"Thou hast not asked this," answers Kari, "because thou hast not
already made up thy mind not to fall on sleeping men, and so to
slay a shameful manslaughter."
After that they shouted to them, and then they all awoke and
grasped at their arms.
They did not fall on them till they were armed.
Thorgeir Craggeir runs thither where Thorkell Sigfus' son stood,
and just then a man ran behind his back, but before he could do
Thorgeir any hurt, Thorgeir lifted the axe, "the ogress of war,"
with both hands, and dashed the hammer of the axe with a back-
blow into the head of him that stood behind him, so that his
skull was shattered to small bits.
"Slain is this one," said Thorgeir; and down the man fell at
once, and was dead.
But when he dashed the axe forward, he smote Thorkell on the
shoulder, and hewed it off, arm and all.
Against Kari came Mord Sigfus' son, and Sigmund Sigfus' son, and
Lambi Sigurd's son; the last ran behind Kari's back, and thrust
at him with a spear; Kari caught sight of him, and leapt up as
the blow fell, and stretched his legs far apart, and so the blow
spent itself on the ground, but Kari jumped down on the spear-
shaft, and snapped it in sunder. He had a spear in one hand, and
a sword in the other, but no shield. He thrust with the right
hand at Sigmund Sigfus' son, and smote him on his breast, and the
spear came out between his shoulders, and down he fell and was
dead at once, With his left hand he made a cut at Mord, and smote
him on the hip, and cut it asunder, and his backbone too; he fell
flat on his face, and was dead at once.
After that he turned sharp round on his heel like a whipping-top,
and made at Lambi Sigurd's son, but he took the only way to save
himself, and that was by running away as hard as he could.
Now Thorgeir turns against Leidolf the Strong, and each hewed at
the other at the same moment, and Leidolf's blow was so great
that it shore off that part of the shield on which it fell.
Thorgeir had hewn with "the ogress of war," holding it with both
hands, and the lower horn fell on the shield and clove it in
twain, but the upper caught the collarbone and cut it in two and
tore on down into the breast and trunk. Kari came up just then,
and cut off Leidolf's leg at mid-thigh, and then Leidolf fell and
died at once.
Kettle of the Mark said, "We will now run for our horses, for we
cannot hold our own here, for the overbearing strength of these
men."
Then they ran for their horses, and leapt on their backs; and
Thorgeir said, "Wilt thou that we chase them? If so, we shall
yet slay some of them."
"He rides last," says Kari, "whom I would not wish to slay, and
that is Kettle of the Mark, for we have two sisters to wife; and
besides, he has behaved best of all of them as yet in our
quarrels."
Then they got on their horses, and rode till they came home to
Holt. Then Thorgeir made his brothers fare away east to Skoga,
for they had another farm there, and because Thorgeir would not
that his brothers should be called truce-breakers.
Then Thorgeir kept many men there about him, so that there were
never fewer than thirty fighting men there.
Then there was great joy there, and men thought Thorgeir had
grown much greater, and pushed himself on; both he and Kari too.
Men long kept in mind this hunting of theirs, how they rode upon
fifteen men and slew those five, but put those ten to flight who
got away.
Now it is to be told of Kettle, that they rode as they best might
till they came home to Swinefell, and told how bad their journey
had been.
Flosi said it was only what was to be looked for; "And this is a
warning that ye should never do the like again."
Flosi was the merriest of men, and the best of hosts, and it is
so said that he had most of the chieftain in him of all the men
of his time.
He was at home that summer, and the winter too.
But that winter, after Yule, Hall of the Side came from the east,
and Kol his son. Flosi was glad at his coming, and they often
talked about the matter of the burning. Flosi said they had
already paid a great fine, and Hall said it was pretty much what
he had guessed would come of Flosi's and his friends' quarrel.
Then he asked him what counsel he thought best to be taken, and
Hall answers, "The counsel is, that thou beest atoned with
Thorgeir if there be a choice, and yet he will be hard to bring
to take any atonement."
"Thinkest thou that the manslaughters will then be brought to an
end?" asks Flosi.
"I do not think so," says Hall; "but you will have to do with
fewer foes if Kari be left alone; but if thou art not atoned with
Thorgeir, then that will be thy bane."
"What atonement shall we offer him?" asks Flosi.
"You will all think that atonement hard," says Hall, "which he
will take, for he will not hear of an atonement unless he be not
called on to pay any fine for what he has just done, but he will
have fines for Njal and his sons, so far as his third share
goes."
"That is a hard atonement," says Flosi.
"For thee at least," says Hall, "that atonement is not hard, for
thou hast not the blood-feud after the sons of Sigfus; their
brothers have the blood-feud, and Hammond the Halt after his son;
but thou shalt now get an atonement from Thorgeir, for I will now
ride to his house with thee, and Thorgeir will in anywise receive
me well: but no man of those who are in this quarrel will dare to
sit in his house on Fleetlithe if they are out of the atonement,
for that will be their bane; and, indeed, with Thorgeir's turn of
mind, it is only what must be looked for."
Now the sons of Sigfus were sent for, and they brought this
business before them; and the end of their speech was, on the
persuasion of Hall, that they all thought what he said right, and
were ready to be atoned.
Grani Gunnar's son and Gunnar Lambi's son, said, "It will be in
our power, if Kari be left alone behind, to take care that he be
not less afraid of us than we of him."
"Easier said than done," says Hall, "and ye will find it a dear
bargain to deal with him. Ye will have to pay a heavy fine
before you have done with him."
After that they ceased speaking about it.