Asgrim went and stood before him, and hailed him.
Gudmund took his greeting well, and asked him to sit down.
"I will not sit," said Asgrim, "but I wish to pray thee for help, for thou art a bold man and a mighty chief."
"I will not be against thee," said Gudmund, "but if I see fit to yield thee help, we may well talk of that afterwards," and so he treated them well and kindly in every way.
Asgrim thanked him for his words, and Gudmund said—
"There is one man in your band at whom I have gazed for awhile, and he seems to me more terrible than most men that I have seen."
"Which is he?" says Asgrim.
"Four go before him," says Gudmund; "dark brown is his hair, and pale is his face; tall of growth and sturdy. So quick and shifty in his manliness, that I would rather have his following than that of ten other men; but yet the man is unlucky-looking."
"I know," said Skarphedinn, "that thou speakest at me, but it does not go in the same way as to luck with me and thee. I have blame, indeed, from the slaying of Hauskuld, the Whiteness priest, as is fair and right; but both Thorkel foulmouth and Thorir Helgi's son spread abroad bad stories about thee, and that has tried thy temper very much."
Then they went out, and Skarphedinn said—