breaker on a rock a little way from the shore that no man had ever
known to break sea before, and smote the ship so that forthwith up
turned keel uppermost. There Thord and all his followers were drowned,
and the ship was broken to pieces, and the keel was washed up at a
place now called Keelisle. Thord's shield was washed up on an island
that has since been called Shieldisle. Thord's body and the bodies of
his followers were all washed ashore, and a great howe was raised over
their corpses at the place now called Howesness.

[Footnote 3: _i.e._, at home at Laugar.]




CHAP. XXXVI

About Kotkell and Grima


[Sidenote: The birth of Thord Cat] These tidings spread far and wide, and
were very ill-spoken of; they were accounted of as men of doomed lives,
who wrought such witchcraft as that which Kotkell and his had now shown.
Gudrun took the death of Thord sorely to heart, for she was now a woman
not hale, and coming close to her time. After that Gudrun gave birth to a
boy, who was sprinkled with water and called Thord. At that time Snorri
the Priest lived at Holyfell; he was a kinsman and a friend of Osvif's,
and Gudrun and her people trusted him very much. Snorri went thither (to
Laugar), being asked to a feast there. Then Gudrun told her trouble to
Snorri, and he said he would back up their case when it seemed good to
him, but offered to Gudrun to foster her child to comfort her. This Gudrun