CHAPTER EIGHT. How Cormac Chased Bersi And His Bride.
Cormac took his horse and weapons and saddle-gear.
“What now, brother?” asked Thorgils.
He answered:—
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“My bride, my betrothed has been stolen,
And Bersi the raider has robbed me.
I who offer the song-cup of Odin—
Who else?—should be riding beside her.
She loved me—no lord of them better:
I have lost her—for me she is weeping:
The dear, dainty darling that kissed me,
For day upon day of delight.”
Said Thorgils, “A risky errand is this, for Bersi will get home before you catch him. And yet I will go with thee.”
Cormac said he would away and bide for no man. He leapt on his horse forthwith, and galloped as hard as he could. Thorgils made haste to gather men,—they were eighteen in all,—and came up with Cormac on the hause that leads to Hrutafiord, for he had foundered his horse. So they turned to Thorveig the spaewife's farmsteading, and found that Bersi was gone aboard her boat.
She had said to Bersi, “I wish thee to take a little gift from me, and good luck follow it.”
This was a target bound with iron; and she said she reckoned Bersi would hardly be hurt if he carried it to shield him,—“but it is little worth beside this steading thou hast given me.” He thanked her for the gift, and so they parted. Then she got men to scuttle all the boats on the shore, because she knew beforehand that Cormac and his folk were coming.