Gudfinna. Is it true, Arnes, that you can tell what the birds are talking about?
Arnes. Do they say that?
Gudfinna. In olden times there were wise folks who understood all such things, but people nowadays are backward in that as in so many other ways. (Sits down.)
Halla (smiling). Yes, young people are not good for much, in your opinion.
Gudfinna. We need only think of the sagas. Where have we men now like Skarphjedinn and Grettir Asmundsson? There are none such in these days.
Halla. When I was a child there was nothing I wished so much as that I might have lived with Grettir in his banishment.
Arnes. Was it not eighteen years he was an outlaw?
Halla. Nineteen. He lived longer as an outlaw than any one else has done. He lacked only one year to become free.
Arnes. He must have been a great man, but that brings to my mind what the leper said the other day, when the talk turned to the old sagas.
Halla. And what did he say?