BATTLE OF JOMSVIKINGS. 201 



made the hardest onset they could when the shower burst and 

 while it lasted. Then Sigvaldi said : 'It seems to me that it is 

 not men whom we have to fight to-day, but the worst Troll 

 (fiends), and it requires some manliness to go boldly against 

 them, though it is clear that men must take heart as they 

 can.' It is told of Hakon, that when lie saw the shower abate 

 and it was not as violent as it had been, he once more invoked 

 Thorgerd and her sister Irpa, saying that he had made himself 

 deserving by sacrificing his son for victory. Then the hail- 

 shower burst on them again, and when it began Havard 

 Hoggvandi saw that two women were in Hakon jarl's ship, and 

 that they did the same as he had seen the one do before. 

 Sigvaldi said : ' Now I will flee, and all my men shall do so, 

 for it is worse than when I spoke of it before, as there was but 

 one Trollwomau then, but now there are two, and I will not 

 stand it any longer ; our excuse is that we do not flee from 

 men, though we draw back ; but we did not vow to fight 

 against fiends.' He (Sigvaldi) turned away his ship, and 

 shouted to Vagn and Biii to flee as quickly as they could. 

 When he unfastened his ship and shouted, Thorkel Midlang 

 jumped from his ship on board Bui's, and at once struck at 

 Bui. In the twinkling of an eye he cut off his lower lip and 

 the whole of his chin downward, so that it fell on the ship, and 

 Bui's teeth flew off at the blow. Bui said when he got the 

 wound : ' The Danish woman in Borgundarholm will not be as 

 fond of kissing me, even though I get home now.' Bui struck 

 at Thorkel ; the deck was slippery from blood, so that Thorkel 

 fell at the shield-row when he tried to escape the blow, which 

 hit him in the middle, and cut him in two at the gunwale. 

 Immediately after this Bui took one of his gold-chests in each 

 hand, and jumped overboard with them ; neither he nor the 

 chests came up or were seen thereafter. Some say that when 

 Bui stepped on the gunwale to jump overboard he spoke these 

 words : * Overboard, all Bin's men.' Sigvaldi left the fleet, 

 and did not know that Bui was gone overboard, and shouted 

 to Vagn and Bui's to flee, as he was about to do. . . . Sigvaldi 

 was cold from the shower, and began rowing to warm himself, 

 while another man sat at the rudder. When Vagn saw 

 Sigvaldi he flung a spear at him, thinking it was he who sat 

 at the rudder, but Sigvaldi was rowing, and the man at the 

 rudder was hit. As Vagn flung the spear from his hand he 

 said to Sigvaldi that he should die as the meanest of men. 

 Thorkel the high, Sigvaldi's brother, went away with six ships 

 as soon as Sigvaldi was dead, and so did Sigurd Kapa, for his 

 brother Biii was gone overboard, and he could wait for him no 

 longer. They both thought they had fulfilled their vows, and 



