says Gunnar.

"There were some men," say they, "who were sure that no one would dare
to fight his horse with ours."

"I would dare to fight him," says Gunnar; "but I think that was
spitefully said."

"Shall we look upon the match as made, then?" they asked.

"Well, your journey will seem to you better if ye have your way in this;
but still I will beg this of you, that we so fight our horses that we
make sport for each other, but that no quarrel may arise from it, and
that ye put no shame upon me; but if ye do to me as ye do to others,
then there will be no help for it but that I shall give you such a
buffet as it will seem hard to you to put up with. In a word, I shall do
then just as ye do first."

Then they ride home. Starkad asked how their journey had gone off; they
said that Gunnar had made their going good.

"He gave his word to fight his horse, and we settled when and where the
horse-fight should be; but it was plain in everything that he thought he
fell short of us, and he begged and prayed to get off."

"It will often be found," says Hildigunna, "that Gunnar is slow to be
drawn into quarrels, but a hard hitter if he cannot avoid them."

Gunnar rode to see Njal, and told him of the horse-fight, and what words
had passed between them, "But how dost thou think the horse-fight will
turn out?"

"Thou wilt be uppermost," says Njal, "but yet many a man's bane will
arise out of this fight."

"Will my bane perhaps come out of it?" asks Gunnar.

"Not out of this," says Njal; "but still they will bear in mind both the
old and the new feud who fate against thee, and thou wilt have naught
left, for it but to yield."

Then Gunnar rode home.

CHAPTER LVIII.

HOW GUNNAR'S HORSE FOUGHT.

Just then Gunnar heard of the death of his father-in-law Hauskuld; a few
nights after, Thorgerda, Thrain's wife, was delivered at Gritwater, and
gave birth to a boy child. Then she sent a man to her mother, and bade
her choose whether it should be called Glum or Hauskuld. She bade call
it Hauskuld. So that name was given to the boy.

Gunnar and Hallgerda had two sons, the one's name was Hogni and the
other's Grani. Hogni was a brave man of few words, distrustful and slow
to believe, but truthful.

Now men ride to the horse-fight, and a very great crowd is gathered
together there. Gunnar was there and his brothers, and the sons of
Sigfus. Njal and all his sons. There too was come Starkad and his sons,
and Egil and