Now Flosi speaks to his men, "Now we will ride to Bergthorsknoll,
and come thither before supper-time."
They do so. There was a dell in the knoll, and they rode
thither, and tethered their horses there, and stayed there till
the evening was far spent.
Then Flosi said, "Now we will go straight up to the house, and
keep close, and walk slow, and see what counsel they will take."
Njal stood out of doors, and his sons, and Kari and all the
serving-men, and they stood in array to meet them in the yard,
and they were near thirty of them.
Flosi halted and said, "Now we shall see what counsel they take,
for it seems to me, if they stand out of doors to meet us, as
though we should never get the mastery over them."
"Then is our journey bad," says Grani Gunnar's son, "if we are
not to dare to fall on them."
"Nor shall that be," says Flosi; "for we will fall on them though
they stand out of doors; but we shall pay that penalty, that many
will not go away to tell which side won the day."
Njal said to his men, "See ye now what a great band of men they
have."
"They have both a great and well-knit band," says Skarphedinn;
"but this is why they make a halt now, because they think it will
be a hard struggle to master us."
"That cannot be why they halt," says Njal; "and my will is that
our men go indoors, for they had hard work to master Gunnar of
Lithend, though he was alone to meet them; but here is a strong
house as there was there, and they will be slow to come to close
quarters."
"This is not to be settled in that wise," says Skarphedinn, "for
those chiefs fell on Gunnar's house, who were so nobleminded,
that they would rather turn back than burn him, house and all;
but these will fall on us at once with fire, if they cannot get
at us in any other way, for they will leave no stone unturned to
get the better of us; and no doubt they think, as is not
unlikely, that it will be their deaths if we escape out of their
hands. Besides, I am unwilling to let myself be stifled indoors
like a fox in his earth."
"Now," said Njal, "as often it happens, my sons, ye set my
counsel at naught, and show me no honour, but when ye were
younger ye did not so, and then your plans were better
furthered."
"Let us do," said Helgi, "as our father wills; that will be best
for us."
"I am not so sure of that," says Skarphedinn, "for now he is
`fey'; but still I may well humour my father in this, by being
burnt indoors along with him, for I am not afraid of my death."
Then he said to Kari, "Let us stand by one another well, brother-
in-law, so that neither parts from the other."
"That I have made up my mind to do," says Kari; "but if it should
be otherwise doomed, -- well! then it must be as it must be, and
I shall not be able to fight against it."
"Avenge us, and we will avenge thee," says Skarphedinn, "if we
live after thee."
Kari said so it should be.
Then they all went in, and stood in array at the door.
"Now are they all `fey,'" said Flosi, "since they have gone
indoors, and we will go right up to them as quickly as we can,
and throng as close as we can before the door, and give heed that
none of them, neither Kari nor Njal's sons, get away; for that
were our bane."
So Flosi and his men came up to the house, and set men
to watch round the house, if there were any secret doors in it.
But Flosi went up to the front of the house with his men.
Then Hroald Auzur's son ran up to where Skarphedinn stood, and
thrust at him. Skarphedinn hewed the spearhead off the shaft as
he held it, and made another stroke at him, and the axe fell on
the top of the shield, and dashed back the whole shield on
Hroald's body, but the upper horn of the axe caught him on the
brow, and he fell at full length on his back, and was dead at
once.
"Little chance had that one with thee, Skarphedinn," said Kari,
"and thou art our boldest."
"I'm not so sure of that," says Skarphedinn, and he drew up his
lips and smiled.
Kari, and Grim, and Helgi, threw out many spears, and wounded
many men; but Flosi and his men could do nothing.
At last Flosi said, "We have already gotten great manscathe in
our men; many are wounded, and he slain whom we would choose last
of all. It is now clear that we shall never master them with
weapons; many now there be who are not so forward in fight as
they boasted, and yet they were those who goaded us on most. I
say this most to Grani Gunnar's son, and Gunnar Lambi's son, who
were the least willing to spare their foes. But still we shall
have to take to some other plan for ourselves, and now there are
but two choices left, and neither of them good. One is to turn
away, and that is our death; the other, to set fire to the house,
and burn them inside it; and that is a deed which we shall have
to answer for heavily before God, since we are Christian men
ourselves; but still we must take to that counsel."