“Need is it that things go not the old way.”

He answered, “Have no fear thereof, goodwife; something worth telling of will betide if I come not back.”

And thereafter he went to his sheep; and the weather was somewhat cold, and there was much snow.  Thorgaut was wont to come home when twilight had set in, and now he came not at that time.  Folk went to church as they were wont.  Men now thought things looked not unlike what they did before; the bonder would have search made for the shepherd, but the church-goers begged off, and said that they would not give themselves into the hands of trolls by night; so the bonder durst not go, and the search came to nought.

Yule-day, when men were full, they fared out and searched for the shepherd; they first went to Glam’s cairn, because men thought that from his deeds came the loss of the herdsman.  But when they came nigh to the cairn, there they saw great tidings, for there they found the shepherd, and his neck was broken, and every bone in him smashed.  Then they brought him to church, and no harm came to men from Thorgaut afterwards.

But Glam began afresh to wax mighty; and such deeds he wrought, that all men fled away from Thorhall-stead, except the good man and his goodwife.  Now the same neatherd had long been there, and Thorhall would not let him go, because of his good will and safe ward; he was well on in years, and was very loth to fare away, for he saw that all things the bonder had went to nought from not being watched.

Now after midwinter one morning the housewife fared to the byre to milk the cows after the wonted time; by then was it broad daylight, for none other than the neatherd would trust themselves out before day; but he went out at dawn.  She heard great cracking in the byre, with bellowing and roaring; she ran back crying out, and said she knew not what uncouth things were going on in the byre.

The bonder went out and came to the cows, which were goring one another; so he thought it not good to go in there, but went in to the hay-barn.  There he saw where lay the neatherd, and had his head in one boose[16] and his feet in the other; and he lay cast on his back.  The bonder went up to him, and felt him all over with his hand, and finds soon that he was dead, and the spine of him broken asunder; it had been broken over the raised stone-edge of a boose.

[Footnote 16:  Boose, a cow-stall.]

Now the goodman thought there was no abiding there longer; so he fled away from the farm with all that he might take away; but all such live stock as was left behind Glam killed, and then he fared all over the valley and destroyed farms up from Tongue.  But Thorhall was with his friends the rest of the winter.

No man might fare up the dale with horse or hound, because straightway it was slain.  But when spring came, and the sun-light was the greatest, somewhat the hauntings abated; and now would Thorhall go back to his own land; he had no easy task in getting servants, nathless he set up house again at Thorhall-stead; but all went the same way as before; for when autumn came, the hauntings began to wax again; the bonder’s daughter was most set on, and fared so that she died thereof.  Many redes were sought, but nought could be done; men thought it like that all Waterdale would be laid waste if nought were found to better this.