e comes home."

"There is little that I want as a reward at present," said Grettir. "But
I accept your offer until your husband returns. I think now that you
will be able to sleep in peace undisturbed by the berserks."

Grettir drank little before he retired and lay all night in his armour.
In the morning, directly the day broke, all the men of the island were
called together to go forth and search for the two berserks who had
escaped. They were found at the end of the day lying under a rock, both
dead from cold and from their wounds; they were carried away and buried
in a place on the shore beneath the tide, with some loose stones over
them, after which the islanders returned home, feeling that they could
live in peace. When Grettir came back to the house and met the mistress
he spoke a verse:

"Near the surging sea the twelve lie buried.
I stayed not my hand but slew them alone.
Great lady! what deed that is wrought by a man
shall be sung of as worthy if this be deemed small."

She answered: "Certainly you are very unlike any other man now living."
She set him in the high seat and gave him the best of everything. So it
remained until Thorfinn returned.

CHAPTER XX. THORFINN'S RETURN. GRETTIR VISITS THE NORTH

When Yule-tide was past, Thorfinn made ready for his homeward journey
and dismissed his many guests with gifts. He sailed with all his men and
landed near the place where the boat-houses were.

They saw a ship lying on the sand which they at once recognised as his
great boat. Thorfinn had heard nothing of the vikings and told his
men to put him on shore, "for I suspect," he said, "that they are not
friends who have been at work here."

Thorfinn was the first to land, and went straight to the boat-house,
where he saw a craft which he knew at once to be that of the berserks.
He said to his men: "I suspect that things have taken place here such
that I would give the whole island and everything that is in it for them
not to have happened."

They asked how that was.

"Vikings have been here, men whom I know as the worst in all Norway,
namely Thorir Paunch and Ogmund the Bad. They will not have dealt gently
with us. I mistrust that Icelander."

Then he spoke many things to his men. Grettir was at home and detained
the men from going down to the shore. He said he did not care if the
bondi got a little fright from what he saw. The goodwife asked his leave
to go down, and he said