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Skapti said: "Is it true, Thorgils, that you have been giving winter entertainment to three of the most unruly men in the country, all three of them outlaws, and that you kept order so well that none of them did any harm to the other?" Thorgils said it was true. Skapti said: "Well, I think it shows what authority you possess. But how did their characters appear to you?
Now Thorhall went into Skapti's booth, and Skapti greeted him well, for he knew that he was a man rich in cattle, and he asked him what were the tidings. Thorhall answered, "A wholesome counsel would I have from thee." "Little am I meet for that," said Skapti; "but what dost thou stand in need of?"
Then he went West over the heath. Thorgils, the son of Ari, rode to the Thing with a large following. All the magnates were there from all parts of the country, and he soon met with Skapti the Lawman and had some talk with him.
Thorgils went to the court and offered weregild for the slaying, if thereby Thorgeir might become free of guilt; he put forth for defence in the suit whether they had not free catch on all common foreshores. The lawman was asked if this was a lawful defence. Skapti was the lawman, and backed Asmund for the sake of their kinship.
Skapti said: "I am told that you are acting with violence and are robbing men of their property; that ill becomes a man so highly connected as you are. It would be easier to negotiate if you gave up robbing. Now as I am called Lawman of this country, it would not be seemly for me to break the law by harbouring outlaws.
Then Skapti the Lawman said: "It certainly was an evil deed if all really happened as has been told. But One man's tale is but half a tale. Most people try and manage not to improve a story if there is more than one version of it. I hold that no judgment should be passed for Grettir's banishment without further proceedings."
I would like you to betake yourself somewhere where you do not need to commit robbery." Grettir said he would be very glad to, but that he could scarcely live alone owing to his fear of the dark. Skapti said he would have to content himself with something short of the best: "And trust no one so fully that what happened to you in the Western fjords may be repeated.
Thorhall stared at him somewhat when he saw this man, till he saw that this was he to whom he had been sent. "What work hast thou best will to do?" said Thorhall. Glam said, "That he was of good mind to watch sheep in winter." "Wilt thou watch my sheep?" said Thorhall. "Skapti has given thee to my will."
Skapti said that great might over men it showed forth in him; "But how goes it, thinkest thou, with the temper of each of them; and which of them thinkest thou the bravest man?"
Men who did nothing did not suit him. "Where do you mean me to go to?" asked Grettir. Thorsteinn told him to go South to his kinsmen, but to return to him if he found them of no use. Grettir did so. He went to Borgarfjord in the South to visit Grim the son of Thorhall, and stayed with him till the Thing was over. Grim sent him on to Skapti the Lawman at Hjalli.
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