“Who was the bride?”
“Bersi wed Steingerd Thorkel's daughter,” said Narfi. “When they were gone she sent me here to tell thee the news.”
“Thou hast never a word but ill,” said Cormac, and leapt upon him and struck at the shield: and as it slipped aside he was smitten on the breast and fell from his horse; and the horse ran away with the shield (hanging to it).
Cormac's brother Thorgils said this was too much. “It serves him right,” cried Cormac. And when Narfi woke out of his swoon they got speech of him.
Thorgils asked, “What manner of men were at the wedding?”
Narfi told him.
“Did Steingerd know this before?”
“Not till the very evening they came,” answered he; and then told of his dealings with Vigi, saying that Cormac would find it easier to whistle on Steingerd's tracks and go on a fool's errand than to fight Bersi. Then said Cormac:—
(21)
“Now see to thy safety henceforward,
And stick to thy horse and thy buckler;
Or this mallet of mine, I can tell thee,
Will meet with thine ear of a surety.
Now say no more stories of feasting,
Though seven in a day thou couldst tell of,
Or bumps thou shalt comb on thy brainpan,
Thou that breakest the howes of the dead.
Thorgils asked about the settlements between Bersi and Steingerd. Her kinsmen, said Narfi, were now quit of all farther trouble about that business, however it might turn out; but her father and brother would be answerable for the wedding.