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respect well equipt. His brothers-in-law Hyrning and Thorgeir also joined him, each of whom for himself steered a large vessel; and many other powerful men besides followed him. [With all this war-force he sailed southwards along the land; but when he came south as far as Rogaland he stopped there, for Erling Skialgson had prepared for him a splendid feast at Sole. There Earl Ragnvald, Ulf's son, from Gautland, came to meet the king, and to settle the business which had been proposed in winter in the messages between them, namely, the marriage with Ingibjorg the king's sister. Olaf received him kindly; and when the matter came to be spoken of, the king said he would keep his word, and marry his sister Ingibjorg to him, provided he would accept the true faith, and make all his subjects he ruled over in his land be baptized. The earl agreed to this, and he and all his followers were baptized. Now was the feast enlarged that Erling had prepared, for the earl held his wedding there with Ingibjorg the king's sister. King Olaf had now married off all his sisters. The earl, with Ingibjorg, set out on his way home; and the king sent learned men with him to baptize the people in Gautland, and to teach them the right faith and morals. The king and the earl parted in the greatest friendship.]

CHAPTER CVII.—King Olaf's Expedition to Vindland. [After his sister Ingibjorg's wedding, the king made ready in all haste to leave the country with his

army, which was both great and made up of fine men.]* When he left the land and sailed southwards he had sixty ships of war, with which he sailed past Denmark, and in through the Sound, and on to Vindland. He appointed a meeting with King Burisleif; and when the kings met, they spoke about the property which King Olaf demanded, and the conference went off peaceably, as a good account was given of the properties which King Olaf thought himself entitled to there. He passed here much of the summer, and found many of his old friends.

CHAPTER CVIII.—Conspiracy of the Kings of Sweden and Denmark and Earl Eirik against King Olaf.

The Danish king, Svein Forked Beard, was married, as before related, to Sigrid the Haughty. Sigrid was King Olaf Trygveson's greatest enemy; the cause of which, as before said, was that King Olaf had broken off with her, and had struck her in the face. She urged King Svein much to give battle to King Olaf Trygveson; saying that he had reason enough, as Olaf had married his sister Thyre without his leave, "and that your predecessors would not

* All of chapter 105 and the parts of chapters 106 and 107 enclosed in brackets, thus [ ], are taken from Flateybok, and do not belong to the original manuscript of Snorre's Heimskringla. C. R. Unger omits altogether the interpolation in chapter 88, the eight chapters concerning Vinland, and the additions here enclosed in brackets. Hildebrand prints all these interpolations as an appendix to the saga. The present editor publishes the eight chapters on Vinland at the end of the saga, but the other additions, which do not interrupt the narrative, he has thought best to leave where they are given by P. A. Munch, Jacob Aal, and in fact by the majority of the Heimskringla editors and translators. He thinks it sufficient to point out that they do not belong to Snorre's work.

have submitted to." Such persuasions Sigrid had
often in her mouth; and at last she brought it so
far that Svein resolved firmly on doing so. Early in
spring King Svein sent messengers eastward into
Svithiod, to his brother-in-law Olaf, the Swedish king,
and to Earl Eirik; and informed them that King Olaf
of Norway was levying men for an expedition, and
intended in summer to go to Vindland. To this news
the Danish king added an invitation to the Swedish
king and Earl Eirik to meet King Svein with an
army, so that all together they might make an attack
on King Olaf Trygveson. The Swedish king and
Earl Eirik were ready enough for this, and imme-
diately assembled a great fleet and an army through
all Svithiod, with which they sailed southwards to
Denmark, and arrived there after King Olaf Tryg-
veson had sailed to the eastward. Haldor the Un-
christian tells of this in his lay on Earl Eirik :-
"The king-subduer raised a host

Of warriors on the Swedish coast.
The brave went southwards to the fight,
Who love the sword-storm's gleaming light;
The brave, who fill the wild wolf's mouth,
Followed bold Eirik to the south;

The brave, who sport in blood-each one
With the bold earl to sea is gone."

The Swedish king and Earl Eirik sailed to meet the Danish king, and they had all, when together, an immense force.

CHAPTER CIX.-Earl Sigvalde's treacherous Plans.

At the same time that King Svein sent a message to Svithiod for an army, he sent Earl Sigvalde to

Vindland to spy out King Olaf Trygveson's proceedings, and to bring it about by cunning devices that King Svein and King Olaf should fall in with each other. So Sigvalde sets out to go to Vindland. First, he came to Jomsborg, and then he sought out King Olaf Trygveson. There was much friendship in their conversation, and the earl got himself into great favour with the king. Astrid, the Earl's wife, King Burisleif's daughter, was a great friend of King Olaf Trygveson, particularly on account of the connection which had been between them when Olaf was married to her sister Geira. Earl Sigvalde was a prudent, ready-minded man; and as he had got a voice in King Olaf's council, he put him off much from sailing homewards, finding various reasons for delay. Olaf's people were in the highest degree dissatisfied with this; for the men were anxious to get home, and they lay ready to sail, waiting only for a wind. At last Earl Sigvalde got a secret message from Denmark that the Swedish king's army was arrived from the east, and that Earl Eirik's also was ready; and that all these chiefs had resolved to sail eastwards to Vindland, and wait for King Olaf at an island which is called Svold. They also desired the earl to contrive matters so that they should meet King Olaf there.

* This island has been somewhere between the south-east end of the Isle of Rugen and the continent; but no such isle now exists, and the antiquary is forced to conjecture it may have been lost in the fourteenth century, when many changes took place in the coast land of the Baltic.-L.

VOL. II.

CHAPTER CX.—King Olaf's Voyage from Vindland..

There came first a flying report to Vindland that the Danish king, Svein, had fitted out an army; and it was soon whispered that he intended to attack King Olaf. But Earl Sigvalde says to King Olaf, "It never can be King Svein's intention to venture with the Danish force alone, to give battle to thee with such a powerful army; but if thou hast any suspicion that evil is on foot, I will follow thee with my force (at that time it was considered a great matter to have Jomsborg vikings with an army), and I will give thee eleven well-manned ships.' The king accepted this offer; and as the light breeze of wind that came was favourable, he ordered the ships to get under weigh, and the war-horns to sound the departure. The sails were hoisted; and all the small vessels, sailing fastest, got out to sea before the others. The earl, who sailed nearest to the king's ship, called to those on board to tell the king to sail in his keel-track: "For I know where the water is deepest between the islands and in the sounds, and these large ships require the deepest." Then the earl sailed first with his eleven ships, and the king followed with his large ships, also eleven in number; but the whole of the rest of the fleet sailed out to sea. Now when Earl Sigvalde came sailing close under the island Svold, a skiff rowed out to inform the earl that the Danish king's army was lying in the harbour before them. Then the earl

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