When the priest met Grettir again he asked him to say exactly what had
happened, and Grettir told him all about where he had been. He said that
the priest had held the rope very faithlessly, and the priest admitted
that it was true. Men felt no doubt that these monsters were responsible
for the disappearance of the men in the valley, nor was there any
haunting or ghost-walking there afterwards; Grettir had evidently
cleared the land of them. The bones were buried by the priest in the
churchyard. Grettir stayed the winter in Bardardal, but unknown to the
general public.
Thorir of Gard heard rumours of Grettir being in Bardardal and set some
men on to take his life. Men thereupon advised him to depart, and he
went into the West to Modruvellir, where he met Gudmund the Mighty and
asked him for protection. Gudmund said it would not be convenient for
him to take him in.
"You must," he said, "find a place to settle in where you need be in no
fear for your life."
Grettir said he did not know where such a place was.
"There is an island," Gudmund said, "in Skagafjord, called Drangey. It
is excellent for defence; no one can get up to it without a ladder. If
once you can reach it there is no chance of any one attacking you there
with arms or with craft, so long as you guard the ladder well."
"That shall be tried," said Grettir. "But I am in such dread of the dark
that even for the sake of my life I cannot live alone."
"It may be that it is so," said Gudmund; "but trust no man so well that
you trust not yourself better. Many are unfit to be trusted."
Grettir thanked him for his excellent advice and departed from
Modruvellir. He went on straight to Bjarg, where his mother and
Illugi greeted him joyfully. He stayed there several days and heard of
Thorsteinn Kuggason having been slain in the autumn before he went to
Bardardal. Fate, he thought, was striking hard against him. Then he rode
South to Holtavarda Heath, intending to revenge the death of Hallmund if
he could meet with Grim. On reaching Nordrardal he learnt that Grim had
left two or three years before, as has already been related. Grettir
had not received news of it because he had been in hiding there for two
years and a third in Thorisdal and had met no one to tell him of what
had happened. Then he turned his steps towards the Breidafjord valleys
and waylaid those who passed over Brattabrekka. He continued to let his
hands sweep over the property of the small farmers during the height of
the summer season.
When the summer was passing away, Steinvor at Sandhaugar gave birth to
a son who was named Skeggi. He was at first fathered on Kjartan, the son
of Steinn the priest at Eyjardalsa. Skeggi was unlike all his family
in his strength and stature. When he was fifteen years old he was the
strongest man in the North, and then they put him down to Grettir. There
seemed a prospect of his growing into something quite extraordinary, but
he died when he was seventeen and there is no saga about him.