orliek said, "I have heard
you spoken of as being no small man." Eldgrim said, "My errand here is
that I want to buy from you the stud-horses, those valuable ones that
Kotkell gave you last summer." Thorliek answered, "The horses are not
for sale." Eldgrim said, "I will offer you equally many stud-horses
for them and some other things thrown in, and many would say that I
offer you twice as much as the horses are worth." Thorliek said, "I am
no haggler, but these horses you will never have, not even though you
offer three times their worth." Eldgrim said, "I take it to be no lie
that you are proud and self-willed, and I should, indeed, like to see
you getting a somewhat less handsome price for them than I have now
offered you, and that you should have to let the horses go none the
less." Thorliek got angered at these words, and said, "You need,
Eldgrim, to come to closer quarters if you mean to frighten out me the
horses." Eldgrim said, "You think it unlikely that you will be beaten
by me, but this summer I shall go and see the horses, and we will see
which of us will own them after that." Thorliek said, "Do as you like,
but bring up no odds against me." Then they dropped their talk. The
man who heard this said that for this sort of dealing together here
were two just fitting matches for each other. After that people went
home from the Thing, and nothing happened to tell tidings of.
[Sidenote: Hrut meets with Eldgrim] It happened one morning early that
a man looked out at Hrutstead at goodman Hrut's, Herjolf's son's, and
when he came in Hrut asked what news he brought. He said he had no
other tidings to tell save that he saw a man riding from beyond Vadlar
towards where Thorliek's horses were, and that the man got off his
horse and took the horses. Hrut asked where the horses were then, and
the house-carle replied, "Oh, they have stuck well to their pasture,
for they stood as usual in your meadows down below the fence-wall."
Hrut replied, "Verily, Thorliek, my kinsman, is not particular as to
where he grazes his beasts; and I still think it more likely that it
is not by his order that the horses are driven away." Then Hrut sprang
up in his shirt and linen breeches, and cast over him a grey cloak and
took in his hand his gold inlaid halberd that King Harald had given
him. He went out quickly and saw where a man was riding after horses
down below the wall. Hrut went to meet him, and saw that it was
Eldgrim driving the horse