“What shall I do to him?” he says.
“Askest thou that, when thou art the worst of men?” she says.
“Thou shalt kill him.”
“I can get that done,” he says, “but ‘tis more likely that I
shall lose my own life for it.”
“Everything grows big in thy eyes,” she says, “and thou behavest
ill to say this after I have spoken up for thee in everything. I
must get another man to do this if thou darest not.”
He took the axe, and was very wroth, and takes a horse that
Gunnar owned, and rides now till he comes east of Markfleet.
There he got off and bided in the wood, till they had carried
down the firewood, and Swart was left alone behind. Then Kol
sprang on him, and said, “More folk can hew great strokes than
thou alone;” and so he laid the axe on his head, and smote him
his deathblow, and rides home afterwards, and tells Hallgerda of
the slaying.
She said, “I shall take such good care of thee, that no harm
shall come to thee.”
“May be so,” says he, “but I dreamt all the other way as I slept
ere I did the deed.”
Now they come up into the wood, and find Swart slain, and bear
him home. Hallgerda sent a man to Gunnar at the Thing to tell
him of the slaying. Gunnar said no hard words at first of
Hallgerda to the messenger, and men knew not at first whether he
thought well or ill of it. A little after he stood up, and bade
his men go with him: they did so, and fared to Njal’s booth.
Gunnar sent a man to fetch Njal, and begged him to come out.
Njal went out at once, and he and Gunnar fell a-talking, and
Gunnar said, “I have to tell thee of the slaying of a man, and my
wife and my grieve Kol were those who did it; but Swart, thy
housecarle, fell before them.”
Njal held his peace while he told him the whole story. Then Njal
spoke, “Thou must take heed not to let her have her way in
everything.”
Gunnar said, “Thou thyself shalt settle the terms.”
Njal spoke again, “‘Twill be hard work for thee to atone for all
Hallgerda’s mischief; and somewhere else there will be a broader
trail to follow than this which we two now have a share in, and
yet, even here there will be much awanting before all be well;
and herein we shall need to bear in mind the friendly words that
passed between us of old; and something tells me that thou wilt
come well out of it, but still thou wilt be sore tried.”
Then Njal took the award into his own hands from Gunnar, and
said, “I will not push this matter to the uttermost; thou shalt
pay twelve ounces of silver; but I will add this to my award,
that if anything happens from our homestead about which thou hast
to utter an award, thou wilt not be less easy in thy terms.”
Gunnar paid up the money out of hand, and rode home afterwards.
Njal, too, came home from the Thing, and his sons. Bergthora saw
