“boun,” and every one of them went out of doors with him; he
leans on the butt of his spear and leaps into the saddle, and he
and Kolskegg ride away.
They ride down along Markfleet, and just then Gunnar’s horse
tripped and threw him off. He turned with his face up towards
the Lithe and the homestead at Lithend, and said, “Fair is the
Lithe; so fair that it has never seemed to me so fair; the corn
fields are white to harvest and the home mead is mown; and now I
will ride back home, and not fare abroad at all.”
“Do not this joy to thy foes,” says Kolskegg, “by breaking thy
atonement, for no man could think thou wouldst do thus, and thou
mayst be sure that all will happen as Njal has said.”
“I will not go away any whither,” said Gunnar, “and so I would
thou shouldest do too.”
“That shall not be,” says Kolskegg; “I will never do a base thing
in this, nor in any thing else which is left to my good faith;
and this is that one thing that could tear us asunder; but tell
this to my kinsman and to my mother that I never mean to see
Iceland again, for I shall soon learn that thou art dead,
brother, and then there will be nothing left to bring me back.”
So they parted there and then. Gunnar rides home to Lithend, but
Kolskegg rides to the ship, and goes abroad.
Hallgerda was glad to see Gunnar when he came home, but his
mother said little or nothing.
How Gunnar sits at home that fall and winter, and had not many
men with him.
Now the winter leaves the farmyard. Olaf the Peacock asked
Gunnar and Hallgerda to come and stay with him; but as for the
farm, to put it into the hands of his mother and his son Hogni.
Gunnar thought that a good thing at first, and agreed to it, but
when it came to the point he would not do it.
But at the Thing next summer, Gizur the White, and Geir the
Priest, gave notice of Gunnar’s outlawry at the Hill of Laws; and
before the Thing broke up Gizur summoned all Gunnar’s foes to
meet in the “Great Rift.” (1) He summoned Starkad under the
Threecorner, and Thorgeir his son; Mord and Valgard the Guileful;
Geir the Priest and Hjalti Skeggi’s son; Thorbrand and Asbrand,
Thorleik’s sons; Eyjulf, and Aunund his son. Aunund of Witchwood
and Thorgrim the Easterling of Sandgil.
The Gizur spoke and said, “I will make you all this offer, that
we go out against Gunnar this summer and slay him.”
“I gave my word to Gunnar,” said Hjalti, “here at the Thing,
when he showed himself most willing to yield to my prayer, that I
would never be in any attack upon him; and so it shall be.”
Then Hjalti went away, but those who were left behind made up
their minds to make an onslaught on Gunnar, and shook hands on
the bargain, and laid a fine on any one that left the
undertaking.
Mord was to keep watch and spy out when there was the best chance
