nocks me down?"

Thormod then got Grettir by the leg and tried to drag him off Thorgeir
but could not. He was wearing a short sword, and was just about to draw
it when Thorgils came up and told them to behave themselves and not to
fight with Grettir. They did as he bade and made out that it was all
play. They had no more strife, so far as has been told, and men thought
Thorgils blessed by fortune in having been able to pacify men of such
violent tempers.

When the spring set in they all departed. Grettir went on to
Thorskafjord. When some one asked him how he liked his entertainment at
Reykjaholar he answered: "Our fare was such that I enjoyed my food very
much--when I could get it." Then he went West over the heath.

CHAPTER LI. GRETTIR'S CASE OVERBORNE AT THE ALL-THING

Thorgils, the son of Ari, rode to the Thing with a large following. All
the magnates were there from all parts of the country, and he soon met
with Skapti the Lawman and had some talk with him. Skapti said:

"Is it true, Thorgils, that you have been giving winter entertainment to
three of the most unruly men in the country, all three of them outlaws,
and that you kept order so well that none of them did any harm to the
other?"

Thorgils said it was true.

Skapti said: "Well, I think it shows what authority you possess. But
how did their characters appear to you? Who is the most valorous among
them?"

"They are all entirely valiant," he answered, "but of two of them I will
not say that they never fear; only there is a difference. Thormod fears
God, and is a man of great piety; and Grettir fears the dark. He will
not, if he may follow his own inclination, venture anywhere after
nightfall. But Thorgeir, my kinsman, he I think cannot fear."

"They must be each of them as you say," said Skapti, and there their
conversation ended.

At the Thing Thorodd Drapustuf laid his complaint in the matter of the
slaying of Thorbjorn Oxmain, for he had failed in the Hunavatn Thing
through the influence of Atli's kinsmen. Here he thought that there was
less likelihood of his case being overborne. Atli's party sought counsel
of Skapti the Lawman; he said that their defence appeared to him a good
one, and that full blood-money would have to be paid for Atli. Then the
case was brought before the judges, and the opinion of the majority was
that the slaying of Atli was set off by that of Thorbjorn. Skapti when
he heard of it went to the judges and asked th