Then
An spake to them, "I beg you, in God's name, not to be afraid of me,
for I have had both my life and my wits all unto the hour when on me
fell the heaviness of a swoon. Then I dreamed of the same woman as
before, and methought she now took the brushwood out of my belly and
put my own inwards in instead, and the change seemed good to me." Then
the wounds that An had were bound up and he became a hale man, and was
ever afterwards called An Brushwood-belly. But now when Olaf Hoskuld's
son heard these tidings he took the slaying of Kjartan most sorely to
heart, though he bore it like a brave man. His sons wanted to set on
Bolli forthwith and kill him. Olaf said, "Far be it from me, for my
son is none the more atoned to me though Bolli be slain; moreover, I
loved Kjartan before all men, but as to Bolli, I could not bear any
harm befalling him. But I see a more befitting business for you to do.
Go ye and meet the sons of Thorhalla, who are now sent to Holy-Fell
with the errand of summoning up a band against us. I shall be well
pleased for you to put them to any penalty you like." [Sidenote: The
deaths of Stein and his brother] Then Olaf's sons swiftly turn to
journeying, and went on board a ferry-boat that Olaf owned, being
seven of them together, and rowed out down Hvamsfirth, pushing on
their journey at their lustiest. They had but little wind, but fair
what there was, and they rowed with the sail until they came under
Scoreisle, where they tarried for some while and asked about the
journeyings of men thereabouts. A little while after they saw a ship
coming from the west across the firth, and soon they saw who the men
were, for there were the sons of Thorhalla, and Halldor and his
followers boarded them straightway. They met with no resistance, for
the sons of Olaf leapt forthwith on board their ships and set upon
them. Stein and his brother were laid hands on and beheaded overboard.
The sons of Olaf now turn back, and their journey was deemed to have
sped most briskly.

CHAP. L

The End of Hrefna. The Peace Settled, A.D. 1003

Olaf went to meet Kjartan's body. He sent men south to Burg to tell
Thorstein Egilson these tidings, and also that he would have his help
for the blood-suit; and if any great men should band themselves
together against him with the sons of Osvif, he said he wanted to have
the whole matter in his own hands. The same message he sent north to
Willowdale, to Gudmund, his son-in-law, and