"To our helping came
The great of name;
Thorfinn was there
Born rule to bear;
When all bolts fell
Into locks, and hell
Cried out for my life
In the Tunsberg strife.
The Dromund fair[11]
Of red seas was there,
The stone of the bane
Of steel-gods vain:
From Bylest's kin
My life to win,
Above all men
He laboured then.
Then the king's folk
Would strike no stroke
To win my head;
So great grew dread;
For the leopard came
With byrni's flame,
And on thoughts-burg wall
Should that bright fire fall."
Grettir went back north with Thorfinn, and was with him till he gat
him to ship with chapmen who were bound out to Iceland: he gave him
many fair gifts of raiment, and a fair-stained saddle and a bridle
withal. They parted in friendship, and Thorfinn bade him come to him
whensoever he should come back to Norway.
[Footnote 11: The stone of steel-god's bane in Thorstein; Bylest's kin
is Hel, death. The leopard is Bessi Skald-Torfason; byrni's flame, his
sword. Thoughts-burg, a warrior's head.]