and lifts him up and casts him down in the muddy path on his
head.
Audulf the Easterling snatches up a spear and launches it at
Gunnar. Gunnar caught the spear with his hand in the air, and
hurled it back at once, and it flew through the shield and the
Easterling too, and so down into the earth.
Otkell smites at Gunnar with his sword, and aims at his leg just
below the knee, but Gunnar leapt up into the air and he misses
him. Then Gunnar thrusts at him the bill and the blow goes
through him.
Then Kolskegg comes up, and rushes at once at Hallkell and dealt
him his deathblow with his short sword. There and then they
slay eight men.
A woman who saw all this, ran home and told Mord, and besought
him to part them.
“They alone will be there,” he says, “of whom I care not though
they slay one another.”
“Thou canst not mean to say that,” she says, “for thy kinsman
Gunnar, and thy friend Otkell will be there.”
“Baggage, that thou art,” he says, “thou art always chattering,”
and so he lay still indoors while they fought.
Gunnar and Kolskegg rode home after this work, and they rode hard
up along the river bank, and Gunnar leapt off his horse and came
down on his feet.
Then Kolskegg said, “Hard now thou ridest, brother!”
“Ay,” said Gunnar, “that was what Skamkell said when he uttered
those very words when they rode over me.”
“Well, thou hast avenged that now,” says Kolskegg.
“I would like to know,” says Gunnar, “whether I am by so much the
less brisk and bold than other men, because I think more of
killing men than they?”
ENDNOTES:
(1) This shews that the shields were oblong, running down to a
point.
55. NJAL’S ADVICE TO GUNNAR
Now those tidings are heard far and wide, and many said that they
thought they had not happened before it was likely. Gunnar rode
to Bergthorsknoll and told Njal of these deeds.
Njal said, “Thou hast done great things, but thou hast been
sorely tried.”
“How will it now go henceforth?” says Gunnar.
“Wilt thou that I tell thee what hath not yet come to pass?” asks
Njal. “Thou wilt ride to the Thing, and thou wilt abide by my
counsel and get the greatest honour from this matter. This will
be the beginning of thy manslayings.”
“But give me some cunning counsel,” says Gunnar.
“I will do that,” says Njal, “never slay more than one man in the
same stock, and never break the peace which good men and true
make between thee and others, and least of all in such a matter
