Then said Egil:
'Now I think that maybe Alf has told the truth.
We will now make us ready as expecting an encounter.'
So then Egil and his men doffed their cloaks and all their loose clothing,
and laid these on the sledge.
Egil had brought in his sledge a very long cord of bast,
for it is the wont of those who take long sledging journeys to have with
them some spare cord in case the harness need mending.
Egil took a large flat stone, and laid it before his breast and stomach.
Then he bent thereon the cord, and wound it round and round him,
and so encased him right up to the shoulders.
Eida-wood is of this kind:
there is reaching to the cultivated land on either side dense forest,
but in the middle is a wide space of shrubs and thin copse,
with some parts quite bare of wood.
Egil and his company turned by the shorter way, which lay over the ridge.
They all had shields and helms, and weapons both to cut and thrust.
Egil walked first. And when they came to the ridge, there was wood at the foot of it,
but above on the rock it was bare.
But when they came up to the rock, then seven men leapt out of the wood
and up to the cliff after them, and shot at them.
Egil and his men turned and stood abreast across the path.
Then came other men against them from above on the crag's brow,
and cast stones at them, and this was by far the greater danger.
Then said Egil,
'Now must you step back and close to the cliff, and cover yourselves as best ye may;
but I will try to win the summit.'
They did so.
And when Egil got past the rock out on the top, there were in front eight men,
who all at once set upon him.
Of their exchange of blows nought is there to tell: the end was that Egil slew them all.
Then he went forward to the verge of the summit and hurled over stones,
that none could withstand; and thereafter three of the Vermians fell,
but four gat them into the wood sore wounded and bruised.