you ask for shall not be withheld, for I think Skofnung well bestowed if you bear it.  But the nature of the sword is such that the sun must not shine upon its hilt, nor must it be drawn if a woman should be near.  If a man be wounded by the sword the hurt may not be healed, unless the healing-stone that goes with the sword be rubbed thereon.”  Thorkell said he would pay careful heed to this, and takes over the sword, asking Eid to point out to him the way to where Grim might have his lair.  Eid said he was most minded to think that Grim had his lair north on Twodays-Heath by the Fishwaters.  Then Thorkell rode northward upon the heath the way which Eid did point out to him, and when he had got a long way onward over the heath he saw near some great water a hut, and makes his way for it.

CHAP.  LVIII

Thorkell and Grim, and their Voyage Abroad

Thorkell now comes to the hut, he sees where a man is sitting by the water at the mouth of a brook, where he was line-fishing, and had a cloak over his head. [Sidenote:  They fight] Thorkell leapt off his horse and tied it up under the wall of the hut.  Then he walks down to the water to where the man was sitting.  Grim saw the shadow of a man cast on the water, and springs up at once.  By then Thorkell had got very nearly close up to him, and strikes at him.  The blow caught him on his arm just above the wolf-joint (the wrist), but that was not a great wound.  Grim sprang forthwith upon Thorkell, and they seized each other wrestling-wise, and speedily the odds of strength told, and Thorkell fell and Grim on the top of him.  Then Grim asked who this man might be.  Thorkell said that did not at all matter to him. [Sidenote:  They make peace] Grim said, “Now things have befallen otherwise than you must have thought they would, for now your life will be in my power.”  Thorkell said he would not pray for peace for himself, “for lucklessly I have taken this in hand.”  Grim said he had had enough mishaps for him to give this one the slip, “for to you some other fate is ordained than that of dying at this our meeting, and I shall give you your life, while you repay me in whatever kind you please.”  Now they both stand up and walk home to the hut.  Thorkell sees that Grim was growing faint from loss of blood, so he took Skofnung’s-stone and rubbed it on, and ties it to the arm of Grim, and it took forthwith all smarting pain and swelling out of the wound.  They stayed there that night.  In the morning Thorkell got ready to go away, and asked if Grim would go with him.  He said that sure enough that was his will.  Thorkell turns straightway westward without going to meet Eid, nor halted he till he came to Saelingsdale Tongue. [Sidenote:  Thorkell and Grim go to Snorri] Snorri the Priest welcomes him with great blitheness.  Thorkell told him that his journey had sped lucklessly.  Snorri said it had turned out well, “for Grim looks to me a man endowed with good luck, and my will is