"Yes, so must it be, this morning --
Now my mind is full of fire --
Hrut with me on yonder island
Raises roar of helm and shield.
All that bear my words bear witness,
Warriors grasping Woden's guard,
Unless the wealthy wight down payeth
Dower of wife with flowing veil."
After that Gunnar went away from the court with all his
followers. Hrut and Hauskuld went home too, and the suit was
never pursued nor defended from that day forth. Hrut said, as
soon as he got inside the booth, "This has never happened to me
before, that any man has offered me combat and I have shunned
it."
"Then thou must mean to fight," says Hauskuld, "but that shall
not be if I have my way; for thou comest no nearer to Gunnar than
Mord would have come to thee, and we had better both of us pay up
the money to Gunnar."
After that the brothers asked the householders of their own
country what they would lay down, and they one and all said they
would lay down as much as Hrut wished.
"Let us go then," says Hauskuld, "to Gunnar's booth, and pay down
the money out of hand." That was told to Gunnar, and he went out
into the doorway of the booth, and Hauskuld said, "Now it is
thine to take the money."