THE SCENE: This violent encounter between the bandit Ospak and the influential farmer Thorir has an understated quality that lends realism to the situation without taking away from the immediacy of the action.
THE TEXT: When Thorir and his men came up, Ospak greeted them and asked the news. His conversation was very smooth, as he tried to buy time from Thorir and his men. Thorir asked where they had got all their loot. Ospak said they had got it from Thambardal.
“How exactly did you come by it?” asked Thorir.
“It was neither given nor sold,” Ospak replied, “and nothing was paid for it.”
“Will you give it up into our hands, then?” Thorir asked.
Okspak said he did not feel inclined to do so. Then they made at one another and the fighting began.
Thorir had a bear-hunting knife in his hand and rushed at Ospak, lunging at him, but Ospak averted the blow. Since Thorir had thrown himself into a lunge which did not find its mark, he fell forward on to his knees with his head bent over. Ospak then struck down on Thorir’s back with his axe and there was a loud crack. “That will dampen your enthusiasm for long journeys, Thorir,” said Ospak.
“It might,” Thorir said, “but I think I’ll still make full-day journeys despite you and your blow.” Thorir had had a knife hanging on a strap around his neck, as was the practice in those day, and the knife was around the back when the blow fell there, so he only got a slight scratch on either side of the knife. Then one of Thorir’s companions rushed up and struck at Ospak, but he parried with his axe, the blow striking the shaft so that it broke in two, the axe then falling down.
Ospak called out to his men and told them to try and get away. He took off running himself. As soon as Thorir stood up, he threw his short sword after Ospak, and it hit him in the thigh and ran through to the other side. Ospak pulled the sword out of his wound, turned around, and sent the sword back. It hit the belly of a man who had struck him previously, so that he fell down dead to the ground. After that, Ospak and his followers ran away.
– The Saga of the People of Eyri, 13th Century AD
