"Ill hast thou repaid me," said Valgard, "for giving up to thee my priesthood, when thou hast handled it so little like a man, and now my wish is that thou shouldst pay them off by something that will drag them all down to death; and this thou canst do by setting them by the ears by talebearing, so that Njal's sons may slay Hauskuld; but there are many who will have the blood-feud after him, and so Njal's sons will be slain in that quarrel."
"I shall never be able to get that done," says Mord.
"I will give thee a plan," says Valgard; "thou shalt ask Njal's sons to thy house, and send them away with gifts, but thou shalt keep thy tale-bearing in the background until great friendship has sprung up between you, and they trust thee no worse than their own selves. So wilt thou be able to avenge thyself on Skarphedinn for that he took thy money from thee after Gunnar's death; and in this wise, further on, thou wilt be able to seize the leadership when they are all dead and gone."
This plan they settled between them should be brought to pass; and Mord said, "I would, father, that thou wouldst take on thee the new faith. Thou art an old man."
"I will not do that," says Valgard. "I would rather that thou shouldst cast off the faith, and see what follows then."
Mord said he would not do that. Valgard broke crosses before
Mord's face, and all holy tokens. A little after Valgard took a
sickness and breathed his last, and he was laid in a cairn by
Hof.
107. OF MORD AND NJAL'S SONS
Some while after Mord rode to Bergthorsknoll and saw Skarphedinn there; he fell into very fair words with them, and so he talked the whole day, and said he wished to be good friends with them, and to see much of them.
Skarphedinn took it all well, but said he had never sought for anything of the kind before. So it came about that he got himself into such great friendship with them, that neither side thought they had taken any good counsel unless the other had a share in it.
Njal always disliked his coming thither, and it often happened that he was angry with him.