Said the maid, "Ye would give a deal for a wife with hair like Steingerd's, or such eyes!" He answered:-- (7) "One eye of the far of the ale-horn Looking out of a form so bewitching, Would a bridegroom count money to buy it He must bring for it ransom three hundred.
The curls that she combs of a morning, White-clothed in fair linen and spotless, They enhance the bright hoard of her value,-- Five hundred might barely redeem them!" Said the maid, "It's give and take with the two of ye! But thou'lt put a big price upon the whole of her!" He answered:-- (8) "The tree of my treasure and longing, It would take this whole Iceland to win her: She is dearer than far-away Denmark, And the doughty domain of the Hun-folk.
With the gold she is combing, I count her More costly than England could ransom: So witty, so wealthy, my lady Is worth them,--and Ireland beside!" Then Tosti came in, and called Cormac out to some work or other; but he said:-- (9) "Take my swift-footed steel for thy tiding, Ay, and stint not the lash to him, Tosti: On the desolate downs ye may wander And drive him along till he weary.
I care not o'er mountain and moorland The murrey-brown weathers to follow,-- Far liefer, I'd linger the morning In long, cosy chatter with Steingerd." Tosti said he would find it a merrier game, and went off; so Cormac sat down to chess, and right gay he was.

Steingerd said he talked better than folk told of; and he sat there all the day; and then he made this song:-- (10) "'Tis the dart that adorneth her tresses, The deep, dewy grass of her forehead.
So kind to my keeping she gave it, That good comb I shall ever remember! A stranger was I when I sought her -- Sweet stem with the dragon's hoard shining--" With gold like the sea-dazzle gleaming-- The girl I shall never forget." Tosti came off the fell and they fared home.

After that Cormac used to go to Gnupsdal often to see Steingerd: and he asked his mother to make him good clothes, so that Steingerd might like him the most that could be.

Dalla said there was a mighty great difference betwixt them, and it was far from certain to end happily if Thorkel at Tunga got to know..