OF GIZUR THE WHITE AND HJALLTI.
That same summer Hjallti Skeggi's son was outlawed at the Thing for
blasphemy against the Gods.
Thangbrand told King Olaf of all the mischief that the Icelanders had
done to him, and said that they were such sorcerers there that the earth
burst asunder under his horse and swallowed up the horse.
Then King Olaf was so wroth that he made them seize all the men from
Iceland and set them in dungeons, and meant to slay them.
Then they, Gizur the white and Hjallti, came up and offered to lay
themselves in pledge for those men, and fare out to Iceland and preach
the faith. The king took this well, and they got them all set free
again.
Then Gizur and Hjallti busked their ship for Iceland, and were soon
"boun". They made the land at Eyrar when ten weeks of summer had passed;
they got them horses at once, but left other men to strip their ship.
Then they ride with thirty men to the Thing, and sent word to the
Christian men that they must be ready to stand by them.
Hjallti stayed behind at Reydarmull, for he had heard that he had been
made an outlaw for blasphemy, but when they came to the "Boiling
Kettle"[62] down below the brink of the Rift,[63] there came Hjallti
after them, and said he would not let the heathen men see that he was
afraid of them.
Then many Christian men rode to meet them, and they ride in battle
array to the Thing. The heathen men had drawn up their men in array to
meet them, and it was a near thing that the whole body of the Thing had
come to blows, but still it did not go so far.