Egil's saga says a queen's men cut the court ropes to stop Egil's inheritance suit, and Egil later won the land by biting a man's throat out

Egil's saga covers about 850 to 1000; its oldest manuscript fragment dates from about 1250, and many scholars attribute it to Snorri Sturluson. It says that when the Norwegian landowner Björn died, his son-in-law Berg-Önund took all his property. Egil, married to Björn's daughter Ásgerd, claimed half for her at the Gulathing assembly. Berg-Önund argued that Ásgerd was born of a captive concubine and should be adjudged "the bondwoman of the king." Arinbjörn offered twelve witnesses that a settlement had made her an heir. Queen Gunnhild sent her brother's men, who "cut in sunder the precinct-ropes," and the judges scattered. King Eric outlawed Egil. Egil killed Berg-Önund and the king's son Rögnvald and raised a horse's head on a pole cursing Eric and Gunnhild. Years later Egil summoned Berg-Önund's brother Atli to the Gulathing for the same lands. They fought on terms that "the victor [is] to own the lands." Egil "bit through his throat" and took the lands. Old and blind in Iceland, Egil planned to scatter two chests of King Athelstan's silver at the Althing. His family stopped him. He went out at night with the chests and two slaves, killed the slaves, and told no one where he hid the silver. It has not been found. A 2005 dig at Hrísbrú, Mosfell, found an emptied grave under a church altar, as the saga describes for his bones.