ere, but well
built.

The master of the house told his mistress that he had taken Hrapp into
his company.

"Most men will get ill luck from this man," she says; "but thou wilt
have thy way."

So Hrapp was there after that. He was a great wanderer, and was never at
home. He still brings about meetings with Gudruna; her father and
brother, Thrand and Gudbrand, lay in wait for him, but they could never
get nigh him, and so all that year passed away.

Gudbrand sent and told Earl Hacon what trouble he had had with Hrapp,
and the Earl let him be made an outlaw, and laid a price upon his head.
He said too, that he would go himself to look after him; but that passed
off, and the Earl thought it easy enough for them to catch him when he
went about so unwarily.

CHAPTER LXXXVII.

THRAIN TOOK TO HRAPP.

That same summer Njal's sons fared to Norway from the Orkneys, as was
before written, and they were there at the fair during the summer. Then
Thrain Sigfus' son busked his ship for Iceland, and was all but "boun".
At that time Earl Hacon went to a feast at Gudbrand's house. That night
Killing-Hrapp came to the shrine of Earl Hacon and Gudbrand, and he went
inside the house, and there he saw Thorgerda Shrinebride sitting, and
she was as tall as a full-grown man. She had a great gold ring on her
arm, and a wimple on her head; he strips her of her wimple, and takes
the gold ring from off her. Then he sees Thor's car, and takes from him
a second gold ring; a third he took from Irpa; and then dragged them all
out, and spoiled them of all their gear.

After that he laid fire to the shrine, and burnt it down, and then he
goes away just as it began to dawn. He walks across a ploughed field,
and there six men sprung up with weapons, and fall upon him at once; but
he made a stout defence, and the end of the business was that he slays
three men, but wounds Thrand to the death, and drives two to the woods,
so that they could bear no news to the Earl. He then went up to Thrand
and said--

"It is now in my power to slay thee if I will, but I will not do that;
and now I will set more store by the ties that are between us than ye
have shown to me."

Now Hrapp means to turn back to the wood, but now he sees that men have
come between him and the wood, so he dares not venture to turn thither,
but lays him down in a thicket, and so lies there a while.

Earl Hacon and Gudbrand went that morning early to the shrine and found
it