dealt him his death-wound. And straightway Bolli sat down under the
shoulders of him, and Kjartan breathed his last in the lap of Bolli.
Bolli rued at once his deed, and declared the manslaughter due to his
hand. Bolli sent the sons of Osvif into the countryside, but he stayed
behind together with Thorarin by the dead bodies. And when the sons of
Osvif came to Laugar they told the tidings. Gudrun gave out her
pleasure thereat, and then the arm of Thorolf was bound up; it healed
slowly, and was never after any use to him. The body of Kjartan was
brought home to Tongue, but Bolli rode home to Laugar. [Sidenote:
Gudrun's greeting] Gudrun went to meet him, and asked what time of day
it was. Bolli said it was near noontide. Then spake Gudrun, "Harm
spurs on to hard deeds (work); I have spun yarn for twelve ells of
homespun, and you have killed Kjartan." Bolli replied, "That unhappy
deed might well go late from my mind even if you did not remind me of
it." Gudrun said "Such things I do not count among mishaps. It seemed
to me you stood in higher station during the year Kjartan was in
Norway than now, when he trod you under foot when he came back to
Iceland. But I count that last which to me is dearest, that Hrefna
will not go laughing to her bed to-night." Then Bolli said and right
wroth he was, "I think it is quite uncertain that she will turn paler
at these tidings than you do; and I have my doubts as to whether you
would not have been less startled if I had been lying behind on the
field of battle, and Kjartan had told the tidings." Gudrun saw that
Bolli was wroth, and spake, "Do not upbraid me with such things, for I
am very grateful to you for your deed; for now I think I know that you
will not do anything against my mind." After that Osvif's sons went
and hid in an underground chamber, which had been made for them in
secret, but Thorhalla's sons were sent west to Holy-Fell to tell
Snorri Godi the Priest these tidings, and therewith the message that
they bade him send them speedily all availing strength against Olaf