ed to banter him
about it. Haflidi went up to Grettir where he was lying and said:

"Arise from thy den! deep furrows we plough!
Remember the word thou didst speak to the fair.
Thy garment she sewed; but now she commands
that thou join in the toil while the land is afar."

Grettir got up at once and said:

"I will rise, though the ship be heavily rolling.
The woman is vexed that I sleep in my den.
She will surely be wrath if here I abide
while others are toiling at work that is mine."

Then he hurried aft where they were baling and asked what they wanted
him to do. They said he would do little good. He replied: "A man's help
is something." Haflidi told them not to refuse his help. "Maybe," he
said, "he is thinking of loosening his hands if he offers his services."

In those days in sea-going ships there were no scuppers for baling; they
only had what is called bucket or pot-baling, a very troublesome and
fatiguing process. There were two buckets, one of which went down while
the other came up. The men told Grettir to take the buckets down, and
said they would try what he could do. He said the less tried the better,
and went below and filled his bucket. There were two men above to
empty the buckets as he handed them. Before long they both gave in
from fatigue. Then four others took their places, but the same thing
happened. Some say that before they were done eight men were engaged
in emptying the buckets for him. At last the ship was baled dry. After
this, the seamen altered their behaviour towards Grettir, for they
realised the strength which was in him. From that time on he was ever
the forwardest to help wherever he was required.

They now held an easterly course out to sea. It was very dark. One night
when they least expected it, they struck a rock and the lower part of
the ship began to fill. The boats were got out and the women put into
them with all the loose property. There was an island a little way off,
whither they carried as much of their property as they could get off in
the night. When the day broke, they began to ask where they were. Some
of them who had been about the country before recognised the coast of
Sunnmore in Norway. There was an island lying a little off the mainland
called Haramarsey, with a large settlement and a farm belonging to the
Landman on it.

CHAPTER XVIII. ADVENTURE IN THE HOWE OF KAR THE OLD

The name of the Landman who lived