GUNNAR GOES A-SEA-ROVING.
So Gunnar held on out of the river, and he and Kolskegg were both on
board one ship. But Hallvard was on board another. Now, they see the
ships before them, and then Gunnar spoke, and said--
"Let us be ready for anything if they turn towards us! but else let us
have nothing to do with them."
So they did that, and made all ready on board their ships. The others
patted their ships asunder, and made a fareway between the ships. Gunnar
fared straight on between the ships, but Vandil caught up a
grappling-iron, and cast it between their ships and Gunnar's ship, and
began at once to drag it towards him.
Oliver had given Gunnar a good sword; Gunnar now drew it, and had not
yet put on his helm. He leapt at once on the forecastle of Vandil's
ship, and gave one man his death-blow. Karli ran his ship alongside the
other side of Gunnar's ship, and hurled a spear athwart the deck, and
aimed at him about the waist. Gunnar sees this, and turned him about so
quickly, that no eye could follow him, and caught the spear with his
left hand, and hurled it back at Karli's ship, and that man got his
death who stood before it. Kolskegg snatched up a grapnel and casts it
at Karli's ship, and the fluke fell inside the hold, and went out
through one of the planks, and in rushed the coal-blue sea, and all the
men sprang on board other ships.
Now Gunnar leapt back to his own ship, and then Hallvard came up, and
now a great battle arose. They saw now that their leader was
unflinching, and every man did as well as he could. Sometimes Gunnar
smote with the sword, and sometimes he hurled the spear, and many a man
had his bane at his hand. Kolskegg backed him well. As for Karli, he
hastened in a ship to his brother Vandil, and thence they fought that
day. During the day Kolskegg took a rest on Gunnar's ship, and Gunnar
sees that. Then he sung a song--
For the eagle ravine-eager,
Raven of my race, to-day
Better surely hast thou catered,
Lord of gold, than for thyself;
Here the morn come greedy ravens,
Many a rill of wolf[14] to sup,
But thee burning thirst down-beareth,
Prince of battle's Parliament!
After that Kolskegg took a beaker full of mead, and drank it off and
went on fighting afterwards; and so it came about that those brothers
sprang up on the ship of Vandil and his brother, and Kolskegg went on
one side, and Gunnar on the other. Against Gunnar came Vandil, and smote
at once at him with his sword, and the blow fell on his shield. Gunnar
gave the shield a twist as the sword pierced it, and broke it short off
at the hilt. Then Gunnar smote back at Vandil, and three swords seemed
to be aloft, and Vandil could not see how to shun the blow. Then Gunnar
cut both his legs from under him, and at the same time Kolskegg ran
Karli through with a spear. After that they took great war spoil.
Thence they held on south to Denmark, and thence east to Smoland,[15]
and had victory wherever they went. They did not come back in autumn.
The next summer they held on to Reval, and fell in there with
sea-rovers, and fought at once, and won the fight. After that they
steered east to Osel,[16] and lay there somewhile under a ness. There
they saw a man coming down from the ness above them; Gunnar went on
shore to meet the man, and they had a talk. Gunnar asked him his name,
and he said it was Tofi. Gunnar asked again what he wanted.
"Thee I want to see," says the man. "Two warships lie on the other side
under the ness, and I will tell thee who command them: two brothers are
the captains--one's name is Hallgrim, and the other's Kolskegg. I know
them to be mighty men of war; and I know too that they have such good
weapons that the like are not to be had. Hallgrim has a bill which he
had made by seething-spells; and this is what the spells say, that no
weapon shall give him his death-blow save that bill. That thing follows
it too that it is known at once when a man is to be slain with that
bill, for something sings in it so loudly that it may be heard a long
way off--such a strong nature has that bill in it."
Then Gunnar sang a song--
Soon shall I that spearhead seize,
And the bold sea-rover slay,
Him whose blows on headpiece ring,
Heaper up of piles of dead.
Then on Endil's courser[17] bounding,
O'er the sea-depths I will ride,
While the wretch who spells abuseth,
Life shall lose in Sigar's storm.[18]
"Kolskegg has a short sword; that is also the best of weapons. Force,
too, they have--a third more than ye. They have also much goods, and
have stowed them away on land, and I know clearly where they are. But
they have sent a spy-ship off the ness, and they know all about you. Now
they are getting themselves ready as fast as they can; and as soon as
they are 'boun,' they mean to run out against you. Now you have either
to row away at once, or to busk yourselves as quickly as ye can; but if
ye win the day, then I will lead you to all their store of goods."
Gunnar gave him a golden finger-ring, and went afterwards to his men and
told them that war-ships lay on the other side of the ness, "and they
know all about us; so let us take to our arms, and busk us well, for now
there is gain to be got".
Then they busked them; and just when they were boun they see ships
coming up to them. And now a fight sprung up between them, and they
fought long, and many men fell. Gunnar slew many a man. Hallgrim and his
men leapt on board Gunnar's ship, Gunnar turns to meet him, and Hallgrim
thrust at him with his bill. There was a boom athwart the ship, and
Gunnar leapt nimbly back over it, Gunnar's shield was just before the
boom, and Hallgrim thrust his bill into it, and through it, and so on
into the boom. Gunnar cut at Hallgrim's arm hard, and lamed the forearm,
but the sword would not bite. Then down fell the bill, and Gunnar seized
the bill, and thrust Hallgrim through, and then sang a song--
Slain is he who spoiled the people,
Lashing them with flashing steel:
Heard have I how Hallgrim's magic
Helm-rod forged in foreign land;
All men know, of heart-strings doughty,
How this bill hath come to me,
Deft in fight, the wolf's dear feeder.
Death alone us two shall part.
And that vow Gunnar kept, in that he bore the bill while he lived. Those
namesakes [the two Kolskeggs] fought together, and it was a near thing
which would get the better of it. Then Gunnar came up, and gave the
other Kolskegg his death-blow. After that the sea-rovers begged for
mercy. Gunnar let them have that choice, and he let them also count the
slain, and take the goods which the dead men owned, but he gave the
others whom he spared their arms and their clothing, and bade them be
off to the lands that fostered them. So they went off and Gunnar took
all the goods that were left behind.
Tofi came to Gunnar after the battle, and offered to lead him to that
store of goods which the sea-rovers had stowed away, and said that it
was both better and larger than that which they had already got.
Gunnar said he was willing to go, and so he went ashore, and Tofi before
him, to a wood, and Gunnar behind him. They came to a place where a
great heap of wood was piled together. Tofi says the goods were under
there, then they tossed off the wood, and found under it both gold and
silver, clothes and good weapons. They bore those goods to the ships,
and Gunnar asks Tofi in what way he wished him to repay him.
Tofi answered, "I am a Dansk man by race, and I wish thou wouldst bring
me to my kinsfolk".
Gunnar asks why he was there away east?
"I was taken by sea-rovers," says Tofi, "and they put me on land here in
Osel, and here I have been ever since."