ar finds Athalbrand's hall a pleasant place to bide
in," suggested Ragnar, who had joined us, a spear in his hand, for he
had come in from hunting. "There are good drink and bright eyes there."

I was about to answer sharply, since Ragnar stung me with his bitter
talk of Steinar, of whom I knew him to be somewhat jealous, because he
thought I loved my foster-brother more than I did him, my brother. Just
then, however, three men appeared through trees that grew about the
hall, and came towards the bridge, whereon Ragnar's great wolfhounds,
knowing them for strangers, set up a furious baying and sprang forward
to tear them. By the time the beasts were caught and quelled, these men,
aged persons of presence, had crossed the bridge and were greeting us.

"This is the hall of Thorvald of Aar, is it not? And a certain Steinar
dwells here with him, does he not?" asked their spokesman.

"It is, and I am Thorvald," answered my father. "Also Steinar has dwelt
here from his birth up, but is now away from home on a visit to the
lord Athalbrand of Lesso. Who are you, and what would you of Steinar, my
fosterling"

"When you have told us the story of Steinar we will tell you who we are
and what we seek," answered the man, adding: "Fear not, we mean him no
harm, but rather good if he is the man we think."

"Wife," called my father, "come hither. Here are men who would know the
story of Steinar, and say that they mean him good."

So my mother came, and the men bowed to her.

"The story of Steinar is short, sirs," she said. "His mother,
Steingerdi, who was my cousin and the friend of my childhood, married
the great chief Hakon, of Agger, two and twenty summers gone. A year
later, just before Steinar was born, she fled to me here, asking shelter
of my lord. Her tale was that she had quarrelled with Hakon because
another woman had crept into her place. Finding that this tale was true,
and that Hakon had treated her ill indeed, we gave her shelter, and here
her son Steinar was born, in giving birth to whom she died--of a broken
heart, as I think, for she was mad with grief and jealousy. I nursed
him with my son Olaf yonder, and as, although he had news of his birth,
Hakon never claimed him, with us he has dwelt as a son ever since. That
is all the tale. Now what would you with Steinar?"

"This Lady. The lord Hakon and the three sons whom that other woman you
tell of bore him ere she died--for after Steingerdi's death he married
her-