Part 58 (1/2)

Now it seeht caered to his knees and thence to his feet Then, as folk fall froth he whirls Whitefire round his head till it shi+nes like a wheel of fire ”Thy service is done and thou art clean of Gudruda's blood--go back to those who forged thee!”

Brighteyes cries, and casts Whitefire froreat blade, flashi+ng like lightning through the rays of the setting sun, and behold! as one in mid-air!

Since that day no such sword as Whitefire has been known in Iceland

”Now slay thouEric

Gizur coerness, and Eric cries aloud:

”Swordless I slew thy father!--swordless, shi+eldless, and wounded to the death I will yet slay _thee_, Gizur the Murderer!” and with a loud cry he staggered towards him

Gizur smites him with his sword, but Eric does not stay, and while reat arround and reels on

Eric reels on to the brink of the gulf Gizur sees his purpose, struggles and shrieks aloud But the strength of the dying Eric is hteyes stands on the dizzy edge and the light of the passing sun fla Gizur with hiulf, and lo! the sun sinks!

Men stand wondering, but Swanhild cries aloud:

”nobly done, Eric! nobly done! So I would have seen thee die who of all hteyes the Unlucky, who of all warriors that have lived in Iceland was the oodliest, and the best beloved of wo to him

Now, on the morroanhild caused the body of Eric to be searched for in the cleft, and there they found it, floating in water and with the dead Gizur yet clasped in its bear-grip Then she cleansed it and clothed it again in its rent armour, and bound on the hell-shoes, and it was carried on horses to the sea-side, and with it were borne the bodies of Skallagrim Lambstail the Baresark, Eric's thrall, and of all those ht on Mosfell, that is now naon of war, in which she had coainst Westman Isles, and in the centre of the shi+p, she piled the bodies of the slain in the shape of a bed, and lashed thehteyes, and the breast of black Skallagrim the Baresark was his pillow, and the breast of Gizur, Ospakar's son, was his foot-rest