@ubi-raziel

Really looking forward to a fix. The workaround posted above (the horse + boat pushing) does not work for me (Njal stays adamantly at the shore, not moving away). I do have a save game from before I took the quest, but I don't have any good video recording software at the moment.

What seemed to trigger it for me was that I sort of ignored the bear when it took me close to the river and I started fishing before I triggered anything about feeding the bear. Then it started attacking fish in the river and the quest never changed away from "follow Njal".

@ubi-raziel

Really looking forward to a fix. The workaround posted above (the horse + boat pushing) does not work for me (Njal stays adamantly at the shore, not moving away). I do have a save game from before I took the quest, but I don't have any good video recording software at the moment.

What seemed to trigger it for me was that I sort of ignored the bear when it took me close to the river and I started fishing before I triggered anything about feeding the bear. Then it started attacking fish in the river and the quest never changed away from "follow Njal".

The solution to this bug for me was to wait several minutes. 

After I killed the boss and spoke to Erke and Stowe, the cutscene ended and Eivor was on top of a building rubbing his arms like he'd just gotten up or was sore. I tried fast travelling away to a different location but Eivor was still stuck in that animation loop after the fast travelling. I also couldn't save--it said saving was not available. 

I exited, reloaded and the same thing happened. However, I just let it sit there for a while (about 2 minutes?) and then the "Lunden Arc Completed" seal popped up and I was able to move. 

This happened to me today. I tried riding away from the town and it didn't change anything, so I rode back to the entrance, dismounted, and went inside. I got detected by guards nearby, started a fight, and while killing a few of them it triggered the next part of the quest to go talk to Lif. So the text updated from "Escape Walden" to "Talk to Lif" and I got past the bug.