@musiclady This is a bit of a The Saga of Gisli, who is married to Aud. Gisli has been outlawed. A band of men led by Eyjolf are out looking to kill him. Eyjolf has just searched a possible hiding place and come up empty handed.
Eyjolf said, "We have had nothing but bad luck in this case and we may as well turn back."
And so they do, but Eyjolf says he will visit Aud first. They come to the steading (house) and walk in, and Eyjolf settled down again to have a talk with Aud. He had this to say.
"I will make a bargain with you Aud," he says, "that you tell me where Gisli is and I will give you the sixty ounces of silver which I have taken as the price on his head. You shall not be there when we take his life. It will also follow that I will arrange a marriage for you that will be better in every way than this one has been. You can see for yourself," he says, "how miserable it becomes for you, living in this deserted fiord, and having this happen to you because of Gisli's bad luck, and never seeing your kinsfolk or their families."
She answers, "I think the last thing," she says, "that we are likely to agree about is that you could arrange any marriage for me that I would think as good as this one. Even so, it is true, as they say, that cash is the widow's best comfort, and let me see whether this silver is as much or as fine as you say it is."
He pours the silver into her lap then, and she puts her hand into it while he counts it and turns it over before her. Gudrid, her foster-daughter, begins to cry.
She goes out and finds Gisli and she says to him:
"My foster-mother has gone out of her wits, and she is going to betray you."
Gisli spoke, "Put your mind at rest, for it will not be treachery from Aud that will be the cause of my death."
And he spoke a verse:
Loud they tongue my lady
Lords of masted fiord elks, (ships)
Hoards she, they say, hard thoughts
Heart deep for her partner.
I have seen that single
Sorrow keeps she, mourning:
True drops, never traitor
Tears fall from my dear one
Then the girl goes home again and says nothing of where she has been. Eyjolf has then counted the silver, and Aud spoke:
"In no way is the silver less or poorer than you have said, and you will think now that I have the right to do with it as I please."
Eyjolf agrees with this gladly and tells her certainly to do what she likes with it. Aud takes the silver and puts it in a big purse; she stands up and swings the purse with the silver in it at Eyjolf's nose, so that the blood spurts out all over him. Then she spoke:
"Take that for your easy faith, and every harm with it. There was never any likelihood that I would give my husband over to you, scoundrel. Take your money, and shame and disgrace with it! You will remember, as long as you live, you miserable man, that a woman has struck you; and yet you will not get what you want for all that!"
Then Eyjolf said, "Seize the bitch and kill her, woman or not!"
Havard has something to say: "This errand has been poor enough, without this coward's work. Stand up men, and do not let him get his way in this."
Eyjolf said: "The old saying is true. A man's worst following comes from home."
Havard was a well-liked man and many of them were ready to back him up, besides wanting to turn Eyjolf from a bad act; and Eyjolf has to be satisfied to leave it at this and go. Before Havard went out Aud spoke to him:
"It would be wrong not to pay you the debt that Gisli owes you, and here is a gold finger-ring that I want you to have."
"I would not have claimed it." Says Havard.
"I want to pay it, though," says Aud.
She was really giving him the ring for the help he had given her.
Havard got himself a horse, and rides south to Strond, to Gest, son of Oddleif, and he refuses to stay with Eyjolf any longer. Eyjolf goes home to Otradal, discontented with what had been done; and indeed it was everywhere thought to have been most contemptible.
My kind of Woman!
