(A cave by KOLBEIN’s stream.  The stage represents a small vale with the cave in the background.  The cave is large and deep, opening in the direction of the spectator.  Water has been coursing down the vale and has frozen to knolls of ice here and there.  A part of the cave-mouth is hidden by icicles formed by the water trickling from the rock above the cave.  Snow is falling heavily and drifting.  This continues throughout the act.)

(BRAND KOLBEINSSON, BRODDI, ALF, DEACON SIGURD, HELGI SKAFTASON, EINAR THE RICH, and six others enter.)

Alf.—­A cursed ill weather this!

Sigurd.—­The great drift-ice must be near!

Brand.—­But there is shelter in this cave here, and here we shall stay awhile.

Einar.—­A witch-storm this is, and we have lost our way!

Broddi.—­The weather is cold and fit for men.  We would do well to use our stay here for coming to an agreement about our attack on Thorolf Bjarnason; because home he journeyed, even if Lady Helga assured us to the contrary.

Einar.—­Let us make away with the new chief of the Eyafirthings!

Brand.—­For me it is not seeming to be in this undertaking, having sworn an eternal truce to Thorolf.

Broddi.—­But none of us others have.

Helgi Skaftason.—­I am not your slave, Brand Kolbeinsson; and if I may not avenge the insults Thorolf has inflicted on you, I shall no longer be your follower, either.

Broddi.—­All your men will desert you, if you permit them not to avenge you on Thorolf.

Brand.—­What would men say if my followers broke a pledged truce?

Alf.—­A truce under compulsion it was, with sixty men, but a few steps away.

Einar.—­Slight is your recollection concerning the murder of Kalf the son of Guttorm!

Brand.—­It is better to suffer than to do ill.

Broddi.—­It is seeming to a chieftain to commit deeds of injustice and highhandedness, so soon as need be for them; but not to suffer them of others.

Brand.—­What need is there that we kill Thorolf Bjarnason now rather than before?

Broddi.—­He is now set as lord over Eyafirth.  He is our enemy, and as it is the Eyafirthings have grievances against us.

Alf.—­For their shameful defeat at Orlygsstad and the fall of their chieftains.

Broddi.—­The Eyafirthings will assail us from the east under Thorolf, and Thord Kakali from the west.  The henchmen of Lady Helga will stand by Thorolf, and not by you, Brand.

Brand.—­But Gissur Thorvaldsson will come to my help over the mountains from the south.

Broddi.—­An ill thing, to have Gissur as one’s only friend.  He is no warrior, keeps no promise, and dares not to fight.

Sigurd.—­Never rely on Gissur’s valor!