So the path being clear they rode on up the slope. But when they had
gone a little way, Skallagrim turned his horse, and mocked those who had
lain in ambush, saying:

"Ye fight well, ye carles of Gizur, Ospakar's son! Ye are heroes,
surely! Say now, mighty men, will ye stand there if I come down alone
against you?"

At these words the men grew mad with wrath, and flung their spears.
Skallagrim caught one on his shield and it fell to the earth, but
another passed over his head and struck Eric on the left shoulder,
near the neck, making a deep wound. Feeling the spear fast in him, Eric
grasped it with his right hand, drew it forth, and turning, hurled it so
hard, that the man before it got his death from the blow, for his shield
did not serve to stay it. Then the rest fled.

Skallagrim bound up Eric's wound as well as he could, and they went on
to the cave. But when Eric's folk, watching above, saw the fight they
ran down and met him. Now the hurt was bad and Eric bled much; still,
within ten days it healed up for the time.

But a little while after Eric's wound was skinned over, the snows set
in on Mosfell, and the days grew short and the nights long. Once Gizur's
men to the number of fifty came half way up the mountain to take it;
but, when they saw how strong the place was, they feared, and went back,
and after that returned no more, though they always watched the fell.

It was very dark and lonesome there upon the fell. For a while Eric kept
in good heart, but as the days went by he grew troubled. For since he