"Ye speak loud," she says, "but yet the bill gave a louder sound when Gunnar went out."
Kolskegg heard what she said, and spoke, "This betokens no small tidings.
"That is well," says Hallgerda, "now they will soon prove whether he goes away from them weeping."
Kolskegg takes his weapons and seeks him a horse, and rides after
Gunnar as fast as he could.
Gunnar rides across Acretongue, and so to Geilastofna and thence to Rangriver, and down the stream to the ford at Hof. There were some women at the milking-post there. Gunnar jumped off his horse and tied him up. By this time the others were riding up towards him; there were flat stones covered with mud in the path that led down to the ford.
Gunnar called out to them and said, "Now is the time to guard yourselves; here now is the bill, and here now ye will put it to the proof whether I shed one tear for all of you."
Then they all of them sprang off their horses' backs and made towards Gunnar. Hallbjorn was the foremost.
"Do not thou come on," says Gunnar; "thee last of all would I harm; but I will spare no one if I have to fight for my life."
"That I cannot do," says Hallbjorn; "thou wilt strive to kill my brother for all that, and it is a shame if I sit idly by." And as he said this he thrust at Gunnar with a great spear which he held in both hands.
Gunnar threw his shield before the blow, but Hallbjorn pierced the shield through. Gunnar thrust the shield down so hard that it stood fast in the earth (1), but he brandished his sword so quickly that no eye could follow it, and he made a blow with the sword, and it fell on Hallbjorn's arm above the wrist, so that it cut it off.