The declaration made by him, _segir skilit við_, corresponds with old Gulathinglaw, “ef maðr vill skiliast við kono sína þa scal hann sva skilit segia at hvartveggia þeirra mege heyra mal annars oc have við þat vatta.” The consequence of this was hostility, _fjándskapr_, between them, which had its advantage, as it was now a case of “Foruðin sjást bezt við”--the wrongdoer can best detect his fellow. In contrast with the above is Svein’s sportsmanlike treatment of earl Rögnvaldr. When earl Erlendr and Sveinn were at feud with earl Rögnvaldr, on the latter’s return from his crusade, they captured his ships and treasures. Sveinn claimed earl Rögnvald’s treasures as his share of the spoil, which he promptly sent back to the earl. Being a keen-sighted man, he probably anticipated that his drunken ally, earl Erlendr, would ultimately be defeated by earl Rögnvaldr, whose treasures from the Holy Land may have been curios and relics of no great market value in the eyes of a víkingr. Sveinn is further described as of all men the sharpest-sighted, _skygnastr_, and saw things which others could not see. It was the opinion of Jón vængr, junior, that Sveinn was a truce breaker, _grið-níðingr_, and was true to no man. When earl Haraldr advised him to give up roving and twitted him with being an unfair man, _újafnaðarmaðr_, Svein’s answer was _tu quoque_, and there the discussion ended. The Saga sums him up as “mestr maðr fyrir sér í Vestrlöndum,” the most masterful man in the West, both of old and now, of those men who had no higher _tignar-nafn_, rank, than he. Of Svein’s relatives may be mentioned Eyvind Melbrigðason (Gael., _Maelbrighde_, servant of St. Bride or Bridgit). He was one of the _göfugir-menn_, great men, with earl Páll, and superintended the earl’s famous _Jóla-boð mikit_, great Yule feast, at which Sveinn killed Sveinn. Eyvind schemed to make his kinsman Sveinn Ásleifarson quarrel with his namesake, Sveinn brjóstreip, and having succeeded in this, he then plotted with Sveinn to kill Sveinn, and arranged an artful manœuvre, by which the second Sveinn, before he died, killed his own relative, Jón, the only other witness of the murder. Magnús Eyvindsson, by Eyvind’s arrangement, took Sveinn by horse and boat to Damsey, where Blánn sheltered him, and took him afterwards secretly to the bishop. Blánn (Gael., _flann_, red), took charge of the castle in Damsey. His father, Þorsteinn of Flyðrunes, his brother Ásbjörn krók-auga (squint-eye), and himself were all _údœlir_, overbearing, men. Jón vængr, senior, a relative of Sveinn, abode in Háey á upplandi. He was a gœðingr. His brother Ríkarðr (Richard), abode in Brekka í Strjonsey; they were notable men, _gildir-menn_. They burned Þorkell flatr, a gœðingr, in the house which their kinsman, Valþjófr, had owned. The earl had given Þorkell the house for finding out where Sveinn (the brother of Valþjófr) had fled to, after the murder for which he had been outlawed.