claim to the whale and forbade the men of Wick to shear, allot, or
carry off aught thereof: Flosi bade him show if Eric had given Onund
Treefoot the drift in clear terms, or else he said he should defend
himself with arms. Thorgrim thought he and his too few, and would not
risk an onset; but therewithal came a boat rowing up the firth, and
the rowers therein pulled smartly. Soon they came up, and there was
Swan, from Knoll in Biornfirth, and his house-carles; and straightway,
when he came, he bade Thorgrim not to let himself be robbed; and great
friends they had been heretofore, and now Swan offered his aid. The
brothers said they would take it, and therewith set on fiercely;
Thorgeir Bottleback first mounted the whale against Flosi's
house-carles; there the aforenamed Thorfin was cutting the whale, he
was in front nigh the head, and stood in a foot-hold he had cut for
himself; then Thorgeir said, "Herewith I bring thee back thy axe," and
smote him on the neck, and struck off his head.

Flosi was up on the foreshore when he saw that, and he egged on his
men to meet them hardily; now they fought long together, but those of
Coldback had the best of it: few men there had weapons except the axes
wherewith they were cutting up the whale, and some choppers. So the
men of Wick gave back to the foreshores; the Eastmen had weapons,
and many a wound they gave; Stein, the captain, smote a foot off
Ivar Kolbeinson, but Leif, Ivar's brother, beat to death a fellow of
Stein's with a whale-rib; blows were dealt there with whatever could
be caught at, and men fell on either side. But now came up Olaf and
his men from Drangar in many boats, and gave help to Flosi, and then
those of Coldback were borne back overpowered; but they had loaded
their boats already, and Swan bade get aboard and thitherward they
gave back, and the men of Wick came on after them; and when Swan was
come down to the sea, he smote at Stein, the sea-captain, and gave him