Now the winter leaves the farmyard. Olaf the Peacock asked Gunnar and Hallgerda to come and stay with him; but as for the farm, to put it into the hands of his mother and his son Hogni. Gunnar thought that a good thing at first, and agreed to it, but when it came to the point he would not do it. But at the Thing next summer, Gizur the White, and Geir the Priest, gave notice of Gunnar's outlawry at the Hill of Laws; and before the Thing broke up Gizur summoned all Gunnar's foes to meet in the "Great Rift." (1) He summoned Starkad under the Threecorner, and Thorgeir his son; Mord and Valgard the Guileful; Geir the Priest and Hjalti Skeggi's son; Thorbrand and Asbrand, Thorleik's sons; Eyjulf, and Aunund his son. Aunund of Witchwood and Thorgrim the Easterling of Sandgil. Then Gizur spoke and said, "I will make you all this offer, that we go out against Gunnar this summer and slay him." "I gave my word to Gunnar," said Hjalti, "here at the Thing, when he showed himself most willing to yield to my prayer, that I would never be in any attack upon him; and so it shall be." Then Hjalti went away, but those who were left behind made up their minds to make an onslaught on Gunnar, and shook hands on the bargain, and laid a fine on any one that left the undertaking. Mord was to keep watch and spy out when there was the best chance of falling on him, and they were forty men in this league, and they thought it would be a light thing for them to hunt down Gunnar, now that Kolskegg was away, and Thrain and many other of Gunnar's friends. Men ride from the Thing, and Njal went to see Gunnar, and told him of his outlawry, and how an onslaught was planned against him. "Methinks thou art the best of friends," says Gunnar; "thou makest me aware of what is meant." "Now," says Njal, "I would that Skarphedinn should come to thy house, and my son Hauskuld; they will lay down their lives for thy life." "I will not," says Gunnar, "that thy sons should be slain for my sake, and thou hast a right to look for other things from me." "All thy care will come to nothing," says Njal; "quarrels will turn thitherward where my sons are as soon as thou art dead and gone." "That is not unlikely," says Gunnar, "but still it would mislike me that they fell into them for me; but this one thing I will ask of thee, that ye see after my son Hogni, but I say naught of Grani, for he does not behave himself much after my mind." Njal rode home, and gave his word to do that. It is said that Gunnar rode to all meetings of men, and to all lawful Things, and his foes never dared to fall on him. And so some time went on that he went about as a free and guiltless man. ENDNOTES: (1) "Great Rift," Almannagja -- The great volcanic rift, or "geo," as it would be called in Orkney and Shetland, which bounds the plain of the Allthing on one side. 75. THE RIDING TO LITHEND