Grettir - vs Berserkers

They lifted their ship and carried it out of the water. Next they charged up to the boathouse. Inside lay Throfinn's big rowing ship, the karfi. It was so large a ship that thirty men were always needed to launch it. But these twelve men quickly carried it out and set it on the gravel shore.

(...)

Then, one after another, the berserkers came out of the house and down the steps. Grettir attacked each of them in turn, cutting with the sax or thrusting with the spear. The berserkers defended themselves with logs, which were lying there on the ground, and used anything else they could get their hands on. Even without weapons they were, because of their unusual strength, extremely dangerous fighters. Grettir killed two of these Halogalanders, and they lay in the field between the farm buildings. Now the four farmhands arrived; they had not been able to agree on who was to have which weapon. They started attacking when it looked as if the berserkers were about to run, but the farmhands ran back to the house as soon as the berserkers began to fight them.

Six of the vikings fell there, and Grettir killed them all. Now the other six fled. There, inside, they defended themselves with oars, landing a number of powerful blows on Grettir which nearly disabled him.

The housemen now went home and boasted about their accomplishments. The housewife wanted to know what had happened to Grettir, but she got no answer from them.

Grettir killed two more bererkers in the boathouse, but the four remaining got away. They split into two pairs, each going in a different direction. He hunted the ones who were nearest to him. The night was pitch dark. The berserkers ran into a corn barn on the farm Vindheim, mentioned earlier, and there they both fought for a long time. In the end Grettir killed them both. By then he was completely exhausted and stiff. The night was almost over, and outside it was cold, with blowing snow. Deciding not to search for the two vikings who were still alive, he went home to the farmstead.

(...)

They searched for the berserkers who had escaped the night before, and found them both late in the day. They lay against a boulder, dead from the cold and their wounds.

***

19. Berserkers