Then said Spes, “Now, meseems, our matters have gone well and are come to an end, and no unlucky life have we had together; yet maybe fools will do after the pattern of our former life; now therefore let us make such an end to all, that good men also may follow after us and do the like:  so let us go bargain with those who are deft in stone-craft; that they make for each of us a cell of stone, that we may thereby atone for what we have done against God.”

So Thorstein laid down money for the making of a stone cell for each of them, and for such-like other things as they might need, and might not be without for the keeping of their lives; and then, when the stone work was done, and the time was meet therefor and all things were ready, they departed their worldly fellowship of their own free will, that they might the more enjoy a holy fellowship in another world.  And there they abode both in their stone cells, and lived as long as God would have it, and so ended their lives.  And most men say that Thorstein Dromund and Spes his wife may be deemed to be folk of the greatest good luck, all things being accounted of; but neither his children or any of his issue have come to Iceland for a tale to be made of them.

Now Sturla the Lawman says so much as that he deems no outlawed man ever to have been so mighty as Grettir the Strong; and thereto he puts forth three reasons—­

And first in that he was the wisest of them all; for the longest in outlawry he was of any man, and was never won whiles he was hale.

And again, in that he was the strongest in all the land among men of a like age; and more fitted to lay ghosts and do away with hauntings than any other.

And thirdly, in that he was avenged out in Micklegarth, even as no other man of Iceland has been; and this withal, that Thorstein Dromund, who avenged him, was so lucky a man in his last days.

So here ends the story of Grettir Asmundson, our fellow-countryman.  Thank have they who listened thereto; but thank little enow to him who scribbled out the tale.

  GOOD PEOPLE, HERE THE WORK HATH END: 
  MAY ALL FOLK TO THE GOOD GOD WEND!

NOTES AND CORRECTIONS.

P. 29.  The genealogy of Gamli of Meals, as here recorded, seems to be peculiar to Grettir’s saga.  Yet its statements are inconsistent in the matter, for it gives this twofold genealogy of the man.  See Ed. Kaupmannahoefn:  1853.

P. 22.  Ranveig was the wife of Gamli, the son of Thorald, the son of the Vendlander.

P. 70.  And (Thorir of the Pass) sold the land at Meals to Thorhalli, son of Gamli the Widelander.  His son was Gamli, who had to wife Ranveig, the daughter of Asmund Greyhaired.

According to ‘Landnama,’ this Gamli of Meals, Asmund’s son-in-law, was son of Thord, and great-great-grandson of Thorhrolf or Thorolf Fasthaldi (Fastholding), who settled lands on the north coast of Icefirth-deep (Isafjartethardjup), and farmed at Snowfells (Snaefjoell).  We have given Thorhall in our translation in both places as the man’s name.  Perhaps Thoraldr is nothing but a corruption of Thorolfr fasthaldi; and Thorhalli again a corruption of the first.  But Gamli the Vendlander or Widelander, we have no means of identifying.