After that he called on his two brothers to go with him, and three house-carles as well.  They went on the way to meet Hauskuld [Njal’s son] as he came back, and lay in wait for him north of the farmyard in a pit; and there they bided till it was about mid-even [six o’clock P.M.].  Then Hauskuld rode up to them.  They jump up all of them with their arms, and fall on him.  Hauskuld guarded himself well, so that for a long while they could not get the better of him; but the end of it was at last that he wounded Lyting on the arm, and slew two of his serving-men, and then fell himself.  They gave Hauskuld sixteen wounds, but they hewed not off the head from his body.  They fared away into the wood east of Rangriver, and hid themselves there.

That same evening, Rodny’s shepherd found Hauskuld dead, and went home and told Rodny of her son’s slaying.

“Was he surely dead?” she asks; “was his head off?”

“It was not,” he says.

“I shall know if I see,” she says; “so take thou my horse and driving gear.”

He did so, and got all things ready, and then they went thither where
Hauskuld lay.

She looked at the wounds, and said—­

“’Tis even as I thought, that he could not be quite dead, and Njal no doubt can cure greater wounds.”

After that they took the body and laid it on the sledge and drove to Bergthorsknoll, and drew it into the sheepcote, and made him sit upright against the wall.

Then they went both of them and knocked at the door, and a house-carle went to the door.  She steals in by him at once, and goes till she comes to Njal’s bed.

She asked whether Njal were awake?  He said he had slept up to that time, but was then awake.

“But why art thou come hither so early?”

“Rise thou up,” said Rodny, “from thy bed by my rival’s side, and come out, and she too, and thy sons, to see thy son Hauskuld.”

They rose and went out.

“Let us take our weapons,” said Skarphedinn, “and have them with us.”

Njal said naught at that, and they ran in and came out again armed.

She goes first till they come to the sheepcote; she goes in and bade them follow her.  Then she lit a torch and held it up and said—­

“Here, Njal, is thy son Hauskuld, and he hath gotten many wounds upon him, and now he will need leechcraft.”

“I see death marks on him,” said Njal, “but no signs of life; but why hast thou not closed his eyes and nostrils? see, his nostrils are still open!”

“That duty I meant for Skarphedinn,” she says.

Then Skarphedinn went to close his eyes and nostrils, and said to his father—­

“Who, sayest thou, hath slain him?”

“Lyting of Samstede and his brothers must have slain him,” says Njal.

Then Rodny said, “Into thy hands, Skarphedinn, I leave it to take vengeance for thy brother, and I ween that thou wilt take it well, though he be not lawfully begotten, and that thou wilt not be slow to take it”.