(48)

"Yon Vali, so wight as he would be,

Well wot I our pasture he grazes;

Right fain yonder fierce helmet-wearer

Under foot my dead body would trample!

But often my wrongs have I wreaked

In wrath on the mail-coated warrior -

On the stems of the sun of the ocean

I have stained the wound-serpent for less!"

And again he said:

(49)

"With eld I am listless and lamed -

I, the lord of the gold of the armlet:

I sit, and am still under many

A slight from the warders of spear-meads.

Though shield-bearers shape for the singer

To shiver alone in the grave-mound,

Yet once in the war would I redden

The wand that hews helms ere I fail."

"Thy heart is not growing old, foster-father mine!" cried Halldor.
Upon that Bersi fell into talk with Steinvor, and said to her "I am laying a plot, and I need thee to help me."
She said she would if she could.
"Pick a quarrel," said he, "with Thordis about the milk-kettle, and do thou hold on to it until you whelm it over between you. Then I will come in and take her part and give thee nought but bad words. Then go to Vali and tell him how ill we treat thee."
Everything turned out as he had planned. She went to Vali and told him that things were no way smooth for her; would he take her over the gap (to Bitra to her father's): and so he did.
But when he was on the way back again, out came Bersi and Halldor to meet him. Bersi had a halberd in one hand and a staff in the other, and Halldor had Whitting. As soon as Vali saw them he turned and hewed at Bersi. Halldor came at his back and fleshed Whitting in his hough-sinews. Thereupon he turned sharply and fell upon Halldor. Then Bersi set the halberd-point betwixt his shoulders. That was his death-wound.
Then they set his shield at his feet and his sword at his head, and spread his cloak over him; and after that got on horseback and rode to five homesteads to make known the deed they had done and then rode home. Men went and buried Vali, and the place where he fell has ever since been called Vali's fall.
Halldor was twelve winters old when these doings came to pass.

17: How Steingerd Was Married Again.

Now there was a man named Thorvald, the son of Eystein, bynamed the Tinker: he was a wealthy man, a smith, and a skald; but he was mean-spirited for all that. His brother Thorvard lived in the north country at Fliot (Fleet); and they had many kinsmen, - the Skidings they were called, - but little luck or liking.
Now Thorvald the Tinker asked Steingerd to wife. Her folk were for it, and she said nothing against it; and so she was wed to him in the very same summer in which she left Bersi.
When Cormac heard the news he made as though he knew nothing whatever about the matter; for a little earlier he had taken his goods aboard ship, meaning to go away with his brother. But one morning early he rode from the ship and went to see Steingerd; and when he got talk with her, he asked would she make him a shirt. To which she answered that he had no business to pay her visits; neither Thorvald nor his kinsmen would abide it, she said, but have their revenge.
Thereupon he made his voice:

(50)

"Nay, think it or thole it I cannot,

That thou, a young fir of the forest

Enwreathed in the gold that thou guardest,

Shouldst be given to a tinkering tinsmith.

Nay, scarce can I smile, O thou glittering

In silk like the goddess of Baldur,

Since thy father handfasted and pledged thee,

So famed as thou art, to a coward."

"In such words," answered Steingerd, "an ill will is plain to hear. I shall tell Thorvald of this ribaldry: no man would sit still under such insults."
Then sang Cormac:

(51)

"What gain is to get if he threatens,

White goddess in raiment of beauty,

The scorn that the Skidings may bear me?

I'll set them a weft for their weaving!

I'll rhyme you the roystering caitiffs

Till rocks go afloat on the water;

And lucky for them if they loosen

The line of their fate that I ravel!"

Thereupon they parted with no blitheness, and Cormac went to his ship.

18: Cormac's Voyage To Norway.

The two brothers had but left the roadstead, when close beside their ship, uprose a walrus. Cormac hurled at it a pole-staff, which struck the beast, so that it sank again: but the men aboard thought that they knew its eyes for the eyes of Thorveig the witch. That walrus came up no more, but of Thorveig it was heard that she lay sick to death; and indeed folk say that this was the end of her.
Then they sailed out to sea, and at last came to Norway, where at that time Hakon, the foster-son of Athelstan, was king. He made them welcome, and so they stayed there the winter long with all honour.
Next summer they set out to the wars, and did many great deeds. Along with them went a man called Siegfried, a German of good birth; and they made raids both far and wide. One day as they were gone up the country eleven men together came against the two brothers, and set upon them; but this business ended in their overcoming the whole eleven, and so after a while back to their ship. The vikings had given them up for lost, and fain were their folk when they came back with victory and wealth.
In this voyage the brothers got great renown: and late in the summer, when winter was coming on, they made up their minds to steer for Norway. They met with cold winds; the sail was behung with icicles, but the brothers were always to the fore. It was on his voyage that Cormac made the song:

(52)

"O shake me yon rime from the awning;

Your singer's a-cold in his berth;

For the hills are all hooded, dear Skardi,

In the hoary white veil of the firth.

There's one they call Wielder of Thunder

I would were as chill and as cold;

But he leaves not the side of his lady

As the lindworm forsakes not its gold."

"Always talking of her now!" said Thorgils; "and yet thou wouldst not have her when thou couldst."
"That was more the fault of witchcraft," answered Cormac, "that any want of faith in me."
Not long after they were sailing hard among crags, and shortened sail in great danger.
"It is a pity Thorvald Tinker is not with us here!" said Cormac.
Said Thorgils with a smile, "Most likely he is better off than we, to-day!"
But before long they came to land in Norway.

19: How Cormac Fought In Ireland, And Went Home To Iceland; And How He Met Steingerd Again.

While they were abroad there had been a change of kings; Hakon was dead, and Harald Greyfell reigned in his stead. They offered friendship to the king, and he took their suit kindly; so they went with him to Ireland, and fought battles there.
Once upon a time when they had gone ashore with the king, a great host came against him, and as the armies met, Cormac made this song:

(53)

"I dread not a death from the foemen,

Though we dash at them, buckler to buckler,

While our prince in the power of his warriors

Is proud of me foremost in battle.

But the glimpse of a glory comes o'er me

Like the gleam of the moon on the skerry,

And I faint and I fail for my longing,

For the fair one at home in the North."