t into
the house there. After that I woke. Now I wish to ask if any of
you saw aught about yon tall man."

Then one man answered him, "I saw how a golden fringe and a bit
of scarlet cloth peeped out at his arm, and on his right arm he
had a ring of gold."

Hauskuld said, "This beast is no man's fetch, but Gunnar's of
Lithend, and now methinks I see all about it. Up! let us ride
to Hrutstede," And they did so. Hrut lay in his locked bed, and
asks who have come there? Hauskuld tells who he is, and asked
what guests might be there in the house?

"Only Huckster Hedinn is here," says Hrut.

"A broader man across the back, it will be, I fear," says
Hauskuld, "I guess here must have been Gunnar of Lithend."

"Then there has been a pretty trial of cunning," says Hrut.

"What has happened?" says Hauskuld.

"I told him how to take up Unna's suit, and I summoned myself and
he summoned after, and now he can use this first step in the
suit, and it is right in law."

"There has, indeed, been a great falling off of wit on one side,"
said Hauskuld, "and Gunnar cannot have planned it all by himself;
Njal must be at the bottom of this plot, for there is not his
match for wit in all the land."

Now they look for Hedinn, but he is already off and away; after
that they gathered folk, and looked for them three days, but
could not find them. Gunnar rode south from the fell to Hawkdale
and so east of Skard, and north to Holtbeaconheath, and so on
until he got home.

ENDNOTES:

(1) "Lord of rings," a periphrasis for a chief, that is, Mord.
(2) "Earth's offspring," a periphrasis for woman, that is, Unna.

24. GUNNAR AND HRUT STRIVE AT THE THING.

Gunnar rode to the Althing, and Hrut and Hauskuld rode thither
too with a very great company. Gunnar pursues his suit, and
began by calling on his neighbours to bear witness, but Hrut and
his brother had it in their minds to make an onslaught on him,
but they mistrusted their strength.

Gunnar next went to the court of the men of Broadfirth, and bade
Hrut listen to his oath and declaration of the cause of the suit,
and to all the proofs which he was about to bring forward. After
that he took his oath, and declared his case. After that he
brought forward his witnesses of the summons, along with his
witnesses that the suit had been handed over to him. All this
time Njal was not at the court. Now Gunnar pursued his suit till
he called on the defendant to reply. The