Then she said to the boy Thord, Kari’s son—­

“Thee will I take out, and thou shalt not burn in here.”

“Thou hast promised me this, grandmother,” says the boy, “that we should never part so long as I wished to be with thee; but methinks it is much better to die with thee and Njal than to live after you.”

Then she bore the boy to her bed, and Njal spoke to his steward and said—­

“Now shalt thou see where we lay us down, and how I lay us out, for I mean not to stir an inch hence, whether reek or burning smart me, and so thou wilt be able to guess where to look for our bones.”

He said he would do so.

There had been an ox slaughtered and the hide lay there.  Njal told the steward to spread the hide over them, and he did so.

So there they lay down both of them in their bed, and put the boy between them.  Then they signed themselves and the boy with the cross, and gave over their souls into God’s hand, and that was the last word that men heard them utter.

Then the steward took the hide and spread it over them, and went out afterwards.  Kettle of the Mark caught hold of him, and dragged him out, he asked carefully after his father-in-law Njal, but the steward told him the whole truth.  Then Kettle said—­

“Great grief hath been sent on us, when we have had to share such ill-luck together.”

Skarphedinn saw how his father laid him down, and how he laid himself out, and then he said—­

“Our father goes early to bed, and that is what was to be looked for, for he is an old man.”

Then Skarphedinn, and Kari, and Grim, caught the brands as fast as they dropped down, and hurled them out at them, and so it went on a while.  Then they hurled spears in at them, but they caught them all as they flew, and sent them back again.

Then Flosi bade them cease shooting, “for all feats of arms will go hard with us when we deal with them; ye may well wait till the fire overcomes them”.

So they do that, and shoot no more.

Then the great beams out of the roof began to fall, and Skarphedinn said—­

“Now must my father be dead, and I have neither heard groan nor cough from him.”

Then they went to the end of the hall, and there had fallen down a cross-beam inside which was much burnt in the middle.

Kari spoke to Skarphedinn, and said—­“Leap thou out here, and I will help thee to do so, and I will leap out after thee, and then we shall both get away if we set about it so, for hitherward blows all the smoke.”

“Thou shalt leap first,” said Skarphedinn; “but I will leap straightway on thy heels.”

“That is not wise,” says Kari, “for I can get out well enough elsewhere, though it does not come about here.”

“I will not do that,” says Skarphedinn; “leap thou out first, but I will leap after thee at once.”

“It is bidden to every man,” says Kari, “to seek to save his life while he has a choice, and I will do so now; but still this parting of ours will be in such wise that we shall never see one another more; for if I leap out of the fire, I shall have no mind to leap back into the fire to thee, and then each of us will have to fare his own way.”