Now the night wore away, and early next morning Hallgerda came to speak to Kol, and said—"I have thought of some work for thee"; and with that she put weapons into his hands, and went on to say—"Fare thou to Redslip; there wilt thou find Swart".
"What shall I do to him?" he says.
"Askest thou that when thou art the worst of men?" she says. "Thou shalt kill him."
"I can get that done," he says, "but 'tis more likely that I shall lose my own life for it."
"Everything grows big in thy eyes," she says, "and thou behavest ill to say this after I have spoken up for thee in everything. I must get another man to do this if thou darest not."
He took the axe, and was very wroth, and takes a horse that Gunnar owned, and rides now till he comes east of Markfleet. There he got off and bided in the wood, till they had carried down the firewood, and Swart was left alone behind. Then Kol sprang on him, and said—"More folk can hew great strokes than thou alone"; and so he laid the axe on his head, and smote him his death-blow, and rides home afterwards, and tells Hallgerda of the slaying.
She said—"I shall take such good care of thee, that no harm shall come to thee".
"May be so," says he, "but I dreamt all the other way as I slept ere I did the deed."
Now they come up into the wood, and find Swart slain, and bear him home. Hallgerda sent a man to Gunnar at the Thing to tell him of the slaying. Gunnar said no hard words at first of Hallgerda to the messenger, and men knew not at first whether he thought well or ill of it. A little after he stood up, and bade his men go with him: they did so, and fared to Njal's booth. Gunnar sent a man to fetch Njal, and begged him to come out. Njal went out at once, and he and Gunnar fell a-talking, and Gunnar said—
"I have to tell thee of the slaying of a man, and my wife and my grieve Kol were those who did it; but Swart, thy house-carle, fell before them."