t now Hallfred said to Gunnlaug, "Hast
thou heard of how Raven, the son of Onund, is wooing Helga the Fair?"

Gunnlaug said he had heard thereof but dimly. Hallfred tells him all he
knew of it, and therewith, too, that it was the talk of many men that
Raven was in nowise less brave a man than Gunnlaug. Then Gunnlaug sang
this stave:--

"Light the weather wafteth;
But if this east wind drifted
Week-long, wild upon us
Little were I recking;
More this word I mind of
Me with Raven mated,
Than gain for me the gold-foe
Of days to make me grey-haired."

Then Hallfred said, "Well, fellow, may'st thou fare better in thy strife
with Raven than I did in mine. I brought my ship some winters ago into
Leiruvag, and had to pay a half-mark in silver to a house-carle of
Raven's, but I held it back from him. So Raven rode at us with sixty
men, and cut the moorings of the ship, and she was driven up on the
shallows, and we were bound for a wreck. Then I had to give selfdoom
to Raven, and a whole mark I had to pay; and that is the tale of my
dealings with him."

Then they two talked together alone of Helga the Fair, and Gunnlaug
praised her much for her goodliness; and Gunnlaug sang:--

"He who brand of battle
Beareth over-wary,
Never love shall let him
Hold the linen-folded;
For we when we were younger
In many a way were playing
On the outward nesses
From golden land outstanding."

"Well sung!" said Hallfred.

CHAPTER XII. Of Gunnlaug's landing, and how he found Helga wedded to Raven.

They made land north by Fox-Plain, in Hraunhaven, half a month before
winter, and there unshipped their goods. Now there was a man called
Thord, a bonder's son of the Plain, there. He fell to wrestling with the
chapmen, and they mostly got worsted at his hands.

Then a wrestling was settled between him and Gunnlaug. The night before
Thord made vows to Thor for the victory; but the next day, when they
met, they fell-to wrestling. Then Gunnlaug tripped both feet from under
Thord, and gave him a. great fall; but the foot that Gunnlaug stood on
was put out of joint, and Gunnlaug fell together with Thord.

Then said Thord, "Maybe that other things go no better for thee."

"What then?" says Gunnlaug.

"Thy dealings with Raven, if he wed Helga the Fair at winter-nights. I
was anig