Hoskuld took it very much to heart that Hrut should have placed his
freedman right up against his ear, and bade the freedman pay him money
for the lands he lived on "for it is mine own." The freedman went to
Hrut and told him all they had spoken together. Hrut bade him give no
heed, and pay no money to Hoskuld. "For I do not know," he said, "to
which of us the land belonged." So the freedman went home, and goes on
with his household just as before. A little later, Thorliek, Hoskuld's
son, went at the advice of his father to the dwelling of the freedman
and took him and killed him, and Thorliek claimed as his and his
father's own all the money the freedman had made. Hrut heard this, and
he and his sons liked it very ill. They were most of them grown up,
and the band of kinsmen was deemed a most forbidding one to grapple
with. Hrut fell back on the law as to how this ought to turn out, and
when the matter was searched into by lawyers, Hrut and his son stood
at but little advantage, for it was held a matter of great weight that
Hrut had set the freedman down without leave on Hoskuld's land, where
he had made money, Thorliek having slain the man within his and his
father's own lands. Hrut took his lot very much to heart; but things
remained quiet. [Sidenote: The birth of Bolli] After that Thorliek had
a homestead built on the boundary of Hrut and Hoskuld's lands, and it
was called Combness. There Thorliek lived for a while, as has been
told before. Thorliek begat a son of his wife. The boy was sprinkled
with water and called Bolli. He was at an early age a very promising
man.




CHAP. XXVI