Helga.—­The slayers of Thorolf themselves incited me most.

Jorun.—­And now it may appear to you as though not only Thorolf was to be avenged.  Asbjorn fared South with eleven men and returned alone.  He lost all men in the winter storms that have been raging now for some time.  At last there were only six who returned over the Kjol, without food and worn out.  Man after man threw himself down on the frozen ground to die; they cursed the wars that will not let men die in peace with God and men, they cursed Brand Kolbeinsson, and Broddi, and Kolbein the Young, because it is they who are the cause of this war.

Helga.—­You say the truth about the journey of Asbjorn from the South.  But I shall forget about all that, and shall procure the best terms for your husband from Kolbein, if you will give me your boy Kalf to foster and to let me bring him up.  It has become rather solitary about me now at Flugumyr!

Jorun.—­And you wish that I shall bring up my sons so that dying men shall curse them?

Helga.—­You shall surrender the boy to me, whether you like it or no.

Jorun.—­Then would I rather die!

Helga.—­Weak spirit!  My husband has promised me the life of a man in this feud, and also that I might choose who it shall be.

Jorun.—­Then I know that it will be the life of my husband.

Helga.—­You spoke of the love between me and Thorolf Bjarnason.  I shall not deny it.  Thorolf summoned your husband before the judgment of God before he was put to death.  Now he is dead I can do nothing more pleasing to him than to see to it that Brand Kolbeinsson follow the summons in due time.

Jorun.—­You are a devil, Helga!  You dare to treat thus a chieftain as beloved as Brand Kolbeinsson?

Helga.—­Loud you exclaim now, my lady!  Yet I am better than you think me.  If Brand is as beloved a chieftain as you make him out to be, somebody will surely be ready to die in his place; and that will I promise you that I shall give your husband full release, and kill him instead who offers himself to that end. (She laughs.)

Jorun.—­You promise me that because you know full well that no one will do that.

Helga.—­Is not Brand Kolbeinsson a beloved chieftain?

Jorun.—­Yet you will stand by your word neither to me nor my husband.

Helga.—­When did I ever fail to live up to my promise?

Jorun.—­Did you never say that you would love your husband?

Helga.—­When I was given to Kolbein I never once was asked whether I would love him, so that if I have been much lacking in this matter I have never deceived him in any way.  Your husband may rest assured that if any one offer to die instead of so highly beloved a chieftain, then shall I take that man’s life, and not Brand’s.