200 N'orway and the N 07^wegians 



But who owns the large ships on the larboard side of 

 the Danes V 



' That is Earl Erik Hakonson/ say they. 



The king replies : ' He, methinks, has good reason for 

 meeting us ; and we may expect the sharpest conflict 

 with these men, for they are Norsemen like ourselves.' 



The kings now laid out their oars, and prepared to 

 attack. King Svend laid his sliip against the Long 

 Serioent. Outside of him Olaf, the Swede, laid himself, 

 and set his ship's stern against the outermost ship of 

 King Olaf's line ; and on the other side lay Earl Erik. 

 Then a hard combat bes;an. Earl Siovald held back 

 with the oars on his ships, and did not join the fray. 



This battle was one of the severest told of, and many 

 were the people slain. The forecastle men of the Long 

 Serpent, the Little Serpent, and the Crane threw grap- 

 plings and stern chains on to King Svend's ship, and used 

 their weapons well against the people standing below 

 them, for they cleared the decks of all the ships they 

 could lay fast hold of; and King Svend, and all the 

 men who escaped, fled to other vessels, and laid them- 

 selves out of bow-shot. It went with this force just as 

 King Olaf Tryggvason had foreseen. Then King Olaf, 

 the Swede, laid himself in their place ; but when he 

 came near the great ships it went with him as with 

 them, for he lost many men and some ships, and was 

 obliged to get away. But Earl Erik laid the Lron 

 Beard side by side with the outermost of King Olaf's 

 ships, thinned it of men, cut the cables, and let it drive. 

 Then he laid alongside of the next, and fought until he 

 had cleared it of men also. Now all the people who 

 were in the smaller ships began to run into the larger, 



