eard that thou hadst of a truth put me away,
and that another woman comes an honoured wife to rule in Middalhof, my
tongue forgot its courtesy, and I spoke words that are of all words the
farthest from my mind. For I know well that I grow old, and have put off
that beauty with which I was adorned of yore, and that held thee to me.
'_Carline_' Eric Brighteyes named me, and 'carline' I am--an old hag, no
more! Now, forgive me, and, in memory of all that has been between us,
let me creep to my place in the ingle and still watch and serve thee and
thine till my service is outworn. Out of Ran's net I came to thee, and,
if thou drivest me hence, I tell thee that I will lie down and die upon
thy threshold, and when thou sinkest into eld surely the memory of it
shall grieve thee."

Thus she spoke and wept much, till Asmund's heart softened in him, and,
though with a doubting mind, he said it should be as she willed.

So Groa stayed on at Middalhof, and was lowly in her bearing and soft of
speech.

VII

HOW ERIC WENT UP MOSFELL AGAINST SKALLAGRIM THE BARESARK

Now Atli the Good, earl of the Orkneys, comes into the story.

It chanced that Atli had sailed to Iceland in the autumn on a business
about certain lands that had fallen to him in right of his mother Helga,
who was an Icelander, and he had wintered west of Reyjanes. Spring being
come, he wished to sail home, and, when his ship was bound, he put to
sea full early in the year. But it chanced that bad weather came up from
the south-east, with mist and rain, so he must needs beach his ship in a
creek under shelter of the Westman Islands.

Now Atli asked what people dwelt in these parts, and, when he heard the
name of Asmund Asmundson the Priest, he was glad, for in old days he and
Asmund had gone many a viking cruise together.

"We will leave the ship here," he said, "till the weather clears, and go
up to Middalhof to stay with Asmund."

So they made the ship snug, and left men to watch her; but two of the
company, with Earl Atli, rode up to Middalhof.

It must be told of Atli that he was the best of the earls who lived in
those days, and he ruled the Orkneys so well that men gave him a by-name
and called him Atli the Good. It was said of him that he had never
turned a poor man away unsuccoured, nor bowed his head before a strong
man, nor drawn his sword without cause, nor refused peace to him who
prayed it. He was sixty years old, but age had left few marks o