"What matters it, so long as I am from Jomsburg?" asked Olaf.
"I had thought you were of Norway," Erik said, "and if that be so it were not well that you should die. What is your age?"
Olaf answered: "If I live this winter I shall be three and twenty winters old."
Erik said, "You shall live this winter if I have my will, for I do not like to see one so handsome and strong put to such a death as this. Will you have peace?"
"That depends upon who it is that offers me life," said Olaf.
"He offers it who has the power--Earl Erik himself," answered the earl.
"Then I gladly accept," said Olaf. And Earl Erik ordered his men to set Olaf free from his tether.
At this Thorkel Leira grew wrothful, fearing that since the earl was in a forgiving mood he himself would perhaps be thwarted in his vengeance on Vagn Akison.
"Though you, Earl Erik, give peace to all these men," he cried, "yet never shall Vagn Akison depart hence alive." And brandishing his axe he rushed towards his enemy. One of the men on the log, however, seeing his chief's danger, flung himself forward so that Thorkel stumbled and fell, dropping his axe. Instantly Vagn Akison sprang to his feet, seized the axe, and dealt Thorkel Leira his death blow.
Thus Vagn Akison was the only one of the Jomsvikings who accomplished what he had vowed to do.