast a mind to pay him off
for the ring.”
“That I ween is not far from my mind,” says Kari, and snatched a
spear from a man, and hurled it at Eyjolf, and it struck him in
the waist, and went through him, and Eyjolf then fell dead to
earth.
Then there was a little lull in the battle, and then Snorri the
Priest came up with his band, and Skapti was there in his
company, and they ran in between them, and so they could not get
at one another to fight.
Then Hall threw in his people with theirs, and was for parting
them there and then, and so a truce was set, and was to be kept
throughout the Thing, and then the bodies were laid out and borne
to the church, and the wounds of those men were bound up who were
hurt.
The day after men went to the Hill of Laws. Then Han of the Side
stood up and asked for a hearing, and got it at once; and he
spoke thus, “Here there have been hard happenings in lawsuits
and loss of life at the Thing, and now I will show again that I
am little-hearted, for I will now ask Asgrim and the others who
take the lead in these suits, that they grant us an atonement on
even terms;” and so he goes on with many fair words.
Kari Solmund’s son said, “Though all others take an atonement in
their quarrels, yet will I take no atonement in my quarrel; for
ye will wish to weigh these manslayings against the burning, and
we cannot bear that.”
In the same way spoke Thorgeir Craggeir.
Then Skapti Thorod’s son stood up and said, “Better had it been
for thee, Kari, not to have run away from thy father-in-law and
thy brothers-in-law, than now to sneak out of this atonement.”
Then Kari sang these verses:
“Warrior wight that weapon wieldest
Spare thy speering why we fled,
Oft for less falls hail of battle,
Forth we fled to wreak revenge;
Who was he, fainthearted foeman,
Who, when tongues of steel sung high,
Stole beneath the booth for shelter,
While his beard blushed red for shame?
“Many fetters Skapti fettered
