it looked like a closed matter, "Yet I think you have behaved well."
Olaf did not hear this talk of theirs. After that Egil went away. Olaf
now asks, "How speeds the wooing?" Hoskuld said, "It pointed to slow
speed on her side." [Sidenote: Olaf proposes himself] Olaf said, "It
is now as I told you, father, that I should take it very ill if in
answer (to the wooing) I should have to take shaming words, seeing
that the broaching of the wooing gives undue right to the wooed. And
now I shall have my way so far, that this shall not drop here. For
true is the saw, that 'others' errands eat the wolves'; and now I
shall go straightway to Egil's booth." Hoskuld bade him have his own
way. Olaf now dressed himself in this way, that he had on the scarlet
clothes King Harald had given him, and a golden helmet on his head,
and the gold-adorned sword in his hand that King Myrkjartan had given
him. Then Hoskuld and Olaf went to Egil's booth. Hoskuld went first,
and Olaf followed close on his heels. Egil greeted him well, and
Hoskuld sat down by him, but Olaf stood up and looked about him. He
saw a woman sitting on the dais in the booth, she was goodly and had
the looks of one of high degree, and very well dressed. He thought to
himself this must be Thorgerd, Egil's daughter. Olaf went up to the
dais and sat down by her. Thorgerd greeted the man, and asked who he
was. Olaf told his own and his father's name, and "You must think it
very bold that the son of a slave should dare to sit down by you and
presume to talk to you!" She said, "You cannot but mean that you must
be thinking you have done deeds of greater daring than that of talking
to women." [Sidenote: Thorgerd accepts Olaf] Then they began to talk
together, and they talked all day. But nobody heard their
conversation. And before they parted Egil and Hoskuld were called to
them; and the matter of Olaf's wooing was now talked over again, and
Thorgerd came round to her father's wish. Now the affair was all
easily settled and the betrothal took place. The honour was conceded