ng I must tell you," he said, "is that out in Iceland I
slew a hero named Grettir the Strong. He was a tremendous warrior and so
valorous that no one could succeed in killing him until I came. But as
I was destined to be his slayer, I overcame him, although he was many
times stronger than I am. I cut off his head with this sword and broke a
piece out of the edge."

Those who stood by said he must have had a hard skull, and they showed
the sword round. From this Thorsteinn came to know which was Angle, and
asked to be shown the sword with the others. Angle willingly showed it
to him, for they were all praising his strength and courage, and he,
having no notion of its being Thorsteinn or any relation of Grettir,
thought he would do likewise. Dromund took the sword, at once raised it
aloft and struck a blow at Angle. It came into his head with such force
that it penetrated to his jaw and Thorbjorn fell dead to the ground.
Thereupon all the men became silent. The officer of the place put
Thorsteinn under arrest and asked him why he had committed such a breach
of discipline in the sanctity of the Assembly. Thorsteinn said he was a
brother of Grettir the Strong and that he had never been able to obtain
his vengeance till that moment. Then many of them stood up for him and
said there was much excuse for a man who had come such a long way to
avenge his brother. The elders of the town thought that this might be
true, but as there was no one present to bear out his word they fell
back upon their own law, which declared that any man who slew another
should lose nothing else than his life.

Judgment was quickly passed upon Thorsteinn, and it was rather hard.
He was to sit in a dark chamber in a dungeon and there await his death
unless some one came to pay a ransom for him. When he reached the
dungeon he found a man who had been there a long time and was all but
dead from misery. It was both foul and cold. Thorsteinn asked him: "How
do you find your life?"

"Most evil," he replied; "no one will help me, for I have no kinsmen to
pay a ransom."

"There are many ways out of a difficulty," said Thorsteinn, "let us be
happy and do something to cheer ourselves."

The man said he had no joy in anything.

"We will try it," said Thorsteinn.

Then he began to sing songs. He was such a singer that it would be hard
to find his like, and he spared nothing. The dungeon was close to the
public road and Thorsteinn sang so loud that it resou