Then Steingerd grew exceedingly angry, so that she would not so much as hear Cormac named. When he heard that, he went to see her. Long time he tried in vain to get speech with her; but at last she gave this answer,—that she misliked his holding her up to shame,—“And now it is all over the country-side!”
Cormac said it was not true; but she answered, “Thou mightest flatly deny it, if I had not heard it.”
“Who sang it in thy hearing?” asked he.
She told him who sang it,—“And thou needest not hope for speech with me if this prove true.”
He rode away to look for the rascal, and when he found him the truth was forced out at last. Cormac was very angry, and set on Narfi and slew him. That same onset was meant for Thorvald, but he hid himself in the shadow and skulked, until men came between then and parted them. Said Cormac:—
(64)
“There, hide in the house like a coward,
And hope not hereafter to scare me
With the scorn of thy brethren the Skidings,—
I'll set them a weft for their weaving!
I'll rhyme on the swaggering rascals
Till rocks go afloat on the water;
And lucky for you if ye loosen
The line of your fate that I ravel!”
This went all over the country-side and the feud grew fiercer between them. The brothers Thorvald and Thorvard used big words, and Cormac was wroth when he heard them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE. How Thorvard Would Not Fight, But Tried To Get The Law Of Cormac.
After this Thorvard sent word from Fliot that he was fain to fight Cormac, and he fixed time and place, saying that he would now take revenge for that song of shame and all other slights.