Then I laughed, and said that Grendel had told me what was in the pot, and the man, seeing that I was not angry, began to grin also, wondering.

Then the meaning of the whole business seemed to come to him, and he sat down and began to laugh, looking at me from under his brows now and then, lest I should be wroth with him for the freedom.

But I laughed also, and so in the end we two sat and laughed till the tears came, opposite one another, and that was a thing that I had never thought to do again.

At last I stopped, and then he made haste to compose himself.
"Master," he said, "forgive me.

But if you were Grendel, as I think now, there is a great fear off my mind." "I was Grendel, Dudda," said I; "but you must have a sorely evil conscience to be so easily frighted." "Nay, master; but from week to week I see none, least of all at midnight, and mail-clad men never at all.