or withhold aught from him.

Thence went Grettir to Ere, and out along the side of the firth, and
had from every farm victuals and clothes, and dealt hardly with many;
so that most men deemed him a heavy trouble to live under.

Now he fared fearlessly withal, and took no keep of himself, and
so went on till he came to Waterfirth-dale, and went to the
mountain-dairy, and there he dwelt a many nights, and lay in the woods
there, and took no heed to himself; but when the herdsmen knew that,
they went to the farm, and said that to that stead was a fiend come
whom they deemed nowise easy to deal with; then the farmers gathered
together, and were thirty men in all: they lurked in the wood, so that
Grettir was unaware of them, and let a shepherd spy on Grettir till
they might get at him, yet they wotted not clearly who the man was.

Now so it befell that on a day as Grettir lay sleeping, the bonders
came upon him, and when they saw him they took counsel how they should
take him at the least cost of life, and settled so that ten men should
leap on him, while some laid bonds on his feet; and this they did, and
threw themselves on him, but Grettir broke forth so mightily that they
fell from off him, and he got to his knees, yet thereby they might
cast the bonds over him, and round about his feet; then Grettir
spurned two of them so hard about the ears that they lay stunned on
the earth. Now one after the other rushed at him, and he struggled
hard and long, yet had they might to overcome him at the last, and so
bound him.

Thereafter they talked over what they should do with him, and they
bade Helgi of Bathstead take him and keep him in ward till Vermund
came home from the Thing. He answered--

"Other things I deem more helpful to me than to let my house-carles
sit over him, for my lands are hard to work, nor shall he ever come
across me."

Then they bade Thorkel of Giorvidale take and keep him, and said that
he was a man who had enow.

But Thorkel spake against it, and said that for nought would he do
that: "Whereas I live alone in my house with my Carline, far from
other men; nor shall ye lay that box on me," said he.

"Then, Thoralf of Ere," said they, "do thou take Grettir and do well
to him till after the Thing; or else bring him on to the next farm,
and be answerable that he get not loose, but deliver him bound as now
thou hast him."

He answers, "Nay, I will not take Grettir, for I have neither victuals
nor mone