sister.
They were very proud men in temper, hard-hearted and unkind.
They treated men wrongfully.
There was a man named Egil; he was a son of Kol, who took land as
a settler between Storlek and Reydwater. The brother of Egil was
Aunund of Witchwood, father of Hall the Strong, who was at the
slaying of Holt-Thorir with the sons of Kettle the Smooth-tongued.
Egil kept house at Sandgil; his sons were these: Kol, and Ottar,
and Hauk. Their mother’s name was Steinvor; she was Starkad’s
sister.
Egil’s sons were tall and strifeful; they were most unfair men.
They were always on one side with Starkad’s sons. Their sister
was Gudruna Nightsun, and she was the bestbred of women.
Egil had taken into his house two Easterlings; the one’s name was
Thorir and the other’s Thorgrim. They were not long come out
hither for the first time, and were wealthy and beloved by their
friends; they were well skilled in arms, too, and dauntless in
everything.
Starkad had a good horse of chesnut hue, and it was thought that
no horse was his match in fight. Once it happened that these
brothers from Sandgil were away under the Threecorner. They had
much gossip about all the householders in the Fleetlithe, and
they fell at last to asking whether there was any one that would
fight a horse against them.
But there were some men there who spoke so as to flatter and
honour them, that not only was there no one who would dare do
that, but that there was no one that had such a horse
Then Hildigunna answered, “I know that man who will dare to fight
horses with you.”
“Name him,” they say.
“Gunnar has a brown horse,” she says, “and he will dare to fight
his horse against you, and against any one else.”
“As for you women,” they say, “you think no one can be Gunnar’s
match; but though Geir the Priest or Gizur the White have come
off with shame from before him, still it is not settled that we
shall fare in the same way.”
“Ye will fare much worse,” she says: and so there arose out of
this the greatest strife between them. Then Starkad said, “My
will is that ye try your hands on Gunnar last of all; for ye will
find it hard work to go against his good luck.”
“Thou wilt give us leave, though, to offer him a horsefight?”
“I will give you leave, if ye play him no trick.”
They said they would be sure to do what their father said.
Now they rode to Lithend; Gunnar was at home, and went out, and
Kolskegg and Hjort went with him, and they gave them a hearty
welcome, and asked whither they meant to go?
“No farther than hither,” they say. “We are told that thou hast a
good horse, and we wish to challenge thee to a horsefight.”
“Small stories can go about my horse,” says Gunnar; “he is young
and untried in every way.”
