Fight with vikings Vigbjod and Vestmar

There were two Vikings from the Southern Isles, named Vigbjod and

Vestmar; they were abroad both summer and winter. They had eight

ships, and harried mostly round the coast of Ireland, where they

did many an evil deed until Eyvind undertook the defence of the

coast, when they retired to the Hebrides to harry there, and

right in to the Scotch firths. Thrand and Onund went out against

them and learned that they had sailed to an island called Bot.

Onund and Thrand followed them thither with five ships, and when

the vikings sighted them and saw how many there were, they

thought their own force was sufficient, so they took to their

arms and advanced to the attack. Onund ordered his ships to take

up a position between two rocks where there was a deep but narrow

channel, open to attack from one side only, and by not more than

five ships at once. Onund was a very wily man. He sent his five

ships forward into the channel so that, as there was plenty of

sea room behind them, they could easily retire by merely backing

their oars. One ship he brought under an island lying on their

beam, and carried a great stone to a place on the front of the

rock where it could not be seen from the enemy's ships. The

Vikings came boldly on, thinking they had caught them in a trap.

Vigbjod asked who they were that he had hemmed in. Thrand

answered that he was a brother of Eyvind the Easterner, and the

man with him was his comrade, Onund Treefoot. The vikings

laughed and said:



"Trolls take the rascal Treefoot

and lay him even with the ground.



Never yet did I see men go to battle who could not carry

themselves."



Onund said that could not be known until it was tried. Then the

ships came together. There was a great battle in which both

sides fought bravely. When the battle was thick Onund ordered

his ships to back their oars. The vikings seeing it thought they

were taking to flight, and pushed on with all their might, coming

under the rock just at the moment when the party which had been

dispatched for that purpose arrived. They launched upon the

vikings stones so huge that nothing could hold against them. A

number of the vikings were killed, and others were so injured

that they could fight no more. Then the vikings tried to escape,

but could not, as their ships were in the narrowest part of the

channel and were impeded both by the current and by the enemy's

ships. Onund's men vigorously attacked the wing commanded by

Vigbjod while Thrand engaged Vestmar, but effected little. When

the men on Vigbjod's ship had been somewhat reduced, Onund's men,

he himself with them, prepared to board her. On seeing that,

Vigbjod spurred on his men resolutely. He turned against Onund,

most of whose men gave way. Onund was a man of immense strength

and he bade his followers observe how it fared with them. They

shoved a log under the stump of his leg, so that he stood pretty

firm. The viking dashed forward, reached Onund and hewed at him

with his sword, which cut right through his shield and into the

log beneath his leg, where it remained fixed. As Vigbjod bent

down to pull his sword clear again, Onund dealt him a blow on his

shoulder, severing his arm and disabling him. When Vestmar saw

his comrade fall, he sprang on to the outermost ship and escaped

along with all who could get on to her. Then they examined the

dead. Vigbjod had already expired. Onund went up to him and

said:



"Bloody thy wounds. Didst thou see me flee?

'One-leg' no hurt received from thee.

Braver are many in word than in deed.

Thou, slave, didst fail when it came to the trial."



They took a large quantity of booty and returned to the Barra

Isles in the autumn.