She goes first till they come to the sheepcote; she goes in and bade them follow her. Then she lit a torch, and held it up and said, "Here, Njal, is thy son Hauskuld, and he hath gotten many wounds upon him, and now he will need leechcraft."
"I see death marks on him," said Njal, "but no signs of life; but why hast thou not closed his eyes and nostrils? see, his nostrils are still open!"
"That duty I meant for Skarphedinn," she says.
Then Skarphedinn went to close his eyes and nostrils, and said to his father, "Who, sayest thou, hath slain him?"
"Lyting of Samstede and his brothers must have slain him," says
Njal.
Then Rodny said, "Into thy hands, Skarphedinn, I leave it to take vengeance for thy brother, and I ween that thou wilt take it well, though he be not lawfully begotten, and that thou wilt not be slow to take it."
"Wonderfully do ye men behave," said Bergthora, "when ye slay men for small cause, but talk and tarry over such as this until no vengeance at all is taken; and now of this will soon come to Hauskuld, the Priest of Whiteness, and he will be offering you atonement, and you will grant him that, but now is the time to set about it, if ye seek for vengeance."
"Our mother eggs us on now with a just goading," said
Skarphedinn, and sang a song.
"Well we know the warrior's temper (2),
One and all, well, father thine,
But atonement to the mother,
Snake-land's stem (3) and thee were base;
He that hoardeth ocean's fire (4)
Hearing this will leave his home;
Wound of weapon us hath smitten,
Worse the lot of those that wait!"
After that they all ran out of the sheepcote, but Rodny went indoors with Njal, and was there the rest of the night.