Steinvor came back with the priest, who asked Grettir where he thought
the two men were who had disappeared. He replied they were, he
thought, in the gulf; but if the priest would help him he would find
out. The priest agreed. Accordingly, taking a rope with them, they
followed the stream down to a waterfall where they saw a cave up under
the cliff--a sheer rock the cliff was, nearly fifty fathoms down to
the water. The priest's heart misgave him, but Grettir determined to
make the attempt; so, driving a peg into the ground, he made the rope
fast to it and bade the priest watch it; then he tied a stone to the
end and let it sink into the water. When all was ready, he took his
short sword and leapt into the water. Disappearing from the priest's
view, he dived under the waterfall--and hard work it was, for the
whirlpool was strong; but he reached a projecting rock on which he
rested awhile. A great cave was under the waterfall, and the river
fell over it from the sheer rocks. Grettir climbed into the cave,
where he found a great fire flaming, and a giant sitting beside it,
huge and horrible to look upon. He smote at the new-comer with a
broadsword, but Grettir avoided the blow, and returned such a mighty
stroke with his own sword that the giant fell dead at once. The priest
on the bank, seeing blood washed down by the swirling waters, and
thinking Grettir was killed, fled in alarm and spread the report of
his death. Grettir meanwhile stayed in the cave till far on into the
night; he found there the bones of two men, which he put in a bag;
swimming with them to the rope, he shook it, but as the priest had
gone he had to draw himself up by strength of hands. He took the bones
to the church, where he left them, returning himself to Sandheaps.
When the priest saw Grettir, the latter taxed him with breach of faith
in quitting the rope, which charge the priest must needs admit;
however, no great harm had resulted, the bones were buried, and the
district was freed from hauntings. Grettir received much credit, in so
far as he had cleansed the land from these evil wights who had wrought
the loss of the men there in the dale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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