r, "but still I will not
fling back the honour offered me."

Gunnar had never spoken an ill word of Njal's sons. Njal would
have nothing else than that Gunnar should make his own award in
the matter. He awarded two hundred in silver, but let Skiolld
fall without a price. They paid down all the money at once.

Gunnar declared this their atonement at the Thingskala Thing,
when most men were at it, and laid great weight on the way in
which they (Njal and his sons) had behaved; he told too those bad
words which cost Sigmund his life, and no man was to repeat them
or sing the verses, but if any sung them, the man who uttered
them was to fall without atonement.

Both Gunnar and Njal gave each other their words that no such
matters should ever happen that they would not settle among
themselves; and this pledge was well kept ever after, and they
were always friends.

ENDNOTES:

(1) "Thou, that heapest boards," etc. -- merely a periphrasis
for man, and scarcely fitting, except in irony, to a
splitter of firewood.

46. OF GIZUR THE WHITE AND GEIR THE PRIEST

There was a man named Gizur the White; he was Teit's son;
Kettlebjorn the Old's son, of Mossfell. (1) Bishop Isleif was
Gizur's son. Gizur the White kept house at Mossfell, and was a
great chief. That man is also named in this story whose name was
Geir the Priest; his mother was Thorkatla, another daughter of
Kettlebjorn the Old of Mossfell. Geir kept house at Lithe. He
and Gizur backed one another in every matter. At that time Mord
Valgard's son kept house at Hof on the Rangrivervales; he was
crafty and spiteful. Valgard his father was then abroad, but his
mother was dead. He was very envious of Gunnar of Lithend. He
was wealthy, so far as goods went, but had not many friends.

ENDNOTES:

(1) Teit's mother's name was Helga. She was a daughter of Thord
Longbeard, who was the son of Hrapp, who was the son of
Bjorn the Rough-footed, who was the son of Grim, the Lord of
Sogn in Norway. Gizur's mother's name was Olof. She was a
daughter of Lord Baudvar, Viking-Kari's son.

47. OF OTKELL IN KIRKBY

There was a man named Otkell; he was the son of Skarf, the son of
Hallkell, who fought with Grim of Grimsness, and felled him on
the holm. (1) This Hallkell and Kettlebjorn the Old were
brothers.

Otkell kept house at Kirkby; his wife's name was Thorgerda; she
was a daughter of Mar, the son of Runolf, the son