Then she told him what she had been bidden to; he thought over the ditty, and said, “It is not unlike that he will be no man to play with; natheless, I will find him out.”

Now he rode along the peopled lands, and each man ever saw the other’s riding; and the weather was both squally and wet.

Grettir came to Gilsbank that day, and when Grim Thorhallson knew thereof, he welcomed him with great joy, and bade him abide with him.  This Grettir agreed to; then he let loose Saddle-fair, and told Grim how she had been come by.  Therewith came Svein, and leapt from his horse, and saw his own mare, and sang this withal—­

  “Who rode on my mare away? 
  What is that which thou wilt pay? 
  Who a greater theft has seen? 
  What does the cowl-covered mean?”

Grettir by then had doft his wet clothes, and he heard the stave, and answered—­

  “I did ride thy mare to Grim
  (Thou art feeble weighed with him),
  Little will I pay to thee,
  Yet good fellows let us be.”

“Well, so be it then,” said the farmer, “and the ride is well paid for.”

Then each sang his own songs, and Grettir said he had no fault to find, though he failed to hold his own; the bonder was there that night, and the twain of them together, and great game they made of this:  and they called all this Saddle-fair’s lays.  Next morning the bonder rode home, and he and Grettir parted good friends.

Now Grim told Grettir of many things from the north and Midfirth, that had befallen while he was abroad, and this withal, that Atli was unatoned, and how that Thorbiorn Oxmain waxed so great, and was so high-handed, that it was not sure that goodwife Asdis might abide at Biarg if matters still went so.

Grettir abode but few nights with Grim, for he was fain that no news should go before him north over the Heaths.  Grim bade him come thither if he should have any need of safeguard.

“Yet shall I shun being made guilty in law for the harbouring of thee.”

Grettir said he did well.  “But it is more like that later on I may need thy good deed more.”

Now Grettir rode north over Twodaysway, and so to Biarg, and came there in the dead of night, when all folk were asleep save his mother.  He went in by the back of the house and through a door that was there, for the ways of the house were well known to him, and came to the hall, and got to his mother’s bed, and groped about before him.

She asked who was there, and Grettir told her; then she sat up and kissed him, and sighed withal, heavily, and spake, “Be welcome; son,” she said, “but my joyance in my sons is slipping from me; for he is slain who was of most avail, and thou art made an outlaw and a guilty man, and the third is so young; that he may do nought for me.”

“An old saw it is,” said Grettir, “Even so shall bale be bettered, by biding greater bale; but there are more things to be thought of by men than money atonements alone, and most like it is that Atli will be avenged; but as to things that may fall to me, many must even take their lot at my hand in dealing with me, and like it as they may.”