holding back was possible.  They did not spare each other.  Soon they came to the place where the horse’s bones were lying, and here they struggled for long, each in turn being brought to his knees.  At last it ended in the howedweller falling backwards with a horrible crash, whereupon Audun above bolted from the rope, thinking that Grettir was killed.  Grettir then drew his sword Jokulsnaut, cut off the head of the howedweller and laid it between his thighs.  Then he went with the treasure to the rope, but finding Audun gone he had to swarm up the rope with his hands.  First he tied the treasure to the lower end of the rope, so that he could haul it up after him.  He was very stiff from his struggle with Kar, but he turned his steps towards Thorfinn’s house, carrying the treasure along with him.  He found them all at supper.  Thorfinn cast a severe glance at him and asked what he had found so pressing to do that he could not keep proper hours like other men.

“Many a trifle happens at eve,” he replied.

Then he brought out all the treasure which he had taken from the howe and laid it on the table.  One thing there was upon which more than anything else Grettir cast his eyes, a short sword, which he declared to be finer than any weapon which he had ever seen.  It was the last thing that he showed.  Thorfinn opened his eyes when he saw the sword, for it was an heirloom of his family and had never been out of it.

“Whence came this treasure?” he asked.

Grettir then spake a verse: 

“Scatterer of gold! ’twas the lust of wealth that urged my hand to ravish the grave.  This know; but none hereafter, I ween, will be fain to ransack Fafnir’s lair.”

Thorfinn said:  “You don’t seem to take it very seriously; no one ever before had any wish to break open the howe.  But since I know that all treasure which is hidden in the earth or buried in a howe is in a wrong place I hold you guilty of no misdeed, especially since you have brought it to me.”

Grettir answered: 

     “The monster is slain! in the dismal tomb
     I have captured a sword, dire wounder of men. 
     Would it were mine I a treasure so rare
     I never would suffer my hand to resign.”

“You have spoken well,” Thorfinn answered.  “But before I can give you the sword you must display your prowess in some way.  I never got it from my father whilst he lived.”

Grettir said:  “No one knows to whom the greatest profit will fall ere all is done.”

Thorfinn took the treasure and kept the sword in his own custody near his bed.  The winter came on bringing Yule-tide, and nothing more happened that need be told of.

CHAPTER XIX

BERSERKS AT HARAMARSEY

The following summer jarl Eirik the son of Hakon was preparing to leave his country and sail to the West to join his brother-in-law King Knut the Great in England, leaving the government of Norway in the hands of Hakon his son, who, being an infant, was placed under the government and regency of Eirik’s brother, jarl Sveinn.