When the men, the Gods of fight,
From the fray fared all unwilling
Where the skald scarce held his shield;
Then the suttlers dragged the lawyer
Stout in scolding to their booth,
Laid him low amongst the riffraff,
How his heart then quaked for fear.
“Men who skim the main on sea stag
Well in this ye showed your sense
Making game about the Burning,
Mocking Helgi, Grim, and Njal;
Now the moor round rocky Swinestye (1),
As men run and shake their shields,
With another grunt shall rattle
When this Thing is past and gone.”
Then there was great laughter. Snorri the Priest smiled and sang
this between his teeth, but so that many heard:
“Skill hath Skapti us to tell
Whether Asgrim’s shaft flew well;
Holmstein hurried swift to flight,
Thorstein turned him soon to fight.”
Now men burst out in great fits of laughter.
Then Hall of the Side said, “All men know what a grief I have
suffered in the loss of my son Ljot; many will think that he
would be valued dearest of all those men who have fallen here;
but I will do this for the sake of an atonement — I will put no
price on my son, and yet will come forward and grant both pledges
and peace to those who are my adversaries. I beg thee, Snorri
the Priest, and other of the best men, to bring this about, that
there may be an atonement between us.”
Now he sits him down, and a great hum in his favour followed, and
all praised his gentleness and goodwill.
Then Snorri the Priest stood up and made a long and clever
speech, and begged Asgrim and the others who took the lead in the
quarrel to look towards an atonement.
Then Asgrim said, “I made up my mind when Flosi made an inroad
on my house that I would never be atoned with him; but now Snorri
the Priest, I will take an atonement from him for thy word’s sake
and other of our friends.”
In the same way spoke Thorleif Crow and Thorgrim the Big, that
they were willing to be atoned, and they urged in every way their
brother Thorgeir Craggeir to take an atonement also; but he hung
back, and says he would never part from Kari.
Then Gizur the White said, “Now Flosi must see that he must make
his choice, whether he will be atoned on the understanding that
some will be out of the atonement.”
Flosi says he will take that atonement; “And methinks it is so
much the better,” he says, “that I have fewer good men and true
against me.”
Then Gudmund the Powerful said, “I will offer to handsel peace
