Then they laid open the end of one of the timbers and bore upon it until it broke.  Grettir was unable to rise from his knees, but he seized the sword Karsnaut at the moment when they all sprang in from the roof, and a mighty fray began.  Grettir struck with his sword at Vikar, a man of Hjalti the son of Thord, reaching his left shoulder as he sprang from the roof.  It passed across his shoulder, out under his right arm, and cut him right in two.  His body fell in two parts on the top of Grettir and prevented him from recovering his sword as quickly as he wished, so that Thorbjorn Angle was able to wound him severely between the shoulders.  Grettir said:  “Bare is his back who has no brother!”

Illugi threw his shield before Grettir and defended him so valiantly that all men praised his prowess.

Grettir said to Angle:  “Who showed you the way to the island?”

“Christ showed us the way,” he said.

“I guess,” said Grettir, “that it was the wicked old woman, your foster-mother, who showed you; hers were the counsels that you relied upon.”

“It shall now be all the same to you,” said Angle, “upon whom I relied.”

They returned to the attack; Illugi defended himself and Grettir courageously, but Grettir was unfit for fighting, partly from his wounds, partly from his illness.  Angle then ordered them to bear Illugi down with their shields, saying he had never met with his like amongst older men than he.  They did so, and pressed upon him with a wall of armour against which resistance was impossible.  They took him prisoner and kept him.  He had wounded most of those who were attacking him and killed three.  Then they went for Grettir, who had fallen forward on his face.  There was no resistance in him for he was already dead from his wounded leg; his thigh was all mortified up to the rectum.  Many more wounds they gave him, but little or no blood flowed.

When they thought he was quite dead Angle took hold of his sword, saying he had borne it long enough, but Grettir’s fingers were so tightly locked around the hilt that he could not loosen them.  Many tried before they gave it up, eight of them in turn, but all failed.  Angle then said:  “Why should we spare a forest-man?  Lay his hand upon the log.”

They did so, and he hewed off the hand at the wrist.  Then the fingers straightened and were loosed from the hilt.  Angle took his sword in both hands and hewed at Grettir’s head.  So mighty was the blow that the sword could not hold against it, and a piece was broken out of the edge.  When asked why he spoilt a good weapon, he replied:  “It will be more easily known if there be any question.”

They said this was unnecessary, as the man was dead before.  “I will do more,” he said, and struck two or three blows at Grettir’s neck before he took off his head.  Then he said: 

“Now I know for certain that Grettir is dead; a great man of war have we laid even with the earth.  We will take his head with us, for I have no wish to lose the money which was put upon it.  There shall not be any doubt that it was I who slew Grettir.”