I Once a number of Icelandic peasantry found a very thick skull in the cemetery where the poet Egil was buried.

Its great thickness made them feel certain it was the skull of a great man, doubtless of Egil himself.

In some of our mountainous and barren places, and in our seaboard villages, we still test each other in much the same way the Icelanders tested the head of Egil.

The tablet is still to be seen near the town of Egil.]

A running fight followed, which was carried on the next day, and with the help of two brothers, Egil and Thorold, who were Norsemen, it ended in a complete victory for Athelstan.

Egil selected two arrows, and being asked why he wanted two, replied, "One to shoot thee with, O tyrant, if I fail.