Jon was rather quiet when he reached home that evening, although he did tell his wife of his attempt to deal with her father.
Yes, said Gudrun, papa sets great store by that hay. He cannot bear to part with it at any price. That is his nature.
Tomorrow you must go, Jon told her, and try to win the old man over in some way. I'd hate to be obliged to take the hay from him by force, but that will be necessary if everything else fails.
The following day Gudrun went to see her father. The weather still remained cold. When Gudrun dismounted before the house at Holl, there was no one outside to greet her or announce her arrival, and so she entered, going straight into the baðstofa. There she found her father sitting on his bed, knitting a seaman's mitten, crooning an old ditty the while:
Far from out the wilderness
Comes raging the cold wind;
And the bonds of heaven's king
It doth still tighter bind.
Gudrun leaned over her father and kissed him.
Is that you, Gunna dear? he asked.
Yes papa, she said, at the same time slipping a flask of brandy into the bosom of his shirt.
This greatly pleased the old man.
Gunna dear, he said, you always bring me something to cheer me up.
Not many nowadays take the trouble to cheer the old man. No indeed.
Any news? It's so long since you have been to see me, a year or
more.