Then those Norsemen who had never been afraid of anything turned and ran. But when they came to the top of a rough hill Thorfinn cried:
"What are we doing? Shall we die here in this empty land with no one to bury us? We are leaving our women."
Then one of the women ran out of the hut where they were hiding.
"Give me a sword!" she cried. "I can drive them back. Are Norsemen not better than these savages?"
Then those warriors stopped, ashamed, and stood up before the wild men and fought so fiercely that the strangers turned and fled down to their canoes and paddled away.
"Oh, I am glad they are gone!" Thorfinn said. "It was an ugly fight."
"Thor would not have loved that battle," one said.
"It was no battle," another replied. "It was like fighting against an army of poisonous flies."
The Norsemen were all worn and bleeding and sore. They went to their huts and dressed their wounds, and the women helped them. At supper that night they talked about the fight for a long time.
"I will not stay here," Gudrid said. "Perhaps these wild men have gone away to get more people and will come back and kill us. Oh! they are ugly."