XC. How the Lady Spes redeemed Thorstein from
          the Dungeon

     XCI. Of the Doings of Thorstein and the Lady Spes

    XCII. Of the Oath that Spes made before the Bishop

   XCIII. Thorstein and Spes come out to Norway

    XCIV. Thorstein Dromund and Spes leave Norway
          again

     XCV. How Thorstein Dromund and Spes fared to
          Rome and died there

Notes and Corrections

Index of Persons

Index of Places

Index of Things

Periphrastic Expressions in the Songs

Proverbial Sayings

THE STORY OF GRETTIR THE STRONG.

This First Part tells of the forefathers of Grettir in Norway, and how they fled away before Harald Fairhair, and settled in Iceland; and of their deeds in Iceland before Grettir was born.

CHAP.  I.

There was a man named Onund, who was the son of Ufeigh Clubfoot, the son of Ivar the Smiter; Onund was brother of Gudbiorg, the mother of Gudbrand Ball, the father of Asta, the mother of King Olaf the Saint.  Onund was an Uplander by the kin of his mother; but the kin of his father dwelt chiefly about Rogaland and Hordaland.  He was a great viking, and went harrying west over the Sea.[4] Balk of Sotanes, the son of Blaeng, was with him herein, and Orm the Wealthy withal, and Hallvard was the name of the third of them.  They had five ships, all well manned, and therewith they harried in the South-isles;[5] and when they came to Barra, they found there a king, called Kiarval, and he, too, had five ships.  They gave him battle, and a hard fray there was.  The men of Onund were of the eagerest, and on either side many fell; but the end of it was that the king fled with only one ship.  So there the men of Onund took both ships and much wealth, and abode there through the winter.  For three summers they harried throughout Ireland and Scotland, and thereafter went to Norway.

[Footnote 4:  “West over the Sea,” means in the Sagas the British isles, and the islands about them—­the Hebrides, Orkneys, &c.]

[Footnote 5:  South-isles are the Hebrides, and the other islands down to Man.]

CHAP.  II.

In those days were there great troubles in Norway.  Harald the Unshorn,[6] son of Halfdan the Black, was pushing forth for the kingdom.  Before that he was King of the Uplands; then he went north through the land, and had many battles there, and ever won the day.  Thereafter he harried south in the land, and wheresoever he came, laid all under him; but when he came to Hordaland, swarms of folk came thronging against him; and their captains were Kiotvi the Wealthy, and Thorir Longchin, and those of South Rogaland, and King Sulki.  Geirmund Helskin was then in the west over the Sea; nor was he in that battle, though he had a kingdom in Hordaland.