THE SCENE: When viking raiders encounter viking raiders on the open sea, a bloody ship-to-ship battle is the natural result.
THE TEXT: Early in the morning, they rowed swiftly towards the enemy ships. The captains of each vessel called out, demanding to know who was approaching. Sigmundur gave his name, and no sooner had the captains heard it than they realized there was no need to inquire about his intentions. Crewmen grabbed their weapons, as Sigmundur and his men would not have come in peace.
Vandill brought his dragon-warship alongside Sigmundur’s and out up a hard defense against the raiders. After the fighting had been going on for a while, Sigmundur called to his men encouragingly, “Like before, we won’t overtake them unless we push ourselves forward. I’m going to jump across to their ship; follow close behind me!”
Simundur jumped onto the dragon-warship, and a large group of men followed after him. Sigmundur quickly became the death of one defender, then another, and corpses soon littered the decks beneath them.
Vandill rushed at Sigmundur and they dueled for some time, but Sigmundur showed the same finesse as before: sword in one hand, shield in another, he struck at Vandill’s left side and cut off his sword-hand. The sword itself rattled to the deck, and then Sigmundur lunged forward and killed him. At that, Sigmunder’s men shouted their war cry.
Athill then spoke to his crew: “The tide hard turned; Vandill is dead. Anyone who wants to save themselves, let’s make our escape.”
Athill’s men fled in five ships, but five of their ships were left behind, including the dragon-warship. Sigmundur’s crew boarded them and killed everyone who was still on board. At last, Sigmunder sailed from the island and came to Denmark, which seemed like a suitable place to lay low and recover, so they stayed there for a while to let their wounds heal.
– The Faroe-Island (Færeyinga) Saga, 13th Century AD
