BATTLK or XVOLD. 189 



Thorgeir and Hyrning, the king's brothers-in-law ; but they did 

 not steer the ships, for they were on the Long Serpent with King 

 < >l;it'. A little while after appeared a fifth, much larger than 

 any of the preceding. King Svein said, laughing : ' Now is 

 Olaf Tryggvason afraid, for he dares not sail with the head on 

 his dragon.' l Eirik jarl replied : ' This is not the king's ship ; 

 this one 1 know well, as well as the sail which is striped ; it 

 belongs to Erling Skjalgsson. of Jaclar ; let them sail on, for I 

 tell you truly that there are warriors on board, whom, if we 

 go into battle with Olaf Tryggvason, it is better not to have, 

 but to miss in his fleet, than to have it manned as it is, for I 

 think Erling himself steer it.' It was not long after these 

 live large ships and all the small ones of the fleet had sailed past 

 them that they recognised Sigvaldi jarl's ships, which turned 

 in towards the island. They saw there three ships, and one of 

 these was a large headship (i.e. a ship having a head on the 

 stem) ; then said King Svein : ' Let us now go to the ships, for 

 here comes the Long Serpent.' Eirik jarl answered : ' Many 

 other large and splendid ships have they besides the Long Ser- 

 pent, but few have yet sailed past ; let us still wait.' Then 

 many said : ' Now we may see that Eirik will not fight against 

 Olaf Tryggvason, and dares not avenge his father; and this 

 is such a great shame that it will spread over all lands, if we 

 lie here with such a large host, and Norway's king sails with 

 his handful of men past us and out to sea.' Eirik jarl became 

 very angry at their words, and asked all to go to the ships, 

 saying : ' I expect, though the Danes and Swedes now question 

 my courage much, that both of them will be less at their ease 

 before the sun goes down into the sea to-night than 1 and my 

 men.' When they went down they saw four large ships sail- 

 ing, one of which was a dragon-ship much ornamented with 

 gold. Many men said that the jarl had spoken the truth. 

 Here now sails the Long Serpent, and it is a very large and 

 fine ship ; no long ship is similar to it in beauty and size in 

 the northern lands. It is not strange that the king is widely 

 renowned, and is so great as to have such grand things made. 

 King Svein arose and said : ' High shall the Serpent carry me 

 to-night. Him will I steer.' Eirik jarl added : ' Even if King 

 Olaf Tryggvason had no larger ship than the one we just now 

 saw ; King Svein would never win it from him with the Dana 

 host alone.' But these large head ships they thought to be the 

 Long Serpent, the first was the Tranan (the crane), and the 

 second the Ormrinn Skammi (the short serpent). The men 

 crowded to the ships, and pulled down the tents, and the 



1 This refers to a general superstition. 



