tayed at Lea-shaws through Lent, for there was dear
friendship between these kinsmen. Thorstein said one day to Thorkell,
they had better go to Herdholt, "for I want to make a bid for some
land from Halldor, he having but little money since he paid the
brothers the weregild for their father, and the land being just what I
want most." Thorkell bade him do as he liked; so they left home a
party of twenty men together. They come to Herdholt, and Halldor gave
them good welcome, and was most free of talk with them. There were few
men at home, for Halldor had sent his men north to Steingrims-firth,
as a whale had come ashore there in which he owned a share. Beiner the
Strong was at home, the only man now left alive of those who had been
there with Olaf, the father of Halldor. Halldor had said to Beiner at
once when he saw Thorstein and Thorkell riding up, "I can easily see
what the errand of these kinsmen is--they are going to make me a bid
for my land, and if that is the case they will call me aside for a
talk; I guess they will seat themselves each on either side of me; so,
then, if they should give me any trouble you must not be slower to set
on Thorstein than I on Thorkell. You have long been true to us
kinsfolk. I have also sent to the nearest homesteads for men, and at
just the same moment I should like these two things to happen: the
coming in of the men summoned, and the breaking up of our talk."
[Sidenote: Halldor gets the best of it] Now as the day wore on,
Thorstein hinted to Halldor that they should all go aside and have
some talk together, "for we have an errand with you." Halldor said it
suited him well. Thorstein told his followers they need not come with
them, but Beiner went with them none the less, for he thought things
came to pass very much after what Halldor had guessed they would. They
went very far out into the field. Halldor had on a pinned-up cloak
with a long pin brooch, as was the fashion then. Halldor sat down on
the field, but on either side of him each of these kinsmen, so near
that they sat well-nigh on his cloak; but Beiner stood over them with
a big axe in his hand. Then said Thorstein, "My errand here is that I
wish to buy land from you, and I bring it before you now because my
kinsman Thorkell is with me; I should think that this would suit us
both well, for I hear that you are short of money, while your land is
costly to husband. I will give you in return an estate that will
beseem you, and