CHAPTER XXXVI.
KOL SLEW SWART.
Gunnar rode away to the Thing, but before he rode from home he said to Hallgerda—"Be good now while I am away, and show none of thine ill temper in anything with which my friends have to do".
"The trolls take thy friends," says Hallgerda.
So Gunnar rode to the Thing, and saw it was not good to come to words with her. Njal rode to the Thing too, and all his sons with him.
Now it must be told of what tidings happened at home. Njal and Gunnar owned a wood in common at Redslip; they had not shared the wood, but each was wont to hew in it as he needed, and neither said a word to the other about that. Hallgerda's grieve's[19] name was Kol; he had been with her long, and was one of the worst of men. There was a man named Swart; he was Njal's and Bergthora's house-carle; they were very fond of him. Now Bergthora told him that he must go up into Redslip and hew wood; but she said—"I will get men to draw home the wood".
He said he would do the work She set him to win; and so he went up into Redslip, and was to be there a week.
Some gangrel men came to Lithend from the east across Markfleet, and said that Swart had been in Redslip, and hewn wood, and done a deal of work.
"So," says Hallgerda, "Bergthora must mean to rob me in many things, but I'll take care that he does not hew again."
Rannveig, Gunnar's mother, heard that, and said—"There have been good housewives before now, though they never set their hearts on manslaughter".