“No,” said Guest, who distrusted Thorbiorn, “thou shalt pay here, and now, fully; and I myself will pay one wergild, to help thee in atonement.” When this was agreed Howard sat down in the ring, and Guest gave him the one wergild (a hundred of silver), which Howard received in the skirt of his cloak; and then Thorbiorn paid one wergild slowly, coin by coin, and said he had no more money; but Guest bade him pay it all.
Then Thorbiorn drew out a cloth and untied it, saying, “He will surely count himself paid in full if I give him this!” and he flung into the old man’s face, as he sat on the ground, the teeth of the dead Olaf, saying, “Here are thy son’s teeth!”
Howard sprang up, bleeding, mad with rage and grief. The silver rolled in all directions from his cloak as he came to his feet, but he heeded it not at all. Blinded with blood, and furious, he broke through the ring of assessors, dashed one of them to earth, and rushed away like a young man; but when he came to Steinthor’s booth he lay as if dead, and spoke to no man.
“The silver rolled in all directions from his cloak”
Guest would have no more to do with Thorbiorn. “Thou hast no equal for cruelty and evil; thou shalt surely repent it,” he said; and he rode to Bathstead, took his sister away, with all her wealth, and broke off his alliance with Thorbiorn, caring nothing for the shame he put upon so unjust a man.
Howard went home, told Biargey all that had happened, and took to his bed again, a poor, old, helpless, miserable man; but his wife, who saw her presage beginning to come true, kept up her courage, rowed out fishing every day, and guided the household for yet another year.
Biargey and her Brethren
That summer, one day, as Biargey was rowed out to the fishing as usual, she saw Thorbiorn’s boat coming up the firth, and bade her man take up the lines and go to meet him, and row round the cutter, while she talked with Thorbiorn. As Biargey’s little boat approached the cutter Thorbiorn stopped his vessel for he saw that she would speak with him, and her boat circled round the cutter while she asked his business, and learnt that he was going with Vakr to meet a brother and nephew of his, to bring them to Bathstead, and that he expected to be away from home for a week. The little skiff had now passed completely round the motionless cutter, and Olaf’s mother, having learnt all she wanted, bade her rower quit Thorbiorn; the little boat shot swiftly and suddenly away, leaving Thorbiorn with an uneasy sense of witchcraft. So disquieted did he feel that he would have pursued her and drowned “the old hag,” as he called her, had he not been prevented by Brand the Strong, who had been helped in his need by Olaf.