Sigurd.—I have been going about asking for help, as you bade me, and I may as well say in few words that no one will take up arms for you, excepting only your tenants, if you mean to begin hostilities against Kolbein the Young.
Brand.—That had I not expected.
Sigurd.—People are saying that the district is growing poor through warfare, that brothers, fathers, or sons lie buried on battlefields in all directions, and that they want to know where to look for their bones before more men are sent to their death.
Brand.—I have not been the cause of warring hitherto, and these same men will take to their arms by the hundreds, whenever Kolbein the Young summons them, and yet half of the lands he now rules are really mine.
Sigurd.—That I told them also; but I cannot tell you what they answered thereupon!
Brand.—You certainly must!
Sigurd.—They said that Kolbein had ever been victorious in war, but you never.
Brand (gloomy).—It is true, I have not been victorious!
(HELGI SKAFTASON enters. BRAND goes to meet him.)
Brand.—What tidings have you from, the West?