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 o