THE SCENE: Onund Tree-Leg was a renowned warrior before he lost his leg – and gained the peg-leg that gave him his name. In the passage below, Onund struggles to be taken seriously on the battlefield… until his sword does the talking for him.
THE TEXT: There were two Vikings named Vigbjod and Vestmar. They came from the Hebrides and were at sea in both summer and winter. They had eight ships and raided in Ireland, doing many evil deeds there until Ivan the Norwegian took charge of defending the realm. Then they shifted to the Hebrides and raided there and all the way down to the firths of Scotland.
Onung and Thrand went off to seek them out and were told that they had sailed to the island named Butte.
Then Onund and Thrand went there with seven ships. When the Vikings saw how many ships the others had, they felt they had sufficient forces, so they took their weapons and sailed off to face them. Onund ordered his men to position the ships in a narrow, deep channel between two cliffs, which could only be attacked from one end, and then by no more than five ships at once. Being a clever man, Onund took five ships into the channel, but left them scope to retreat when they wished, since there was open sea behind them. There was also an islet on one side of them where he positioned one of his ships, and they brought many rocks to the edge of the cliff there, out of sight of the ships below.
The Vikings advanced boldly, thinking the ships were caught in a trap. Vigbjod asked who these people were that had been penned in.
Thrand told them he was the brother of Eyvind the Norwegian – “and this is my companion, Onund Tree-Leg.”
The Vikings laughed and said, “may the trolls swallow you whole Tree-Leg, may the trolls topple you all. It’s not often we see men go into battle who can’t even stand up for themselves.” Onund said that there was no telling until it was put to the test.
After that they lined up their ships and a great battle ensued. Both sides advanced resolutely, and when the battle reached full pitch own and let his ship drift towards the cliff. When the Vikings saw that, they thought he was trying to escape, so they pursued him under the cliff as fast as possible. At that moment the men who had been placed on the cliff moved out to the edge and launched such huge rocks onto the Vikings that they were unable to withstand the onslaught. A large number of Vikings were killed, and others were put out of action by their injuries. Then the Vikings tried to sail away, but they could not, because by that time their ships had been driven by both the fleet and the current into the narrowest part of the channel. Onund and his men made a vigorous attack on Vigbjod, while Thrand took on Vestmar, but he made little progress.
When Vigbjod’s crew began to thin out, Onund and his men boarded the ship. Vigbjod noticed this and urged his men forward, while he turned to face Onund. Most of our fellows men yielded their ground, but he told them to wait and see the outcome of his encounter with Vigbjod, because Onund was a very strong fighter. They wedged a log under Onund’s knee so that he would stand quite firmly. The Viking moved along the ship from the aft until he reached Onund, and struck at him with his sword, hacking his shield away with a blow struck. His sword rebounded into the log below Onund’s knee and stuck there. As Vigbjod leaned over to jerk the sword back, Onund aimed a blow at his shoulder, cutting off his arm and putting him out of action. Once Vestmar knew that his companion was felled, he rushed for the outermost ship and fled, as did all his men who could make their way out of there.
– The Saga of Grettir the Strong, 14th Century AD
