King Rettibur made an offer to those who were in the castle that they
should go out, and he would give them their lives, weapons, clothes,
silver, and gold; but all exclaimed against it, and went out on the
fortification; some shot, some threw stones, some sharp stakes. It was
a great battle, in which many fell on both sides, but by far the most
of the Vindlanders. Solveig came up to a large farm called Solbjorg, and
brought the news. A message war-token was there split, and sent out to
Skurbagar, where there happened to be a joint ale-drinking feast, and
many men were assembled. A bonde called Olver Miklimun (Mickle Mouth)
was there, who immediately sprang up, took helmet and shield, and a
great axe in his hand, and said, "Stand up, brave lads, and take your
weapons. Let us go help the townspeople; for it would appear shameful
to every man who heard of it, if we sit here sipping our ale, while good
men in the town are losing their lives by our neglect."
Many made an objection, and said they would only be losing their own
lives, without being of any assistance to the townspeople.
Then said Olver, "Although all of you should hold back, I will go alone;
and one or two heathens, at any rate, shall fall before I fall."
He ran down to the town, and a few men after him to see what he would
do, and also whether they could assist him in any way. When he came
near the castle, and the heathens saw him, they sent out eight men fully
armed against him; and when they met, the heathen men ran and surrounded
him on all sides. Olver lifted his axe, and struck behind him with
the extreme point of it, hitting the neck of the man who was coming up
behind him, so that his throat and jawbone were cut through, and he fell
dead backwards. Then he heaved his axe forwards, and struck the next man
in the head, and clove him down to the shoulders. He then fought with
the others, and killed two of them; but was much wounded himself. The
four who remained took to flight, but Olver ran after them. There was
a ditch before them, and two of the heathens jumped into it, and Olver
killed them both; but he stuck fast himself in the ditch, so that two of
the eight heathens escaped. The men who had followed Olver took him
up, and brought him back to Skurbagar, where his wounds were bound and
healed; and it was the talk of the people, that no single man had ever
made such a bloody onset. Two lendermen, Sigurd Gyrdson, a brother of
Philip, and Sigard, came with 600 men to Skurbagar; on which Sigurd
turned back with 400 men. He was but little respected afterwards, and
soon died. Sigard, on the other hand, proceeded with 200 men towards the
town; and they gave battle to the heathens, and were all slain. While
the Vindlanders were storming the castle, their king and his chiefs were
out of the battle. At one place there was a man among the Vindlanders
shooting with a bow, and killing a man for every arrow; and two men
stood before him, and covered him with their shields. Then Saemund
Husfreyja said to his son Asmund, that they should both shoot together
at this bowman. "But I will shoot at the man who holds the shield before
him." He did so, and he knocked the shield down a little before the man;
and in the same instant Asmund shot between the shields, and the arrow
hit the bowman in the forehead, so that it came out at his neck, and he
fell down dead. When the Vindlanders saw it they howled like dogs, or
like wolves. Then King Rettibur called to them that he would give them
safety and life, but they refused terms. The heathens again made a
hard assault. One of the heathens in particular fought so bravely, and
ventured so near, that he came quite up to the castle-gate, and pierced
the man who stood outside the gate with his sword; and although they
used both arrows and stones against him, and he had neither shield nor
helmet, nothing could touch him, for he was so skilled in witchcraft
that weapon could not wound him. Then priest Andres took consecrated
fire; blew upon it; cut tinder in pieces, and laid it on the fire; and
then laid the tinder on the arrow-point, and gave it to Asmund. He shot
this arrow at the warlock; and the shaft hit so well that it did its
business, and the man of witchcraft fell dead. Then the heathens crowded
together as before, howling and whining dreadfully; and all gathered
about their king, on which the Christians believed that they were
holding a council about retreating. The interpreters, who understood
the Vindland tongue, heard the chief Unibur make the following speech:
"These people are brave, and it is difficult to make anything of them;
and even if we took all the goods in their town, we might willingly give
as much more that we had never come here, so great has been our loss of
men and chiefs. Early in the day, when we began to assault the castle,
they defended themselves first with arrows and spears; then they fought
against us with stones; and now with sticks and staves, as against dogs.
I see from this that they are in want of weapons and means of defense;
so we shall make one more hard assault, and try their strength." It
was as he said, that they now fought with stakes; because, in the first
assault, they had imprudently used up all their missile weapons and
stones; and now when the Christians saw the number of their stakes
diminishing, they clave each stake in two. The heathens now made a very
hot attack, and rested themselves between whiles, and on both sides they
were exhausted. During a rest the Vindland king Rettibur again offered
terms, and that they should retain the weapons, clothes, and silver they
could carry out of the castle. Saemund Husfreyja had fallen, and the men
who remained gave the counsel to deliver up the castle and themselves
into the power of the heathens; but it was a foolish counsel; for the
heathens did not keep their promises, but took all people, men, women,
and children, and killed all of them who were wounded or young, or could
not easily be carried with them. They took all the goods that were in
the castle; went into the Cross church, and plundered it of all its
ornaments. The priest Andres gave King Rettibur a silver-mounted gilt
sceptre, and to his sister's son Dunimiz he gave a gold ring. They
supposed from this that he was a man of great importance in the town,
and held him in higher respect than the others. They took away with them
the holy cross, and also the tables which stood before the altar, which
Sigurd had got made in the Greek country, and had brought home himself.
These they took, and laid flat down on the steps before the altar. Then
the heathens went out of the church. Rettibur said, "This house has
been adorned with great zeal for the God to whom it is dedicated; but,
methinks, He has shown little regard for the town or house: so I see
their God has been angry at those who defended them." King Rettibur gave
the priest Andres the church, the shrine, the holy cross, the Bible,
the altar-book, and four clerks (prisoners); but the heathens burnt the
Castle church, and all the houses that were in the castle. As the fire
they had set to the church went out twice, they hewed the church down,
and then it burnt like other houses. Then the heathens went to their
ships with the booty; but when they mustered their people and saw their
loss, they made prisoners of all the people, and divided them among the
vessels. Now priest Andres went on board the king's ship with the holy
cross, and there came a great terror over the heathens on account of the
portentous circumstance which took place in the king's ship; namely,
it became so hot that all thought they were to be burnt up. The king
ordered the interpreter to ask the priest why this happened. He replied,
that the Almighty God on whom the Christians believed, sent them a proof
of His anger, that they who would not believe in their Creator presumed
to lay hands on the emblem of His suffering; and that there lay so much
power in the cross, that such, and even clearer miracles, happened to
heathen men who had taken the cross in their hands. The king had the
priest put into the ship's boat, and the priest Andres carried the holy
cross in his grasp. They led the boat along past the ship's bow,
and then along the side of the next ship, and then shoved it with a
boat-hook in beside the pier. Then Andres went with the cross by night
to Solbjorg, in rain and dreadful weather; but brought it in good
preservation. King Rettibur, and the men he had remaining, went home
to Vindland, and many of the people who were taken at Konungahella were
long afterwards in slavery in Vindland; and those who were ransomed and
came back to Norway to their udal lands and properties, throve worse
than before their capture. The merchant town of Konungahella has never
since risen to the importance it was of before this event.