s it as it seems to me, dost thou laugh?"

"So it is surely," says Gunnar, "and I have never laughed since
thou slewest Thrain on Markfleet."

Then Skarphedinn said, "Here now is a keepsake for thee;" and
with that he took out of his purse the jaw-tooth which he had
hewn out of Thrain, and threw it at Gunnar, and struck him in the
eye, so that it started out and lay on his cheek.

Then Gunnar fell down from the roof.

Skarphedinn then went to his brother Grim, and they held one
another by the hand and trode the fire; but when they came to the
middle of the hall Grim fell down dead.

Then Skarphedinn went to the end of the house, and then there was
a great crash, and down fell the roof. Skarphedinn was then shut
in between it and the gable, and so he could not stir a step
thence.

Flosi and his band stayed by the fire until it was broad
daylight; then came a man riding up to them. Flosi asked him for
his name, but he said his name was Geirmund, and that he was a
kinsman of the sons of Sigfus.

"Ye have done a mighty deed," he says.

"Men," said Flosi, "will call it both a mighty deed and an ill
deed, but that can't be helped now."

"How many men have lost their lives here?" asks Geirmund.

"Here have died," says Flosi, "Njal and Bergthora and all their
sons, Thord Kari's son, Kari Solmund's son, but besides these we
cannot say for a surety, because we know not their names."

"Thou tellest him now dead," said Geirmund, "with whom we have
gossiped this morning."

"Who is that?" says Flosi.

"We two," says Geirmund, "I and my neighbour Bard, met Kari
Solmund's son, and Bard gave him his horse, and his hair and his
upper clothes were burned off him!"

"Had he any weapons?" asks Flosi.

"He had the sword `Life-luller,'" says Geirmund, "and one edge of
it was blue with fire, and Bard and I said that it must have
become soft, but he answered thus, that he would harden it in the
blood of the sons of Sigfus or the other Burners."

"What said he of Skarphedinn?" said Flosi.

"He said both he and Grim were alive," answers Geirmund, "when
they parted; but he said that now they must be dead."

"Thou hast told us a tale," said Flosi, "which bodes us no idle
peace, for that man hath now got away who comes next to Gunnar of
Lithend in all things; and now, ye sons of Sigfus, and ye other
burners, know this, that such a great blood feud, and hue and cry
will be made about this burning, that it will make many a m