The jarl answered:  “Truth do you speak, Thorfinn! that was indeed a cleansing!  It would befit us well to accept the compensation for your sake.  Grettir, too, is a fine fellow, and noted for his strength and valour.”

Hjarrandi, however, would accept no compensation, and the meeting came to an end.  Thorfinn appointed one of his kinsmen, Arnbjorn, to accompany Grettir every day, for he knew that Hjarrandi was plotting against his life.

CHAPTER XXIII

GRETTIR KILLS HJARRANDI

One day Grettir and Arnbjorn were walking along the road for their diversion when they passed a gate, whence a man rushed out holding an axe aloft with both hands and struck at Grettir, who was not on his guard and was moving slowly.  Arnbjorn, however, saw the man coming, seized Grettir and pushed him aside with such force that he fell on his knee.  The axe struck him in the shoulder-blade and cut down to below the arm, inflicting a severe wound.  Grettir turned quickly and drew his sword; he saw that it was Hjarrandi who had attacked him.  The axe had stuck fast in the road, and Hjarrandi was slow in recovering it.  Grettir struck at him and cut off his arm at the shoulder.  Then there came running up five of Hjarrandi’s followers and a battle began with them.  They were soon routed; Grettir and Arnbjorn killed the five who were with Hjarrandi; one man escaped and bore the tale to the jarl forthwith.  The jarl was very angry indeed, and summoned the assembly for the next day.  Thorfinn and his party appeared thereat.  The jarl brought a charge of manslaughter against Grettir, who admitted it and said that he had been obliged to defend himself.  “I bear the marks of it,” he said.  “I should have been killed if Arnbjorn had not defended me.”

The jarl said it was a pity he had not been killed, for this affair would lead to many a man being slain if he lived.

There had come to the jarl’s court Bersi the son of Skaldtorfa, Grettir’s comrade and friend.  He and Thorfinn stepped before the jarl and begged for pardon for Grettir.  They asked that the jarl should decide the matter himself as he thought best, only that Grettir should have his life and the freedom of the country.  The jarl was averse to any terms being granted to him, but gave way to their entreaties.  He granted immunity to Grettir until the spring, but not absolutely until Gunnar the brother of Bjorn and Hjarrandi should be present.  Gunnar was a landed proprietor in Tunsberg.

In the spring the jarl ordered Grettir and Thorfinn to appear at Tunsberg, where he himself intended to be while the shipping was assembled.  So thither they went, and found the jarl was already in the town.  There Grettir met his brother Thorsteinn Dromund, who greeted him joyfully and invited him to be his guest.  He was a landowner in the town.  Grettir told him all about his case, and Thorsteinn took his view of it, but told him to beware of Gunnar.  So the spring passed.