Njal spoke again, "'Twill be hard work for thee to atone for all
Hallgerda's mischief; and somewhere else there will be a broader
trail to follow than this which we two now have a share in, and
yet, even here there will be much awanting before all be well;
and herein we shall need to bear in mind the friendly words that
passed between us of old; and something tells me that thou wilt
come well out of it, but still thou wilt be sore tried."
Then Njal took the award into his own hands from Gunnar, and
said, "I will not push this matter to the uttermost; thou shalt
pay twelve ounces of silver; but I will add this to my award,
that if anything happens from our homestead about which thou hast
to utter an award, thou wilt not be less easy in thy terms."
Gunnar paid up the money out of hand, and rode home afterwards.
Njal, too, came home from the Thing, and his sons. Bergthora saw
the money, and said, "This is very justly settled; but even as
much money shall be paid for Kol as time goes on."
Gunnar came home from the Thing and blamed Hallgerda. She said,
better men lay unatoned in many places. Gunnar said, she might
have her way in beginning a quarrel, "but how the matter is to be
settled rests with me."
Hallgerda was for ever chattering of Swart's slaying, but
Bergthora liked that ill. Once Njal and her sons went up to
Thorolfsfell to see about the house-keeping there, but that
selfsame day this thing happened when Bergthora was out of doors:
she sees a man ride up to the house on a black horse. She stayed
there and did not go in, for she did not know the man. That man
had a spear in his hand, and was girded with a short sword. She
asked this man his name.
"Atli is my name," says he.
She asked whence he came.
"I am an Eastfirther," he says.
"Whither shalt thou go?" she says.
"I am a homeless man," says he, "and I thought to see Njal and
Skarphedinn, and know if they would take me in."
"What work is handiest to thee?" says she.
"I am a man used to field-work," he says, "and many things else
come very handy to me; but I will not hide from thee that I am a
man of hard temper, and it has been many a man's lot before now
to bind up wounds at my hand."
"I do not blame thee," she says, "though thou art no milksop."