riest and
asked her to send for one. She did so; Steinn came to Sandhaugar and
soon learnt that it was Grettir the son of Asmund who had come there
under the name of Gest. The priest asked him what he thought had become
of the men who had disappeared; Grettir said he thought that they must
have gone among the rocks. The priest said he could not believe his word
unless he gave some evidence of it. Grettir said that later it would be
known, and the priest went home. Grettir lay many days in his bed and
the lady did all she could for him; thus Yule-tide passed. Grettir
himself declared that the trollwoman sprang among the rocks when she was
wounded, but the men of Bardardal say that the day dawned upon her while
they were wrestling; that when he cut off her arm she broke, and that
she is still standing there on the mountain in the likeness of a woman.
The dwellers in the valley kept Grettir there in hiding.

One day that winter after Yule Grettir went to Eyjardalsa and met the
priest, to whom he said: "I see, priest, that you have little belief in
what I say. Now I wish you to come with me to the river and to see what
probability there is in it."

The priest did so. When they reached the falls they saw a cave up under
the rock. The cliff was there so abrupt that no one could climb it, and
nearly ten fathoms down to the water. They had a rope with them. The
priest said: "It is quite impossible for any one to get down to that."

Grettir answered: "It is certainly possible; and men of high mettle are
those who would feel themselves happiest there. I want to see what there
is in the fall. Do you mind the rope."

The priest said he could do so if he chose. He drove a stake into the
ground and laid stones against it.

CHAPTER LXVI. GRETTIR SLAYS A GIANT

Grettir now fastened a stone in a loop at the end of the rope, and
lowered it from above into the water.

"Which way do you mean to go?" asked the priest.

"I don't mean to be bound when I come into the fall," Grettir said. "So
my mind tells me."

Then he prepared to go; he had few clothes on and only a short sword; no
other arms. He jumped from a rock and got down to the fall. The priest
saw the soles of his feet but after that did not know what had become of
him. Grettir dived beneath the fall.

It was very difficult swimming because of the currents, and he had to
dive to the bottom to get behind the fall. There was a rock where he
came up, and a great cave