elp with Skapti, but I will
throw in what I think good."

"We are come hither," said Asgrim, "for this sake, Skapti, to seek help
and aid at thy hand."

"I was thought to be hard to win the last time," said Skapti, "when I
would not take the burden of your trouble on me."

"It is quite another matter now," said Gizur. "Now the feud is for
master Njal and mistress Bergthora, who were burnt in their own house
without a cause, and for Njal's three sons, and many other worthy men,
and thou wilt surely never be willing to yield no help to men, or to
stand by thy kinsmen and connections."

"It was in my mind," answers Skapti, "when Skarphedinn told me that I
had myself borne tar on my own head, and cut up a sod of turf and crept
under it, and when he said that I had been so afraid that Thorolf Lopt's
son of Eyrar bore me abroad in his ship among his meal-sacks, and so
carried me to Iceland, that I would never share in the blood feud for
his death."

"Now there is no need to bear such things in mind," said Gizur the
white, "for he is dead who said that, and thou wilt surely grant me
this, though thou wouldst not do it for other men's sake."

"This quarrel," says Skapti, "is no business of thine, except thou
choosest to be entangled in it along with them."

Then Gizur was very wrath, and said--

"Thou art unlike thy father, though he was thought not to be quite
clean-handed; yet was he ever helpful to men when they needed him most."

"We are unlike in temper," said Skapti. "Ye two, Asgrim and thou, think
that ye have had the lead in mighty deeds; thou, Gizur the white,
because thou overcamest Gunnar of Lithend; but Asgrim, for that he slew
Gauk, his foster-brother."

"Few," said Asgrim, "bring forward the better if they know the worse,
but many would say that I slew not Gauk ere I was driven to it. There is
some excuse for thee for not helping us, but none for heaping reproaches
on us; and I only wish before this Thing is out that thou mayest get
from this suit the greatest disgrace, and that there may be none to make
thy shame good."

Then Gizur and his men stood up all of them, and went out, and so on to
the booth of Snorri the priest.

Snorri sat on the cross-bench in his booth; they went into the booth,
and he knew the men at once, and stood up to meet them, and bade them
all welcome, and made room for them to sit by him.

After that, they asked one another the news of the day.

Then Asgrim spoke to Snorri