After this Thorvard sent word from Fliot that he was fain to fight Cormac, and he fixed time and place, saying that he would now take revenge for that song of shame and all other slights.
To this Cormac agreed; and when the day came he went to the spot that was named, but Thorvard was not there, nor any of his men. Cormac met a woman from the farm hard by, who greeted him, and they asked each other for news.
"What is your errand?" said she; "and why are you waiting here?"
Then he answered with this song: --
(65) "Too slow for the struggle I find him, That spender of fire from the ocean, Who flung me a challenge to fight him From Fleet in the land of the North. That half-witted hero should get him A heart made of clay for his carcase, Though the mate of the may with the necklace Is more of a fool than his fere!"
"Now," said Cormac, "I bid Thorvard anew to the holmgang, if he can be called in his right mind. Let him be every man's nithing if he come not!" and then he made this song: --
(66) "The nithing shall silence me never, Though now for their shame they attack me, But the wit of the Skald is my weapon, And the wine of the gods will uphold me. And this they shall feel in its fulness; Here my fame has its birth and beginning; And the stout spears of battle shall see it, If I 'scape from their hands with my life."
Then the brothers set on foot a law-suit against him for libel. Cormac's kinsmen backed him up to answer it, and he would let no terms be made, saying that they deserved the shame put upon them, and no honour; he was not unready to meet them, unless they played him false. Thorvard had not come to the holmgang when he had been challenged, and therefore the shame had fallen of itself upon him and his, and they must put up with it.
So time passed until the Huna-water Thing. Thorvard and Cormac both went to the meeting, and once they came together.
"Much enmity we owe thee," said Thorvard, "and in many ways. Now therefore I challenge thee to the holmgang, here at the Thing."
Said Cormac, "Wilt thou be fitter than before? Thou hast drawn back time after time."
"Nevertheless," said Thorvard, "I will risk it. We can abide thy spite no longer."
"Well," said Cormac, "I'll not stand in the way;" and went home to Mel.
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