380 IDR6TTIR. 



let Sigurd loose and swam to his ship ; Sigurd did the same " 

 (Sigurd Jorsalafar's Saga, ch. 30). 



" They (Olaf- Tryggvason and Eindridi) went to the shore 

 and the men with' them. The king and Eindridi undressed. 

 They swam off and played a long time with each other, and 

 alternately dragged each other down, and finally they were so 

 long under water that they were not expected to come up ; but 

 at last King Olaf rose and swam ashore. He went up and rested 

 himself, but did not dress ; no one knew nor dared to ask what 

 had become of Eindridi. After a long time they saw him ; 

 he had got a very large seal, and sat on its back ; he clung 

 to it with both 'hands in its bristles, and thus steered it, 

 and, when he came near the shore, let it go. The king sprang 

 up and swam out to him, thrust him under water and held him 

 down for a long time ; when they came up, the king swam 

 ashore, but Eindridi was so exhausted that he could not save 

 himself; when the king saw this, he went to him and helped him 

 ashore. When Eindridi began to recover and they were 

 dressed, the king said : ' Thy swimming idrott is great, Ein- 

 dridi ; but nevertheless God is to be thanked that thou wast 

 inferior to me, as all could see, when I had to take thee ashore.' 

 'Thou canst think whatever thou likest about that,' replied 

 Eindridi. ' But,' asked the king, ' why didst thou not kill the 

 seal, and drag it ashore ? ' ' Because,' answered Eindridi, ' I 

 did not want thee to say that I had found it dead.' " (Olaf Trygg- 

 vason's Saga, vol. ii., p. 270; Fornmanna Sogur). 



Kjartan, son of the Icelandic chief Olaf, went to Nidaros 

 in Norway. 



" One fine day in autumn men went from the town 

 to swim in the river Nid. The Icelanders saw this. Kjartan 

 told his companions that they ought to go to the swimming 

 and amuse themselves ; this they did. One man swam far 

 better than others. Kjartan asked Bolli if he would try 

 his powers of swimming with this man of the town. Bolli 

 answered : ' I do not think I am able to do it.' Kjartan said : 

 ' I do not know where thy ambition is now ; then I will.' Bolli 

 replied : ' Do as thou likest.' Kjartan threw himself into the 

 river, and swam to the man who was the best swimmer ; he took 

 him down at once, and kept him beneath the surface for a while ; 

 he then let him come up, and when they had not been long 

 above water the man took hold of Kjartan and pulled him under 

 water, and they were under water as long as Kjartan thought 

 convenient. They came up again, and said nothing. They 

 went down a third time, and were by far the longest time under 



