“Wonderfully do ye men behave,” said Bergthora, “when ye slay men for small cause, but talk and tarry over such wrongs as this until no vengeance at all is taken; and now tidings of this will soon come to Hauskuld, the Priest of Whiteness, and he will be offering you atonement, and you will grant him that, but now is the time to act about it, if ye seek for vengeance.”

“Our mother eggs us on now with a just goading,” said Skarphedinn, and sang a song.

  Well we know the warrior’s temper,[64]
  One and all, well, father thine,
  But atonement to the mother,
  Snake-land’s stem[65] and thee were base;
  He that hoardeth ocean’s fire[66]
  Hearing this will leave his home;
  Wound of weapon us hath smitten,
  Worse the lot of those that wait!

After that they all ran out of the sheepcote, but Rodny went indoors with Njal, and was there the rest of the night.

CHAPTER CIV.

THE SLAYING OF LYTING’S BROTHERS.

Now we must speak of Skarphedinn and his brothers, how they bend their course up to Rangriver.  Then Skarphedinn said—­

“Stand we here and listen, and let us go stilly, for I hear the voices of men up along the river’s bank.  But will ye, Helgi and Grim, deal with Lyting single-handed, or with both his brothers?”

They said they would sooner deal with Lyting alone.

“Still,” says Skarphedinn, “there is more game in him, and methinks it were ill if he gets away, but I trust myself best for not letting him escape.”

“We will take such steps,” says Helgi, “if we get a chance at him, that he shall not slip through our fingers.”

Then they went thitherward, Where they heard the voices of men, and see where Lyting and his brothers are by a stream.

Skarphedinn leaps over the stream at once, and alights on the sandy brink on the other side.  There upon it stands Hallgrim and his brother.  Skarphedinn smites at Hallgrim’s thigh, so that he cut the leg clean off, but he grasps Hallstein with his left hand.  Lyting thrust at Skarphedinn, but Helgi came up then and threw his shield before the spear, and caught the blow on it.  Lyting took up a stone and hurled it at Skarphedinn, and he lost his hold on Hallstein.  Hallstein sprang up the sandy bank, but could get up it in no other way than by crawling on his hands and knees.  Skarphedinn made a side blow at him with his axe, “the ogress of war,” and hews asunder his backbone.  Now Lyting turns and flies, but Helgi and Grim both went after him, and each gave him a wound, but still Lyting got across the river away from them, and so to the horses, and gallops till he comes to Ossaby.

Hauskuld was at home, and meets him at once.  Lyting told him of these deeds.

“Such things were to be looked for by thee,” says Hauskuld.  “Thou hast behaved like a madman, and here the truth of the old saw will be proved:  ‘but a short while is hand fain of blow’.  Methinks what thou hast got to look to now is whether thou wilt be able to save thy life or not.”