One day that winter after Yule Grettir went to Eyjardalsa and met the priest, to whom he said:  “I see, priest, that you have little belief in what I say.  Now I wish you to come with me to the river and to see what probability there is in it.”

The priest did so.  When they reached the falls they saw a cave up under the rock.  The cliff was there so abrupt that no one could climb it, and nearly ten fathoms down to the water.  They had a rope with them.  The priest said:  “It is quite impossible for any one to get down to that.”

Grettir answered:  “It is certainly possible; and men of high mettle are those who would feel themselves happiest there.  I want to see what there is in the fall.  Do you mind the rope.”

The priest said he could do so if he chose.  He drove a stake into the ground and laid stones against it.

CHAPTER LXVI

GRETTIR SLAYS A GIANT

Grettir now fastened a stone in a loop at the end of the rope, and lowered it from above into the water.

“Which way do you mean to go?” asked the priest.

“I don’t mean to be bound when I come into the fall,” Grettir said.  “So my mind tells me.”

Then he prepared to go; he had few clothes on and only a short sword; no other arms.  He jumped from a rock and got down to the fall.  The priest saw the soles of his feet but after that did not know what had become of him.  Grettir dived beneath the fall.

It was very difficult swimming because of the currents, and he had to dive to the bottom to get behind the fall.  There was a rock where he came up, and a great cave under the fall in front of which the water poured.  He went into the cave, where there was a large fire burning and a horrible great giant most fearful to behold sitting before it.  On Grettir entering the giant sprang up, seized a pike and struck at him, for he could both strike and thrust with it.  It had a wooden shaft and was of the kind called “heptisax.”  Grettir struck back with his sword and cut through the shaft.  Then the giant tried to reach up backwards to a sword which was hanging in the cave, and at that moment Grettir struck at him and cut open his lower breast and stomach so that all his entrails fell out into the river and floated down the stream.  The priest who was sitting by the rope saw some debris being carried down all covered with blood and lost his head, making sure that Grettir was killed.  He left the rope and ran off home, where he arrived in the evening and told them for certain that Grettir was dead, and said it was a great misfortune to them to have lost such a man.

Grettir struck few more blows at the giant before he was dead.  He then entered the cave, kindled a light and explored.  It is not told how much treasure he found there, but there is supposed to have been some.  He stayed there till late into the night and found the bones of two men, which he carried away in a skin.  Then he came out of the cave, swam to the rope and shook it, thinking the priest was there; finding him gone he had to swarm up the rope and so reached the top.  He went home to Eyjardalsa and carried the skin with the bones in it into the vestibule of the church together with a rune-staff, upon which were most beautifully carved the following lines: