holmgang had been brought to scorn. Then answered Cormac:--

(33)
"Forget it, O Frey of the helmet,
--Lo, I frame thee a song in atonement--
That the bringer of blood, even Skofnung,
I bare thee so strangely belated.
For by stirrers of storm was I wounded;
They smote me where perches the falcon:
But the blade that I borrowed, O Skeggi,
Was borne in the clashing of edges.

(34)
I had deemed, O thou Grey of fighting,
Of the fierce song of Odin,--my neighbour,
I had deemed that a brand meet for bloodshed
I bare to the crossways of slaughter.
Nay,--thy glaive, it would gape not nor ravin
Against him, the rover who robbed me:
And on her, as the surge on the shingle,
My soul beats and breaks evermore."

CHAPTER TWELVE. Bersi's Bad Luck At The Thor's-Ness Thing.

In the winter, sports were held at Saurbae. Bersi's lad, Asmund, was
there, and likewise the sons of Thord; but they were younger than he,
and nothing like so sturdy. When they wrestled Asmund took no heed
to stint his strength, and the sons of Thord often came home blue and
bleeding. Their mother Thordis was ill pleased, and asked her husband
would he give Bersi a hint to make it up on behalf of his son. Nay,
Thord answered, he was loath to do that.

"Then I'll find my brother Bork," said she, "and it will be just as bad
in the end."

Thord bade her do no such thing. "I would rather talk it over with him,"
said he; and so, at her wish, he met Bersi, and hinted that some amends
were owing.

Said Bersi, "Thou art far too greedy of getting, nowadays. This kind of
thing will end in losing thee thy good name. Thou wilt never want while
anything is to be got here."

Thord went home, and there was a coolness between them while that winter
lasted.

Spring slipped by, until it was time for the meeting at Thor's-ness.
By then, Bersi thought he saw through this claim of Thord's, and found
Thordis at the bottom of it. For all that, he made ready to go to the
Thing. By old use and wont these two neighbours should have gone riding
together; so Bersi set out and came to Muli, but when he got there Thord
was gone.

"Well," said he, "Thord has broken old use and wont in awaiting me no
longer."

"If breach there be," answered Thordis, "it is thy doing. This is
nothing to what we owe thee, and I doubt there will be more to follow."

They ha