"Nay, nay! We part not like this," said Grettir, and he laid his hands on the reins of the horse the stranger rode.
"You had better let go," said the mounted man.
"Nay, that I will not," answered Grettir.
Then the rider stooped and put his hands to the reins above those of Grettir, between them and the bit, and he dragged them along, forcing Grettir's hands along the bridle to the end and then wrenched them out of his grasp.
Grettir looked at his palms and saw that the skin had been torn in the struggle. Then he found out that he had met with a man who was stronger than himself.
"Give me your name," said he. "For, good faith! I have not encountered a man like you."
Then the horseman laughed and sang:
"By the Caldron's side
Away I ride,
Where the waters rush and fall
Adown the crystal glacier wall
There you will find a stone
Joined to a hand—alone."
This was a puzzling answer. The meaning was that he lived near a waterfall that poured out of the Ice mountain, and that his name was Hall-mund, hall is a stone and mund is the hand.
Grettir and he parted good friends; and as he rode away Hall-mund called out to Grettir that he would remember this meeting, and as it ended in friendliness he hoped to do him a good turn yet,—that when every other place of refuge failed he was to seek him "by the Caldron's side, where the waters rush and fall, adown the crystal glacier wall" under Ball-jokull, and there he would give him shelter.