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Ketill was at first for stoutly refusing the adventure; but Helgi, whose convictions sat lightly on him compared with his attachment to Estein, persuaded him to consent. "Are you afraid?" he asked, and that question left no room for the proud Viking to hesitate. It was about two hours after midnight when the long ship, stealing under the shadow of the cliffs, turned into a small bay.
In another instant the Jemtlander would have suffered for his temerity, had not Atli seized the angry Norseman's arm, exclaiming, "Peace, Helgi Sigvaldson! Wouldst thou strike my servant in mine own house? The man loves not Norsemen, yet has he saved thy foster-brother's life, and likely, too, those of Ketill and all his company." "Tell us, Atli," interposed Estein, "what he said on his return."
Olaf took the dream very much to heart, and told it to his friends, but no one could read it to his liking. He thought those spoke best about this matter who said that what had appeared to him was only a dream or fancy. Of Osvif Helgeson He was the son of Helgi, who was the son of Ottar, the son of Bjorn the Eastman, who was the son of Ketill Flatnose, the son of Bjorn Buna.
Loudest of them all was that of Ketill, now married to a wealthy widow and a person of considerable importance, and the black-bearded Viking stepped forward as he spoke. "Give me this service, king," he said. "I have lived at mine ease too long of late. Laziness begets fat." There was a laugh at Ketill's words, for his person had never been noted for its spareness.
Without heeding the other's gruffness, the old man asked, "Does King Hakon sail from Hernersfiord to-day?" "King Hakon has not sailed for many a day. His son leads this force." "Ay, I had forgotten, we are both old men now. Then Estein sails to-day?" "Ay, and I sail with him. My ship awaits me, so make way, old man," replied Ketill. "Whither do ye sail?" "To the west seas.
"There are many such about the Orkneys; one I know well, which methinks we should reach soon after sunrise. There I shall take you." Ketill came up at that moment with a great horn of ale, and cried, with a joviality only shown when drink flowed freely, "Drink, Estein, drink! drink to the soul of Liot Skulison, which shall shortly speed to Valhalla.
"Then Ketill shall stay here with the rest of our troop, and you and I, with twenty more, will to the king. Forward, men!" "Spare not the ale," added Ketill. "A courteous and gallant man is Thorar, for a Jemtlander," said Helgi to Ketill, as they marched down to the town. "Dogs and women are his people," replied Ketill. "They are fit neither to be friends nor enemies."
"That will I," answered Ketill. "I want no braver leader. But the gods curse me if we roast not a few score men this time, Estein." For two days there was a turmoil of preparation round Hakonstad, and on the third Estein's two warships sailed down the fiord.
The ashes they reverently gathered up and placed within a copper bowl, a lid they made of twelve shield bosses, the gifts were gathered and placed all round, and then the spademen heaped the mound above Hakon, King of Sogn. With a quicker stroke and tongues unloosed the fleet returned to Hakonstad. "A noble funeral, Ketill," said one chief to the black-bearded Viking.
He knew lands there wide about, for there he had harried far and wide. Chap. Ketill's Sons go to Iceland After that Ketill arrayed his journey west over the sea. Unn, his daughter, and many others of his relations went with him. That same summer Ketill's sons went to Iceland with Helgi, their brother-in-law.
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