but when spring comes thou must sham sickness, and take to thy bed.  Hrut will not lose time in guessing what thy sickness can be, nor will he scold thee at all, but he will rather beg every one to take all the care they can of thee.  After that he will set off west to the Firths, and Sigmund with him, for he will have to flit all his goods home from the Firths west, and he will be away till the summer is far spent.  But when men ride to the Thing, and after all have ridden from the Dales that mean to ride thither, then thou must rise from thy bed and summon men to go along with thee to the Thing; and when thou art all-boun, then shalt thou go to thy bed, and the men with thee who are to bear thee company, and thou shalt take witness before thy husband’s bed, and declare thyself separated from him by such a lawful separation as may hold good according to the judgment of the Great Thing, and the laws of the land; and at the man’s door [the main door of the house] thou shalt take the same witness.  After that ride away, and ride over Laxriverdale Heath, and so on over Holtbeacon Heath; for they will look for thee by way of Hrutfirth.  And so ride on till thou comest to me; then I will see after the matter.  But into his hands thou shalt never come more.”

Now she rides home from the Thing, and Hrut had come back before her, and made her hearty welcome.  She answered him kindly, and was blithe and forbearing towards him.  So they lived happily together that half-year; but when spring came she fell sick, and kept her bed.  Hrut set off west to the Firths, and bade them tend her well before he went.  Now, when the time for the Thing comes, she busked herself to ride away, and did in every way as had been laid down for her; and then she rides away to the Thing.  The country folk looked for her, but could not find her.  Mord made his daughter welcome, and asked her if she had followed his advice; and she says, “I have not broken one tittle of it”.

Then she went to the Hill of Laws, and declared herself separated from Hrut; and men thought this strange news.  Unna went home with her father, and never went west from that day forward.

CHAPTER VIII.

MORD CLAIMS HIS GOODS FROM HRUT.

Hrut came home, and knit his brows when he heard his wife was gone, but yet kept his feelings well in hand, and stayed at home all that half-year, and spoke to no one on the matter.  Next summer he rode to the Thing, with his brother Hauskuld, and they had a great following.  But when he came to the Thing, he asked whether Fiddle Mord were at the Thing, and they told him he was; and all thought they would come to words at once about their matter, but it was not so.  At last, one day when the brothers and others who were at the Thing went to the Hill of Laws, Mord took witness and declared that he had a money-suit against Hrut for his daughter’s dower, and reckoned the amount at ninety hundreds in goods, calling on Hrut at the same time to pay and hand it over to him, and asking for a fine of three marks.  He laid the suit in the Quarter Court, into which it would come by law, and gave lawful notice, so that all who stood on the Hill of Laws might hear.