They were all agreed that it must be so.  Then Gizur spoke to them—­

“Now has Mord Valgard’s son, my son-in-law, undertaken a suit, which all must think most hard, to prosecute Flosi; and now my wish is that ye share the other suits amongst you, for now it will soon be time to give notice of the suits at the Hill of Laws.  We shall need also to ask for more help.”

Asgrim said so it should be, “but we will beg thee to go round with us when we ask for help”.  Gizur said he would be ready to do that.

After that Gizur picked out all the wisest men of their company to go with him as his backers.  There was Hjallti Skeggi’s son, and Asgrim, and Kari, and Thorgeir Craggeir.

Then Gizur the white said—­

“Now will we first go to the booth of Skapti Thorod’s son,” and they do so.  Gizur the white went first, then Hjallti, then Kari, then Asgrim, then Thorgeir Craggeir, and then his brothers.

They went into the booth.  Skapti sat on the cross-bench on the dais, and when he saw Gizur the white he rose up to meet him, and greeted him and all of them well, and bade Gizur to sit down by him, and he does so.  Then Gizur said to Asgrim—­

“Now shalt thou first raise the question of help with Skapti, but I will throw in what I think good.”

“We are come hither,” said Asgrim, “for this sake, Skapti, to seek help and aid at thy hand.”

“I was thought to be hard to win the last time,” said Skapti, “when I would not take the burden of your trouble on me.”

“It is quite another matter now,” said Gizur.  “Now the feud is for master Njal and mistress Bergthora, who were burnt in their own house without a cause, and for Njal’s three sons, and many other worthy men, and thou wilt surely never be willing to yield no help to men, or to stand by thy kinsmen and connections.”

“It was in my mind,” answers Skapti, “when Skarphedinn told me that I had myself borne tar on my own head, and cut up a sod of turf and crept under it, and when he said that I had been so afraid that Thorolf Lopt’s son of Eyrar bore me abroad in his ship among his meal-sacks, and so carried me to Iceland, that I would never share in the blood feud for his death.”

“Now there is no need to bear such things in mind,” said Gizur the white, “for he is dead who said that, and thou wilt surely grant me this, though thou wouldst not do it for other men’s sake.”

“This quarrel,” says Skapti, “is no business of thine, except thou choosest to be entangled in it along with them.”

Then Gizur was very wrath, and said—­

“Thou art unlike thy father, though he was thought not to be quite clean-handed; yet was he ever helpful to men when they needed him most.”

“We are unlike in temper,” said Skapti.  “Ye two, Asgrim and thou, think that ye have had the lead in mighty deeds; thou, Gizur the white, because thou overcamest Gunnar of Lithend; but Asgrim, for that he slew Gauk, his foster-brother.”