“Late in the summer Hörd went to Saurbœr with twenty-three men, for Thorstein Öxnabrodd (ox-staff) had boasted that his witchcraft-knowing foster-mother Skroppa could with her sorcery effect that the Hólmverjar (men of Hólm, the island) were not able to harm him. They came to the bœr; Skroppa and the daughters of the bondi Helga and Sigrid were at home, but Thorstein was at his sæter at Kuvallardal, in Svinadal. Skroppa opened all the rooms; she made sjonhverfingar, so that the three (women) sitting on the cross-bench seemed to them three boxes standing there. The men of Hörd talked about wanting to break these boxes. Hörd forbade that. They then left the farm and turned northward to see if they could find any cattle. They saw a young sow running with two pigs in that direction; they got ahead of it. Then it seemed to them that a large crowd of men was coming against them with spears and fully armed, and the sow with its pigs shook their ears. Geir (Hörd’s foster-brother) said: ‘Let us go to our boat; there will be odds against us.’ Hörd said it was best not to run away so soon without any trial. At the same time he lifted up a large stone and struck the sow to death. When they came to it they saw Skroppa lying dead there, while the bondi’s daughters, whom they had taken for pigs, stood at her side. When she was dead they at once saw that the crowd which came against them was oxen and not men; they drove the cattle down to the boat, killed them, and loaded their boat with the meat. Geir took Sigrid away against her will, and they went out to the Hólm (Hörd’s Saga, 25).”[[400]]

When drowned men came to their own arvel, or burial feast, as ghosts, it was looked upon as a good sign for the survivors of the family, for then the dead men had been well received by Ran.

The people were strong believers in ghosts, and thought that the spirit of the dead could come into the mound where the body was buried. When they were seen at night at their mounds they were surrounded by fire, and it was said that the gate of Hel, where the dead were supposed to be, was open. These ghosts of the dead were harmless.

The bondmaid of Sigrun, when walking one evening past the mound of Helgi, saw that he rode to it with many men; she sang:

Is it an illusion

Which I think I see,

Or the doom of the gods?[[401]]

Dead men ride;

You prick your horses

With spur points,