said he was a brother of Grettir the Strong and that he had never been able to obtain his vengeance till that moment.  Then many of them stood up for him and said there was much excuse for a man who had come such a long way to avenge his brother.  The elders of the town thought that this might be true, but as there was no one present to bear out his word they fell back upon their own law, which declared that any man who slew another should lose nothing else than his life.

Judgment was quickly passed upon Thorsteinn, and it was rather hard.  He was to sit in a dark chamber in a dungeon and there await his death unless some one came to pay a ransom for him.  When he reached the dungeon he found a man who had been there a long time and was all but dead from misery.  It was both foul and cold.  Thorsteinn asked him:  “How do you find your life?”

“Most evil,” he replied; “no one will help me, for I have no kinsmen to pay a ransom.”

“There are many ways out of a difficulty,” said Thorsteinn, “let us be happy and do something to cheer ourselves.”

The man said he had no joy in anything.

“We will try it,” said Thorsteinn.

Then he began to sing songs.  He was such a singer that it would be hard to find his like, and he spared nothing.  The dungeon was close to the public road and Thorsteinn sang so loud that it resounded from the walls; the man who before was half dead had much joy therefrom.  In this way he sang every evening.

CHAPTER LXXXVII

THE LADY SPES

There was a very distinguished lady in that town, the owner of a large establishment, very rich and highly born.  Her name was Spes.  Her husband’s name was Sigurd; he too was wealthy, but of lower birth than she was.  She had been married to him for his money.  There was not much love between them, and the marriage was thought an unhappy one.  She was very proud, and had much dignity.

One evening when Thorsteinn was diverting himself she happened to pass along the street near the dungeon and heard singing so sweet that she declared she had never heard the like.  She was walking with several retainers, and told them to go in and find out who it was that had such a magnificent voice.  They called out and asked who was there in such close confinement.  Thorsteinn told his name.  Spes said: 

“Are you as good at other things as you are at singing?”

He said there was not much in that.

“What have you done,” she asked, “that they should torture you here to death?”

He said he had killed a man and avenged his brother; “but I have no witness to prove it,” he said; “so I have been put here unless some one comes to release me, of which there seems little hope, since I have no relations here.”

“A great loss would it be if you were killed,” she said.  “Was your brother then a man of such renown, he whom you avenged?”