With which a female waked the war,
From me, who shunned not in the fray
Through foemen fierce to hew my way
(Since meet it is the eagle's brood
On the fresh corpse should find their food);
Then spared I not, in fighting field,
With stalwart hand my sword to wield;
And well may claim at Odin's shrine
The praise that waits this deed of mine."

To which effusion Geirrida answered--

"Do these verses imply the death of Thorbiorn?"

And Thorarin, alluding to the legal process which Thorbiorn had
instituted against him, resumed his song--

"Sharp bit the sword beneath the hood
Of him whose zeal the cause pursued,
And ruddy flowed the stream of death,
Ere the grim brand resumed the sheath;
Now on the buckler of the slain
The raven sits, his draught to drain,
For gore-drenched is his visage bold,
That hither came his courts to hold."

As the consequence of this slaughter was likely to be a prosecution at
the instance of the pontiff Snorro, Thorarin had now recourse to his
allies and kindred, of whom the most powerful were Arnkill, his maternal
uncle, and Verimond, who readily premised their aid both in the field