e sword was buried up to the hilt, the point of
the sword caught Hromund's belly and ripped it open, and Helgi fell
forward with the force of his own stroke. Hromund was not behindhand
then: he struck Helgi on the head with Mistletoe, cleaving helmet and
skull down to the shoulders, and breaking a piece out of the sword.
Then Hromund took his belt-knife and thrust it into his belly where
there was a gaping wound, and forced back the paunch fat which was
hanging out. At the same time he stitched up the edges of his belly
with a cord, bound his clothes firmly over it, and so continued
fighting valiantly. Men fell dead in heaps before him, and he fought
on till midnight. Then the survivors of the army of the Haddings fled,
and thereupon the battle came to an end.

Then Hromund saw a man standing before him on the ice, and he felt
convinced that he must have made the ice on the lake by spells. He
perceived that it was Voli. He remarked that it was not unfitting
that he should give him his deserts, and rushed at him, brandishing
Mistletoe and intending to strike him. Voli blew the sword out of his
hand, and it happened to light on a hole in the ice, and sank to the
bottom.

Then Voli laughed and said: "You are doomed now that you have lost
hold of Mistletoe."

Hromund replied: "You will die before me."

Then he leapt upon Voli and caught him up and dashed him down against
the ice, so that his neck-bone was broken. There lay the great
sorcerer dead! But Hromund sat him down on the ice, saying:

"I did not take the girl's advice, so now I have got fourteen wounds;
and in addition to that my eight brothers lie slain, and my good blade
Mistletoe has fallen into the lake, and nothing will ever make up to
me for the loss of my sword."

Then he went back to his tent and got some rest.

VIII. Now the King's sisters were sent for. Svanhvit examined
Hromund's wound, and stitched his stomach together and tried to bring
him round. She got him taken to a man called Hagal to be cured. This
man's wife was very skilful, and they made him welcome and nursed him
back to health. Hromund discovered that the couple were skilled in
magic.

The man was a fisherman, and one day when he was fishing, he caught a
pike, and on going home and cutting it open he found Hromund's sword
Mistletoe in its maw, and gave it to him. Hromund was glad to get it
and kissed the sword-hilt and rewarded the peasant richly.

In King Hadding's army was a man