192 SEA BATTLES. 



' Turn them, king, no mure than back forward in defending- the 

 lypting than I will in defending the stem.' The king had a 

 bow in his hand, and laid an arrow on the string and aimed at 

 Ulf. Then Ulf said : ' Do not shoot me, lord, but rather where 

 it is more needed, that is at our foes, for what I win I win for 

 thee. May be you will think your men not over many, before 

 the evening comes.' The king took off the arrow and did not 

 shoot. 



" King Olaf stood on the lypting of the Serpent, and rose 

 high up ; he had a gilt shield and a gilt helmet, and was very 

 easily recognised. He wore a short red silk kirtle over his 

 coat of mail. When he saw that the hosts of his foes began to 

 separate, and that the standards were raised in front of the 

 chiefs, he asked : ' Who is chief of that standard which is 

 opposite us ? ' He was told that it was King Svein with the 

 Danish host. The king said : ' We are not afraid of those 

 cowards, for no more courage is there in the Danes than 

 in wood-goats ; never were Danes victorious over Northmen, 

 and they will not conquer us to-day. But what chief follows 

 the standards which are to the right ? ' He was told that it 

 was Olaf the Swede, with the Svia host. The king added : 

 * Easier and pleasanter will the Swedes think it to sit at home 

 and lick their sacrifice bowls * than to board the Long Serpent 

 to-day under your weapons, and I think we need not fear the 

 horse-eating Swedes ; but who owns those large ships to the left 

 of the Danes ? ' 'It is,' they said, ' Eirik jarl Hakonsson.' 

 King Olaf replied : ' This host is full of high-born men whom 

 they have ranged against us ; Eirik jarl thinks he has just 

 cause for fighting us, it is likely we shall have a hard struggle 

 with him and his men. for they are Northmen like ourselves.' 

 Then the kings and the jarl rowed at King Olaf. . . . The 

 horns w : ere blown, and both sides shouted a war-cry, and a hard 

 battle commenced. Sigvaldi let his ships row to and fro, and 

 did not take part in the battle. 



" The battle raged fiercely, at first with arrows from cross- 

 bows and hand-bows, and then with spears and javelins, and all 

 say that King Olaf fought most manfully. . . . 



" King Svein's men turned their stems as thickly as they 

 could towards both sides of the Long Serpent, as it stood much 

 further forward than the other ships of King Olaf; the Danes 

 also attacked the Short Serpent and the Crane, and the fight 

 was of the sharpest, and the carnage great. All the stem- 

 defenders on the Serpent who could fought hand-to-hand, but 

 King Olaf himself and those aft shot with bows and used 



1 Sacrifice lasted longer in Sweden than in Norway or Denmark. 



