,' and drave
it at the neck of the barrow-bider so that it took off his head, and
Grettir laid it at the thigh of him.[9] Then he went to the rope with
the treasure, and lo, Audun was clean gone, so he had to get up the
rope by his hands; he had tied a line to the treasure, and therewith
he now haled it up.

[Footnote 9: The old belief was that by this means only could a ghost
be laid.]

Grettir had got very stiff with his dealings with Karr, and now he
went back to Thorfinn's house with the treasures, whenas all folk had
set them down to table. Thorfinn gave Grettir a sharp look when he
came into the drinking-hall, and asked him what work he had on hand
so needful to do that he might not keep times of meals with other
men. Grettir answers, "Many little matters will hap on late eves," and
therewith he cast down on the table all the treasure he had taken in
the barrow; but one matter there was thereof, on which he must needs
keep his eyes; this was a short-sword, so good a weapon, that a
better, he said, he had never seen; and this he gave up the last of
all. Thorfinn was blithe to see that sword, for it was an heirloom of
his house, and had never yet gone out of his kin.

"Whence came these treasures to thine hand?" said Thorfinn.

Grettir sang--

"Lessener of the flame of sea,
My strong hope was true to me,
When I deemed that treasure lay
In the barrow; from to-day
Folk shall know that I was right;
The begetters of the fight
Small joy now shall have therein,
Seeking dragon's-lair to win."

Thorfinn answered, "Blood will seldom seem blood to thine eyes; no man
before thee has had will to break open the barrow; but, because I
know that what wealth soever is hid in earth or borne into barrow is
wrongly placed, I shall not hold thee blameworthy for thy deed as
thou hast brought it all to me; yea, or whence didst thou get the good
sword?"

Grettir answered and sang--

"Lessener of waves flashing flame,
To my lucky hand this came
In the barrow where that thing
Through the dark fell clattering;
If that helm-fire I should gain,
Made so fair to be the bane
Of the breakers of the bow,
Ne'er from my hand should it go."

Thorfinn said, "Well hast thou prayed for it, but thou must show some
deed of fame before I give thee that sword, for never could I get it
of my father while he lived."

Said Grettir, "Who knows to whom most gain will come of it in the
end?"

So Thorfinn took