The champion Thormód came very often to talk with the widow’s daughter against Grima’s will. Then she sent a man, Kolbak, to lie in ambush for Thormod one evening.
“She (Grima) touched him all over with her hands. Then Kolbak went his way.... Thormód walked in front of the sheephouse door, and at that moment a man with a drawn sax ran out of it and struck at Thormód. The blow hit Thormód’s arm above the elbow and the wound was large. Thormód threw his shield down and drew his sword with his left hand and struck at Kolbak with both arms, the one blow after the other. The sword did not bite, for Kolbak was so strengthened with witchcraft that iron did not bite him. Kolbak did not strike any more blows at Thormód, but said: ‘Now I can do with thee, Thormód, what I like, but I will not do more.’ Kolbak went home and told Grima the news” (Fóstbrædra Saga, c. 14).
Among the numerous kinds of witchcraft practised was that of a man sitting out of doors at night in the open air, and, by some magical action not described, raising troll (wizard or witch) or dead people, in order to ask them questions as to the future.[[397]]
Hakon and Ingi were pretenders to the crown of Norway, and were going to fight a battle.
“It is told that Gunnhild, to whom Simon had been married, and who was the foster-mother of King Hakon, had out-sitting for the victory of Hakon. The result was that they should fight against Ingi at night, but never by day, and then it would go well. The woman who was said to have sat out is called Thórdis Seggia, but I do not know it for true” (Hakon Herdibreid’s Saga, c. 16).
Some people were supposed to have power in their eyes, by which they could blunt swords in the fight.
“Gunnlaug Ormstunga challenged the viking Thórorm to a hólmganga, because he would not pay back money which he had borrowed from Gunnlaug. Gunnlaug was then at the hird of King Adalrad in London, who told him that this man blunted every weapon, and gave him a sword to fight with and told him to show only his own sword to the viking” (Gunnlaug Ormstunga’s Saga).
“She (Thordis the witch) blunted Kormak’s sword so that it could not bite” (Kormak’s Saga, c. 23).
Men who carried charmed weapons were always held to be lucky in fight. When using such charmed swords, good care had to be taken that the charm should be effective, or part of the power was lost: for instance, the famous sword Sköfnung—taken from the mound of Hrólf Kraki—was not to be drawn in the sight of people, nor must the sun shine on the hilt,[[398]] and the wounds inflicted by these could not be cured except by touching them by the so-called lifstein (life-stone) which was attached to the sword. The wounds of the sword Sköfnung could only be healed by the stone set in its hilt.
“Bersi had a sharp sword, Hviting, with a lifstein attached to it, which he had carried in many dangers” (Kormak’s Saga, c. 9.)