Gunnar said he should never be able to repay that, but then he begged them for help; and they said that was his due.
Now the suits on both sides came before the court, and each pleads his cause.
Mord asked, "How it was that a man could have the right to set a suit on foot who, like Gunnar, had already made himself an outlaw by striking Thorgeir a blow?"
"Wast thou," answered Njal, "at Thingskala-Thing last autumn?"
"Surely I was," says Mord.
"Heardest thou," asks Njal, "how Gunnar offered him full atonement? Then I gave back Gunnar his right to do all lawful deeds."
"That is right and good law," says Mord, "but how does the matter stand if Gunnar has laid the slaying of Hjort at Kol's door, when it was the Easterling that slew him?"
"That was right and lawful," says Njal, "when he chose him as the slayer before witnesses."
"That was lawful and right, no doubt," says Mord; "but for what did Gunnar summon them all as outlaws?"
"Thou needest not to ask about that," says Njal, "when they went out to deal wounds and manslaughter."