And when he had handed it to Koll across the hearth, he purposely let it go into the fire, as though it had slipped from the hand of the receiver.

All present saw the shining fragment, and it seemed as though molten metal had fallen into the fire.
Erik, maintaining that it had been jerked away by the carelessness of him who took it, asked what punishment was due to the loser of the gift.
The king consulted the opinion of the queen, who advised him not to relax the statute of the law which he had passed, whereby he gave warning that all who lost presents that were transmitted to him should be punished with death.

Everyone else also said that the penalty by law appointed ought not to be remitted.

And so the king, being counselled to allow the punishment as inevitable, gave leave for Koll to be hanged.
Then Frode began to accost Erik thus: "O thou, wantoning in insolent phrase, in boastful and bedizened speech, whence dost thou say that thou hast come hither, and why ?" Erik answered: "I came from Rennes Isle, and I took my seat by a stone." Frode rejoined: "I ask, whither thou wentest next ?" Erik answered.

"I went off from the stone riding on a beam, and often again took station by a stone." Frode replied: "I ask thee whither thou next didst bend thy course, or where the evening found thee ?" Then said Erik: "Leaving a crag, I came to a rock, and likewise lay by a stone." Frode said: "The boulders lay thick in those parts." Erik answered: "Yet thicker lies the sand, plain to see." Frode said: "Tell what thy business was, and whither thou struckest off thence." Then said Erik: "Leaving the rock, as my ship ran on, I found a dolphin." Frode said: "Now thou hast said something fresh, though both these things are common in the sea: but I would know what path took thee after that ?" Erik answered: "After a dolphin I went to a dolphin." Frode said: "The herd of dolphins is somewhat common." Then said Erik: "It does swim somewhat commonly on the waters." Frode said: "I would fain blow whither thou wert borne on thy toilsome journey after leaving the dolphins ?" Erik answered: "I soon came upon the trunk of a tree." Frode rejoined: "Whither didst thou next pass on thy journey ?" Then said Erik: "From a trunk I passed on to a log." Frode said: "That spot must be thick with trees, since thou art always calling the abodes of thy hosts by the name of trunks." Erik replied: "There is a thicker place in the woods." Frode went on: "Relate whither thou next didst bear thy steps." Erik answered: "Oft again I made my way to the lopped timbers of the woods; but, as I rested there, wolves that were sated on human carcases licked the points of the spears.