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 immediately assembled a great fleet and an army through all Svithiod, with which they sailed southwards to Denmark, and arrived there after King Olaf Trygveson had sailed to the eastward. Haldor the Unchristian 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

ordered the sails of his vessels to be struck, and they rowed in under the island. Haldor the Unchristian says:

"From out the south bold Trygve's son
With one-and-seventy ships came on,
To dye his sword in bloody fight,
Against the Danish foeman's might.
But the false earl the king betrayed;
And treacherous Sigvalde, it is said,
Deserted from King Olaf's fleet,

And basely fled, the Danes to meet."

It is said here that King Olaf and Earl Sigvalde had seventy sail of vessels and one more, when they sailed from the south.

CHAPTER CXI.-The Consultation of the Kings.

The Danish King Svein, the Swedish king Olaf, and Earl Eirik, were there with all their forces [1000]. The weather being fine and clear sunshine, all these chiefs, with a great suite, went out on the isle to see the vessels sailing out at sea, and many of them crowded together; and they saw among them one large and glancing ship. The two kings said, "That is a large and very beautiful vessel: that will be the Long Serpent."

Earl Eirik replied, "That is not the Long Serpent." And he was right; for it was a ship belonging to Eindride of Gimsar.

Soon after they saw another vessel coming sailing along much larger than the first; then says King Svein, "Olaf Trygveson must be afraid, for he does