Then Glum said—­“There has been some talk between thy father and my brother Thorarin and myself about a bargain.  It was that I might get thee, Hallgerda, if it be thy will, as it is theirs; and now, if thou art a brave woman, thou wilt say right out whether the match is at all to thy mind; but if thou hast anything in thy heart against this bargain with us, then we will not say anything more about it.”

Hallgerda said—­“I know well that you are men of worth and might, ye brothers.  I know too that now I shall be much better wedded than I was before; but what I want to know is, what you have said already about the match, and how far you have given your words in the matter.  But so far as I now see of thee, I think I might love thee well if we can but hit it off as to temper.”

So Glum himself told her all about the bargain, and left nothing out, and then he asked Hauskuld and Hrut whether he had repeated it right.  Hauskuld said he had; and then Hallgerda said—­“Ye have dealt so well with me in this matter, my father and Hrut, that I will do what ye advise, and this bargain shall be struck as ye have settled it”.

Then Hrut said—­“Methinks it were best that Hauskuld and I should name witnesses, and that Hallgerda should betroth herself, if the Lawman thinks that right and lawful”.

“Right and lawful it is,” says Thorarin.

After that Hallgerda’s goods were valued, and Glum was to lay down as much against them, and they were to go shares, half and half, in the whole.  Then Glum bound himself to Hallgerda as his betrothed, and they rode away home south; but Hauskuld was to keep the wedding-feast at his house.  And now all is quiet till men ride to the wedding.

CHAPTER XIV.

GLUM’S WEDDING.

Those brothers gathered together a great company, and they were all picked men.  They rode west to the dales and came to Hauskuldstede, and there they found a great gathering to meet them.  Hauskuld and Hrut, and their friends, filled one bench, and the bridegroom the other.  Hallgerda sat upon the cross-bench on the dais, and behaved well.  Thiostolf went about with his axe raised in air, and no one seemed to know that he was there, and so the wedding went off well.  But when the feast was over, Hallgerda went away south with Glum and his brothers.  So when they came south to Varmalek, Thorarin asked Hallgerda if she would undertake the housekeeping, “No, I will not,” she said.  Hallgerda kept her temper down that winter, and they liked her well enough.  But when the spring came, the brothers talked about their property, and Thorarin said—­“I will give up to you the house at Varmalek, for that is readiest to your hand, and I will go down south to Laugarness and live there, but Engey we will have both of us in common”.

Glum was willing enough to do that.  So Thorarin went down to the south of that district, and Glum and his wife stayed behind there, and lived in the house at Varmalek.