Gunnar was still, so that one man held him, and spoke no ill words.
Njal tried to bring about a settlement, or to get pledges of peace; but Thorgeir said he would neither give nor take peace; far rather, he said, would he see Gunnar dead for the blow.
Kolskegg said, "Gunnar has before now stood too fast, than that he should have fallen for words alone, and so it will be again."
Now men ride away from the horse-field, every one to his home. They make no attack on Gunnar, and so that halfyear passed away. At the Thing, the summer after, Gunnar met Olaf the peacock, his cousin, and he asked him to come and see him, but yet bade him be ware of himself; "For," says he, "they will do us all the harm they can, and mind and fare always with many men at thy back."
He gave him much good counsel beside, and they agreed that there should be the greatest friendship between them.
59. OF ASGRIM AND WOLF UGGIS' SON
Asgrim Ellidagrim's son had a suit to follow up at the Thing against Wolf Uggis' son. It was a matter of inheritance. Asgrim took it up in such a way as was seldom his wont; for there was a bar to his suit, and the bar was this, that he had summoned five neighbours to bear witness, when he ought to have summoned nine. And now they have this as their bar.
Then Gunnar spoke and said, "I will challenge thee to single combat on the island, Wolf Uggis' son, if men are not to get their rights by law; and Njal and my friend Helgi would like that I should take some share in defending thy cause, Asgrim, if they were not here themselves."
"But," says Wolf, "this quarrel is not one between thee and me."
"Still it shall be as good as though it were," says Gunnar.