That summer at the All-Thing Grettir’s friends spoke much about his outlawry, and some held that his term was fulfilled when he had completed any portion of the twentieth year.  This was disputed by the opposite party, who declared that he had committed many acts deserving of outlawry since, and that, therefore, his sentence ought to be all the longer.  A new Lawman had been appointed, Steinn the son of Thorgest, the son of Steinn the Far-traveller, the son of Thorir Autumn-mist.  The mother of Steinn the Lawman was Arnora, the daughter of Thord the Yeller.  He was a wise man, and was asked for his opinion.  He told them to make a search to find out whether this was the twentieth year of his outlawry, and they did so.  Then Thorir of Gard went to work to put every possible difficulty in the way, and found out that Grettir had spent one year of the time in Iceland, during which he must be held to have been free of his outlawry.  Consequently it had only lasted nineteen years.

The Lawman declared that no man could be outlawed for longer than twenty years in all, even though he committed an outlaw’s acts during that time.  But before that he would allow no man to be freed.

Thus the endeavour to remove his sentence broke down for the moment, but there seemed a certainty of his being freed in the following summer.  The men of Skagafjord were little pleased at the prospect of Grettir being freed, and they told Thorbjorn Angle that he must do one of the two, resign his holding in the island or kill Grettir.  He was in great straits, for he saw no way of killing Grettir, and yet he wanted to keep the island.  He tried everything he could think of to get the better of Grettir by force or by fraud or in any other way that he could.

CHAPTER LXXVIII

THORBJORN’S FOSTER-MOTHER

Thorbjorn Angle had a foster-mother named Thurid.  She was very old and of little use to mankind, but she had been very skilled in witchcraft and magic when she was young and the people were heathen.  Now she seemed to have lost it all.  Still, although the land was Christian, many sparks of heathendom remained.  It was not forbidden by the law of the land to sacrifice or perform other heathen rites in private; only the one who performed them openly was sentenced to the minor exile.  Now it happened to many as it is said:  The hand turns to its wonted skill, and that which we have learned in youth is always most familiar to us.  So Thorbjorn Angle, baffled in all his plans, turned for help to the quarter where it would have been least looked for most people, namely, to his foster-mother, and asked her what she could do for him.

She replied, “Now it seems to me to have come to this, as the saying is:  Many go to the goat-house to get wool.  What would I less than to think myself above the other men of the country, and then to be as nothing when it comes to the trial?  I see not that it fares worse with me than with you, even though I scarce rise from my bed.  If you will have my counsel then I must have my way in all that is done.”