Then they, Gizur the White and Hjallti, came up and offered to lay themselves in pledge for those men, and fare out to Iceland and preach the faith. The king took this well, and they got them all set free again.
Then Gizur and Hjallti busked their ship for Iceland, and were soon "boun." They made the land at Eyrar when ten weeks of summer had passed; they got them horses at once, but left other men to strip their ship. Then they ride with thirty men to the Thing, and sent word to the Christian men that they must be ready to stand by them.
Hjallti stayed behind at Reydarmull, for he had heard that he had been made an outlaw for blasphemy, but when they came to the "Boiling Kettle" (1) down below the brink of the Rift (2), there came Hjallti after them, and said he would not let the heathen men see that he was afraid of them.
Then many Christian men rode to meet them, and they ride in battle array to the Thing. The heathen men had drawn up their men in array to meet them, and it was a near thing that the whole body of the Thing had come to blows, but still it did not go so far.
ENDNOTES:
(1) "Boiling kettle." This was a hyer, or hot spring. (2) This was the "Raven's Rift," opposite to the "Great Rift" on the other side of Thingfield.
101. OF THORGEIR OF LIGHTWATER
There was a man named Thorgeir who dwelt at Lightwater; he was the son of Tjorfi, the son of Thorkel the Long, the son of Kettle Longneck. His mother's name was Thoruna, and she was the daughter of Thorstein, the son of Sigmund, the son of Bard of the Nip. Gudrida was the name of his wife; she was a daughter of Thorkel the Black of Hleidrargarth. His brother was Worm Wallet- back, the father of Hlenni the Old of Saurby (1).
The Christian men set up their booths, and Gizur the White and Hjallti were in the booths of the men from Mossfell. The day after both sides went to the Hill of Laws, and each, the Christian men as well as the heathen, took witness, and declared themselves out of the other's laws, and then there was such an uproar on the Hill of Laws that no man could hear the other's voice.
After that men went away, and all thought things looked like the greatest entanglement. The Christian men chose as their Speaker Hall of the Side, but Hall went to Thorgeir, the priest of Lightwater, who was the old Speaker of the law, and gave him three marks of silver (2) to utter what the law should be, but still that was most hazardous counsel, since he was an heathen.