BATTLE OF SVOLD. 193 



short swords (handsax), and repeatedly killed and wounded the 

 Danir. 



" Though King Svein made the hardest onset on the North- 

 men with sixty ships, the Danish and Swedish hosts neverthe- 

 less were incessantly within shooting distance; King Olaf 

 made the bravest defence with his men, but still they fell. 

 King Olaf fought most boldly, he shot chiefly with bows and 

 spears, but when the chief attack was made on the Serpent he 

 went forward in hand-to-hand fight, and cleft many a man's 

 skull with his sword. 



" The attack proved difficult for the Danes, for the stem- 

 defenders of the Long Serpent and on the Short Serpent and 

 the Crane hooked anchors and grappling-hooks on to King 

 Svein's ships, and as they could strike down (upon the enemy) 

 with their weapons, for they had much larger and higher- 

 boarded ships, they cleared of men all the Danish ships which 

 they had laid hold of. King Svein and all who could get away 

 fled on board other ships, and thereupon they withdrew, tired 

 and wounded, out of shooting distance. It happened as Olaf 

 Tryggvason guessed, that the Danes did not gain a victory 

 over the Northmen. 



" It happened to the Swedes as to the Danes, that the North- 

 men held fast their ships with grappling-hooks and anchors, 

 and cleared those they could reach. Their swords dealt one 

 fate to all Swedes whom they reached with their blows. The 

 Swedes became tired of keeping up the fight where Olaf with 

 his picked champions went at them most fiercely. . . . 31<-n 

 say that the sharpest and bloodiest fight was that of the two 

 namesakes before Olaf and the Swedes retreated. The Swedes 

 had a heavy loss of men, and also lost their largest ships. 

 Most of the warriors of Olaf the Swedish king were wounded, 

 and he had won no fame by this, but was fain to escape alive. 

 Now Olaf Tryggvason had made both the Danes and Swedes 

 take to flight. It all went as he had said. 



"Now must be told what Eirik Jarl did while the kings 

 fought against Norway's king. The Jarl first came alongside 

 the farthest ship of King Olaf on one wing with the Jarnbardi 

 (iron-board), cleared it, and cut it from the fastenings ; he 

 then boarded the next one, and fought there until it was 

 cleared. The men then began to jump from the smaller ships 

 on to the larger ones, but the Jarl cut away each ship from the 

 fastenings as it was cleared. 



" The Danes and Swedes then drew up within shooting 

 distance on all sides of King Olaf's ships, but Eirik Jarl lay con- 

 tinually side by side with one of them in hand-to-hand fight ; 

 and as the men fell on his ship, other Danes and Swedes took 



VOL. n. o 



