The rest of the night Harald passed in his ships; but in the morning,
when it was daylight, it was found that so thick ice had gathered about
the vessels that one could walk around them. The king ordered his men to
cut the ice from the ships all the way out to the clear water; on which
they all went to break the ice. King Harald's son, Magnus, steered the
vessel that lay lowest down the river and nearest the water. When the
people had cleared the ice away almost entirely, a man ran out to the
ice, and began hewing away at it like a madman. Then said one of the
men, "It is going now as usual, that none can do so much as Hal who
killed Kodran, when once he lays himself to the work. See how he is
hewing away at the ice." There was a man in the crew of Magnus, the
king's son, who was called Thormod Eindridason; and when he heard the
name of Kodran's murderer he ran up to Hal, and gave him a death-wound.
Kodran was a son of Gudmund Eyjolfson; and Valgerd, who was a sister of
Gudmund, was the mother of Jorun, and the grandmother by the mother's
side of this Thormod. Thormod was a year old when Kodran was killed, and
had never seen Hal Utrygson until now. When the ice was broken all the
way out to the water, Magnus drew his ship out, set sail directly, and
sailed westward across the lake; but the king's ship, which lay farthest
up the river, came out the last. Hal had been in the king's retinue,
and was very dear to him; so that the king was enraged at his death.
The king came the last into the harbour, and Magnus had let the murderer
escape into the forest, and offered to pay the mulct for him; and the
king had very nearly attacked Magnus and his crew, but their friends
came up and reconciled them.