Magic Stick

That same night, Erik entered Odin's court and surrendered himself to him in return for victory, but stipulated a ten-year respite before he was to die. He had already made many sacrifices, for things looked hopeless for him. Soon afterwards he saw a large man with a wide hood, and this man put a stick in his hand and bade him throw it over Styrbjorn's army, saying at the same time: 'You all belong to Odin! And when he had thrown it, he saw a spear flying through the air, and it flew over Styrbjorn's people, and at the same time Styrbjorn's army was struck blind, which then also befell Styrbjorn. And then the great wonder happened that an avalanche broke loose in the mountains and fell on Styrbjorn's army and killed all his people. When King Harald saw this, he fled, and so did all the Danes, and they got their sight again as soon as they got away from the place where the spear appeared and flew over them. They escaped back to Denmark. Styrbjorn ordered his men to stick the banners in the ground and not to flee anywhere. There fell Styrbjorn and all his men. Then Erik stood on Uppsala Hill and asked for a man who could write poetry, and promised him a reward for it.


- The Tale of Styrbjörn the Swedish Champion (Styrbjarnar þáttr Svíakappa), Chapter 2


(I translated this myself using DeepL. The text used for this was taken from a translation of the original Norse into Danish, accessible on heimskringla.no.)