"That I will of a surety," says he.
Then Gunnar made up his mind to sail abroad with him. Njal took all Gunnar's goods into his keeping.
ENDNOTES:
(1) "Oyce," a north country word for the mouth of a river, from
the Icelandic.
(2) "The Bay" (comp. ch. ii., and other passages), the name
given to the great bay in the east of Norway, the entrance
of which from the North Sea is the Cattegat, and at the end
of which is the Christiania Firth. The name also applies to
the land round the Bay, which thus formed a district, the
boundary of which, on the one side, was the promontory
called Lindesnaes, or the Naze, and on the other, the
Gota-Elf, the river on which the Swedish town of Gottenburg
stands, and off the mouth of which lies the island of
Hisingen, mentioned shortly after.
(3) Easterling, i.e., the Norseman Hallvard.
(4) Permia, the country one comes to after doubling the North
Cape.
29. GUNNAR GOES ABROAD
So Gunnar fared abroad, and Kolskegg with him. They sailed first to Tonsberg (1), and were there that winter. There had then been a shift of rulers in Norway. Harold Grayfell was then dead, and so was Gunnhillda. Earl Hacon the Bad, Sigurd's son, Hacon's son, Gritgarth's son, then ruled the realm. The mother of Hacon was Bergliot, the daughter of Earl Thorir. Her mother was Olof Harvest-heal. She was Harold Fair-hair's daughter.
Hallvard asks Gunnar if he would make up his mind to go to Earl
Hacon?
"No; I will not do that," says Gunnar. "Hast thou ever a long- ship?"
"I have two," he says.
"Then I would that we two went on warfare; and let us get men to go with us."