Of Eindridi it is to be told that when they came to Hjaltland (Shetland) his fine ship was totally wrecked, and he lost a great quantity of goods, but the smaller ship was saved. He spent the winter in Hjaltland, and sent men to Norway to have another ship built for the voyage to the East.
One of Eindridi’s crew was called Arni Spítulegg (stick-leg). He went to the Orkneys during the winter with nine men. Arni was a very violent man, daring and turbulent. He and his comrades lived at their own expense during the winter. He bought malt and meat of a tenant of Swein, Asleif’s son, and when he demanded payment Arni delayed to pay. When he demanded it a second time, he was overwhelmed with abuse; and before they parted Arni struck him with the back of his axe, saying, “Go and tell your champion, Swein, whom you are always praising, to obtain redress for you; you will need no more.” The man went and told Swein, requesting him to obtain redress. He gave him a cold answer, and said he would promise nothing. One day in the spring Swein went to collect his rents. They were four together in a ten-oared boat. They had to pass the island in which Arni was staying, and Swein said he would land there. It was ebbing tide. Swein went on shore alone, carrying an axe with a short handle, and no other weapon. He told his men to keep the boat from getting aground. Arni Spítulegg and his comrades were lying in an outhouse not far from the sea. Swein walked up, and found them indoors. They greeted him. He acknowledged their greeting, and spoke to Arni, saying that he should settle the farmer’s account. Arni replied that there was plenty of time for that. Swein asked him to do it for his intercession, but still Arni refused. Then Swein said he would not ask any further, and at the same time he drove the axe into Arni’s skull, so that the iron was buried in it, and he lost hold of the handle. Swein ran out, and Arni’s companions after him, to the beach. As they ran fast along the muddy shore, one of them, who was the swiftest, came to close quarters with him. There were large roots of seaweed lying in the mud. Swein seized one of them, and thrust it into the face of the man who had come up with him, and he grasped at his eyes to clear the mud away, but Swein escaped to his boat, and went home to Gáreksey. Shortly after he went on his own business over to Caithness, and sent word to Earl Rögnvald to settle the matter about Arni Spítulegg’s slaying. And when the Earl received the message, he summoned together those who were entitled to compensation for Arni, and settled the matter to their satisfaction, he himself paying the compensation money. Many other acts of violence perpetrated by the Eastmen and the Orkneymen during the winter the Earl made good out of his own [funds].
Early in the spring he called a Thing meeting in Hrossey (Mainland), to which came all the chiefs residing in his dominions. He then made it known to them that he intended to leave the Orkneys and to go to Jórsalaheim (Jerusalem), saying that he would leave the government in the hands of his kinsman Harald, and praying all his friends to obey him, and help him faithfully in whatever he required while he was obliged to be away himself. Earl Harald was then nearly twenty, tall and strong, but ugly; yet he was a wise man, and the people thought he would be a good chief.
In the summer Earl Rögnvald prepared to leave the Orkneys; but the summer was far advanced before he was ready, because he had to wait a long time for Eindridi until his ship came from Norway. When they were ready, they left the Orkneys in fifteen large ships. The following were commanders of ships:—Earl Rögnvald; Erling Skakki; Bishop William; Aslák, Erlend’s son; Guttorm; Magnus, Hávard’s son; Swein, Hróald’s son; Eindridi Ungi; and the others who were with him are not named. From the Orkneys they sailed to Scotland, and then to England, and when they sailed to Nordymbraland (Northumberland), off the mouth of Hvera (the Wear), Armód sang:
High the crests were of the billows
As we passed the mouth of Hvera;
Masts were bending, and the low land
Met the waves in long sand reaches;
Blind our eyes were with the salt spray
While the youths at home remaining,