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And when Egil and his men came to Herdla,
at once fully armed they ran up to the farm buildings.
But when Thorir and his household saw that,
they at once ran away and saved themselves,
all that could go, men and women.
Egil's party plundered the place of all
they could lay hands on;
then they rowed out to their ship.
Nor had they long to wait ere
a breeze blew off the land.
They made ready to sail.
And when all was ready for sailing,
Egil went up into the island.
He took in his hand a hazel-pole,
and went to a rocky eminence that looked
inward to the mainland.
Then he took a horse's head and fixed it on the pole.
After that, in solemn form of curse, he thus spake:
'Here set I up a curse-pole,
and this curse I turn on king Eric and queen Gunnhilda.
(Here he turned the horse's head landwards.)
This curse I turn also on the guardian-spirits who dwell in this land,
that they may all wander astray,
nor reach or find their home till they have driven out
of the land king Eric and Gunnhilda.'
This spoken, he planted the pole down in a rift of the rock,
and let it stand there.
The horse's head he turned inwards to the mainland;
but on the pole he cut runes, expressing the whole form of curse.
After this Egil went aboard the ship.
They made sail, and sailed out to sea.
Soon the breeze freshened, and blew strong from a good quarter;
so the ship ran on apace.
Then sang Egil: