ask of thee," said Asgrim, "that thou wouldst grant me and
my sons-in-law help."

Hafr answered sharp and quick, and said he would have nothing to do with
their troubles.

"But still I must ask who that pale-faced man is before whom four men
go, so ill-looking, as though he had come out of the sea-crags."

"Never mind, milksop that thou art!" said Skarphedinn, "who I am, for I
will dare to go forward wherever thou standest before me, and little
would I fear though such striplings were in my path. 'Twere rather thy
duty, too, to get back thy sister Swanlauga, whom Eydis ironsword and
his messmate Stediakoll took away out of thy house, but thou didst not
dare to do aught against them."

"Let us go out," said Asgrim, "there is no hope of help here."

Then they went out to the booths of men of Modruvale, and asked whether
Gudmund the powerful were in the booth, but they were told he was.

Then they went into the booth. There was a high seat in the midst of it,
and there sate Gudmund the powerful.

Asgrim went and stood before him, and hailed him.

Gudmund took his greeting well, and asked him to sit down.

"I will not sit," said Asgrim, "but I wish to pray thee for help, for
thou art a bold man and a mighty chief."

"I will not be against thee," said Gudmund, "but if I see fit to yield
thee help, we may well talk of that afterwards," and so he treated them
well and kindly in every way.

Asgrim thanked him for his words, and Gudmund said--

"There is one man in your band at whom I have gazed for awhile, and he
seems to me more terrible than most men that I have seen."

"Which is he?" says Asgrim.

"Four go before him," says Gudmund; "dark brown is his hair, and pale is
his face; tall of growth and sturdy. So quick and shifty in his
manliness, that I would rather have his following than that of ten other
men; but yet the man is unlucky-looking."

"I know," said Skarphedinn, "that thou speakest at me, but it does not
go in the same way as to luck with me and thee. I have blame, indeed,
from the slaying of Hauskuld, the Whiteness priest, as is fair and
right; but both Thorkel foulmouth and Thorir Helgi's son spread abroad
bad stories about thee, and that has tried thy temper very much."

Then they went out, and Skarphedinn said--

"Whither shall we go now?"

"To the booths of the men of Lightwater," said Asgrim.

There Thorkel foulmouth had set up his booth.

Thorkel foulmouth had been abroad and worked