Grettir turned back, gathered up all the things which Gisli had thrown away and took them home.  Gisli never got them back again; many thought be had only got what he deserved for his noisy boasting.  Grettir made a verse about their encounter: 

“The horse whose fighting teeth are blunted runs from the field before his foe.  With many an afterthought ran Gisli.  Gone is his fame, his glory lost!”

In the spring after this Gisli prepared to go on board his ship and forbade in the strongest terms anything which belonged to him being carried South by the way of the mountains; for he said that the Fiend himself was there.  Gisli when he went South to join his ship kept all the way along the coast and he never met Grettir again.  Nobody considered him worth thinking about, nor do we hear any more of him in this saga.  Grettir’s relations with Thord the son of Kolbeinn became worse than ever, and Thord tried every means to get Grettir driven away or killed.

CHAPTER LX

THE BATTLE WITH THE MYRAMEN

When Grettir had been two winters in Fagraskogafjall and the third winter had set in, he went South into Myrar to the farm called Laekjarbug, where he took six wethers without their owner’s permission.  Then he went down to Akrar and drove off two oxen for slaughter with several sheep, and went up South to the Hitara.  When the bondis heard of his exploits they sent word to Thord at Hitarnes and asked him to take the lead in the slaying of Grettir.  He was rather reluctant, but as they had asked him he sent his son Arnor, afterwards called Jarlsbard, to go with them, and told them not to let Grettir escape.  Messengers were then sent round to all the farms.

There was a man named Bjarni who dwelt in Jorvi in Flysjuhverfi.  He collected men on the other side of the Hitara; the intention was that each band should keep on its own side.  Grettir had two men with him, one named Eyjolf, a stout man, the son of a bondi in Fagraskogar, and another.  The party came on, about twenty in number, under Thorarin from Akrar and Thorfinn of Laekjarbug.  Grettir tried to get out across the river, but was met by Arnor and Bjarni coming from the coast.  There was a narrow point jutting out into the river on Grettir’s side, and when he saw the men approaching he drove his animals on to it, for he never would let go anything of which he had once got possession.  The Myramen prepared to attack in good order and Grettir told his companions to guard his rear.  They could not all come on at once.  There was a hard struggle between them; Grettir used his short sword with both hands and they found it not easy to get at him.  Some of the Myramen fell and some were wounded.  The men on the other side of the river were rather slow in coming up because there was no ford near.  Before they had been fighting very long they fell back.  Thorarin of Akrar was a very old man and not able to join in the fighting.  When the battle was over there came up his son Thrand, his brother Ingjald’s son Thorgils, Finnbogi the son of Thorgeir, the son of Thorhadd of Hitardal, and Steinolf the son of Thorleif of Hraundal.  They set on their men and there was a hard struggle.