Now thereon Eyvind took to him the war-ships of his father, and was become a great chief west over the Sea; he wedded Rafarta, the daughter of Kiarval, King of Ireland; their sons were Helgi the Lean and Snaebiorn.

So when Thrand and Onund came to the South-isles, there they met Ufeigh Grettir and Thormod Shaft, and great friendship grew up betwixt them, for each thought he had gained from hell the last who had been left behind in Norway while the troubles there were at the highest.  But Onund was exceeding moody, and when Thrand marked it, he asked what he was brooding over in his mind.  Onund answered, and sang this stave—­

  “What joy since that day can I get
  When shield-fire’s thunder last I met;
  Ah, too soon clutch the claws of ill;
  For that axe-edge shall grieve me still. 
  In eyes of fighting man and thane,
  My strength and manhood are but vain,
  This is the thing that makes me grow
  A joyless man; is it enow?”

Thrand answered that whereso he was, he would still be deemed a brave man, “And now it is meet for thee to settle down and get married, and I would put forth my word and help, if I but knew whereto thou lookest.”

Onund said he did in manly wise, but that his good hope for matches of any gain was gone by now.

Thrand answered, “Ufeigh has a daughter who is called Asa, thitherward will we turn if it seem good to thee.”  Onund showed that he was willing enough hereto; so afterwards they talked the matter over with Ufeigh; he answered well, and said that he knew how that Onund was a man of great kin and rich of chattels; “but his lands,” said he, “I put at low worth, nor do I deem him to be a hale man, and withal my daughter is but a child.”

Thrand said, that Onund was a brisker man yet than many who were hale of both legs, and so by Thrand’s help was this bargain struck; Ufeigh was to give his daughter but chattels for dowry, because those lands that were in Norway neither would lay down any money for.

A little after Thrand wooed the daughter of Thormod Shaft, and both were to sit in troth for three winters.

So thereafter they went a harrying in the summer, but were in Barra in the winter-tide.

CHAP.  IV.

There were two vikings called Vigbiod and Vestmar; they were South-islanders, and lay out both winter and summer; they had thirteen ships, and harried mostly in Ireland, and did many an ill deed there till Eyvind the Eastman took the land-wardship; thereafter they got them gone to the South-isles, and harried there and all about the firths of Scotland:  against these went Thrand and Onund, and heard that they had sailed to that island, which is called Bute.  Now Onund and his folk came there with five ships; and when the vikings see their ships and know how many they are, they deem they have enough strength gathered there, and take their weapons and lay their ships in