Athalbrand boarded Ragnar and was driven back.

Then for the second time Ragnar boarded Athalbrand with those men who were left to him.

In the narrow waist of Athalbrand's ship a mighty battle was fought, and here at last Ragnar and Athalbrand found themselves face to face.
They hacked at each other with their axes, till at length Ragnar, with a fearful blow, drove in Athalbrand's helmet and clove his skull in two, so that he died.

But even as he fell, a man, it may have been friend or foe, for the moon was sinking and the darkness grew dense, thrust a spear into Ragnar's back, and he was carried, dying, to his own vessel by those who remained to him.
Then that fight ceased, for all Athalbrand's people were dead or wounded to the death.

Meanwhile, on the right, I was fighting the ship that was commanded by Steinar, for it was fated that we two should be thrown together.