made ready to go to the Thing. By old use and wont these two
neighbours should have gone riding together; so Bersi set out and
came to Muli, but when he got there Thord was gone.

"Well," said he, "Thord has broken old use and wont in awaiting
me no longer."

"If breach there be," answered Thordis, "it is thy doing. This
is nothing to what we owe thee, and I doubt there will be more to
follow."

They had words. Bersi said that harm would come of her evil
counsel; and so they parted.

When he left the house he said to his men, "Let us turn aside to
the shore and take a boat; it is a long way to ride round the
waterhead." So they took a boat -- it was one of Thord's -- and
went their way.

They came to the meeting when most other folks were already
there, and went to the tent of Olaf Peacock of Hjardarholt
(Herdholt), for he was Bersi's chief. It was crowded inside, and
Bersi found no seat. He used to sit next Thord, but that place
was filled. In it there sat a big and strong-looking man, with a
bear-skin coat, and a hood that shaded his face. Bersi stood a
while before him, but the seat was not given up. He asked the
man for his name, and was told he might call him Bruin, or he
might call him Hoodie -- which-ever he liked; whereupon he said
in verse: --