m, yet bare they no weapon against him; they were six altogether,
and stood thick in his path. Now the sheep troubled him and he waxed
wroth, and caught up two of those men, and cast them down over the
hill-side, so that they lay stunned; and when the others saw that,
they came on less eagerly; then Grettir took up the sheep and locked
them together by the horns, and threw them over his shoulders, two on
each side, and went up into his lair.

So the bonders turned back, and deemed they had got but ill from him,
and their lot misliked them now worse than before.

Now Gisli abode at his ship through the autumn till it was rolled
ashore. Many things made him abide there, so he was ready late, and
rode away but a little before winter-nights. Then he went from the
south, and guested under Raun on the south side of Hitriver. In the
morning, before he rode thence, he began a talk with his fellows:

"Now shall we ride in coloured clothes to-day, and let the outlaw see
that we are not like other wayfarers who are drifted about here day by
day."

So this they did, and they were three in all: but when they came west
over the river, he spake again to them:

"Here in these bents, I am told, lurks the outlaw, and no easy way is
there up to him; but may it not perchance seem good to him to come and
meet us and behold our array?"

They said that it was ever his wont so to do. Now that morning Grettir
had risen early in his lair; the weather was cold and frosty, and snow
had fallen, but not much of it. He saw how three men rode from the
south over Hitriver, and their state raiment glittered and their
inlaid shields. Then it came into his mind who these should be, and he
deems it would be good for him to get some rag of their array; and he
was right wishful withal to meet such braggarts: so he catches up his
weapons and runs down the slip-side. And when Gisli heard the clatter
of the stones, he spake thus:

"There goes a man down the hill-side, and somewhat big he is, and he
is coming to meet us: now, therefore, let us go against him briskly,
for here is good getting come to hand."

His fellows said that this one would scarce run into their very
hands, if he knew not his might; "And good it is that <i>he bewail who
brought the woe</i>."

So they leapt off their horses, and therewith Grettir came up to them,
and laid hands on a clothes-bag that Gisli had tied to his saddle
behind him, and said--

"This will I have, for oft I