The Great Landowners 259 



time before sea-fights began a lighter kind of craft 

 would be all that was required. The mythical story 

 of the death of Ea£;nar Lodbrok, who insisted on makin" 

 his Viking cruise to England in one very long ship 

 instead of a number of small ones, rather suggests this. 

 About the longest ships of which we hear mention con- 

 tain thirty or thirty-two benches of rowers. Now, the 

 Christiania ship, which anybody can see who chooses, 

 contains sixteen benches ; and the reader who has seen 

 the Christiania ship may judge for himself to what fine 

 dimensions these largest vessels must have reached. 

 They would not, of course, have been quite double the 

 length of the Christiania boat, but they would have 

 been more than half as long again. However, we read 

 more frequently of boats containing twenty benches; 

 and I daresay this Christiania boat was a very good 

 size for any one under the rank of a king. At this 

 period the king of the whole country — Olaf Tryggva- 

 son or Olaf the Saint — generally sailed in some excep- 

 tionally large vessel. Olaf Tryggvason had, during 

 the latter part of his reign, his celebrated ship called 

 Long Serpent, in which he was when he lost his life 

 at the battle of Svold. 



This, we are told in the Saga, was the largest ship of 

 war ever known up to that date. It had thirty-four 

 benches of rowers ; the keel, when placed upon the 

 ground, measured seventy-four ells. But, unfortunately, 

 we do not know for certain what was the length of tlio 

 Norwegian ell at this time — two of our feet, or one and 

 a half. The former would give a hundred and forty- 

 eight feet for the keel of the Long Serpent, the latter a 

 hundred and eleven. The lesser number seems the most 



