Thorfinn said:
'Here passed six men together a little before day; and they were well armed.'
Then said a house-carle:
'I was driving a sledge in the night to fetch wood, and I came upon six men on the road;
they were house-carles of Armod;
but that was long before day.
Now I am not sure whether these will be the same as the six of whom you spoke.'

Thorfinn said that the six men whom he had met had passed after
the house-carle came back with the load of wood.
While they sat at meat Egil saw that a woman lay sick on
the daïs at the ends of the hall.
He asked who was that woman in such sad case.
Thorfinn said she was named Helga,
and was his daughter;
she had long been ill;
her complaint was a pining sickness;
she got no sleep at night,
and was as one possessed.
'Has anything,' asked Egil,
'been tried for her ailment?'

'Runes have been graven,'
said Thorfinn;
'a landowner's son hard by did this;
and she is since much worse than before.
But can you,
Egil, do anything for such ailments?'
Egil said:
'Maybe no harm will be done by my taking it in hand.'