"Well at first for a long time," said Gunnar, "but still the end
of it was that he wept." And so he went on giving an unfair
leaning in his story, but every now and then he laughed out loud.
Kari could not stand this, and then he ran in with his sword
drawn, and sang this song:
"Men of might, in battle eager,
Boast of burning Njal's abode,
Have the Princes heard how sturdy
Seahorse racers sought revenge?
Hath not since, on foemen holding
High the shield's broad orb aloft,
All that wrong been fully wroken?
Raw flesh ravens got to tear."
So he ran in up the hall, and smote Gunnar Lambi's son on the
neck with such a sharp blow, that his head spun off on to the
board before the king and the earls, and the board was all one
gore of blood, and the earl's clothing too.
Earl Sigurd knew the man that had done the deed, and called out,
"Seize Kari and kill him."
Kari had been one of Earl Sigurd's bodyguard, and he was of all
men most beloved by his friends; and no man stood up a whit more
for the earl's speech.
"Many would say, Lord," said Kari, "that I have done this deed on
your behalf, to avenge your henchman."
Then Flosi said, "Kari hath not done this without a cause; he is
in no atonement with us, and he only did what he had a right to
do."
So Kari walked away, and there was no hue and cry after him.
Kari fared to his ship, and his fellows with him. The weather
was then good, and they sailed off at once south to Caithness,
and went on shore at Thraswick to the house of a worthy man whose
name was Skeggi, and with him they stayed a very long while.
Those behind in the Orkneys cleansed the board, and bore out the
dead man.
The earl was told that they had set sail south for Scotland, and
King Sigtrygg said, "This was a mighty bold fellow, who dealt his
stroke so stoutly, and never thought twice about it!"
Then Earl Sigurd answered, "There is no man like Kari for dash
and daring."
Now Flosi undertook to tell the story of the burning, and he was
fair to all; and therefore what he said was believed.
Then King Sigtrygg stirred in his business with Earl Sigurd, and
bade him go to the war with him against King Brian.
The earl was long steadfast, but the end of it was that he let
the king have his way, but said he must have his mother's hand
for his help, and be king in Ireland, if they slew Brian. But
all his men besought Earl Sigurd not to go into the war, but it
was all no good.
So they parted on the understanding that Earl Sigurd gave his
word to go; but King Sigtrygg promised him his mother and the
kingdom.
It was so settled that Earl Sigurd was to come with all his host
to Dublin by Palm Sunday.
Then King Sigtrygg fared south to Ireland, and told his mother
Kormlada that the earl had undertaken to come, and also what he
had pledged himself to grant him.
She showed herself well pleased at that, but said they must
gather greater force still.
Sigtrygg asked whence this was to be looked for?
She said there were two vikings lying off the west of Man; and
that they had thirty ships, and, she went on, "They are men of
such hardihood that nothing can withstand them. The one's name
is Ospak, and the other's Brodir. Thou shalt fare to find them,
and spare nothing to get them into thy quarrel, whatever price
they ask."
Now King Sigtrygg fares and seeks the vikings, and found them
lying outside off Man; King Sigtrygg brings forward his errand at
once, but Brodir shrank from helping him until he, King Sigtrygg,
promised him the kingdom and his mother, and they were to keep
this such a secret that Earl Sigurd should know nothing about it;
Brodir too was to come to Dublin on Palm Sunday.
So King Sigtrygg fared home to his mother, and told her how
things stood.
After that those brothers, Ospak and Brodir, talked together, and
then Brodir told Ospak all that he and Sigtrygg had spoken of,
and bade him fare to battle with him against King Brian, and said
he set much store on his going.
But Ospak said he would not fight against so good a king.
Then they were both wroth, and sundered their band at once.
Ospak had ten ships and Brodir twenty.
Ospak was a heathen, and the wisest of all men. He laid his
ships inside in a sound, but Brodir lay outside him.
Brodir had been a Christian man and a mass-deacon by
consecration, but he had thrown off his faith and become God's
dastard, and now worshipped heathen fiends, and he was of all men
most skilled in sorcery. He had that coat of mail on which no
steel would bite. He was both tall and strong, and had such long
locks that he tucked them under his belt. His hair was black.