'On, steel-clad men! and storm the deck, Slippery with blood and strewed with wreck. His banner in war-storm to bear, From your fair girl's, who round the hall Brings the full mead-bowl to us all.'" Now was the severest fighting. Many of Svein's men fell, and some sprang overboard. Sigvat: "Into the ship our brave lads spring,- Falls shrieking in the blood-stained tide— The dead crew float about the shore." And also these lines : men. "The shields we brought from home were white, So says Now defeat began to come down upon the earl's The king's men pressed upon the earl's ship and entered it; but when the earl saw how it was going, he called out to his forecastle-men to cut the cables and cast the ship loose, which they did. Then the king's men threw grapplings over the timber heads of the ship, and so held her fast to their own; but the earl ordered the timber heads to be cut away, which was done. So says Sigvat: "The earl, his noble ship to save, The ship escaped: our greedy eyes We feasted Odin's fowls with dead ; With many a goodly corpse that floated Round our ship's stern his birds were bloated." Einar Tambaskelfer had laid his ship right alongside the earl's. They threw an anchor over the bows of the earl's ship, and thus towed her away, and they slipped out of the fiord together. Thereafter the whole of the earl's fleet took to flight, and rowed out of the fiord. The skald Berse Torfason was on the forecastle of the earl's ship; and as it was gliding past the king's fleet, King Olaf called out to himfor he knew Berse, who was distinguished as a remarkably handsome man, always well equipped in clothes and arms-"Farewell, Berse!" He replied, 66 Farewell, king! So says Berse himself, in a poem he composed when he fell into King Olaf's power, and was laid in prison and in fetters on board a ship: "Olaf the Brave A 'farewell' gave, (No time was there to parley long,) The skald was fain 'Farewell' again In the same terms back to send The rule in arms to foe or friend. Earl Svein's distress I well can guess, When flight he was compelled to take: Though I lie here In chains a year, In thy great vessel all forlorn, To crouch to thee I still will scorn: I still will say, No milder sway Than from thy foe this land e'er knew: To him, my early friend, I'm true." CHAPTER XLIX.-Earl Svein Leaves the Country. Now some of the earl's men fled up the country, some surrendered at discretion; but Svein and his followers rowed out of the fiord, and the chiefs laid their vessels together to talk with each other, for the earl wanted counsel from his lendermen. Erling Skialgson advised that they should sail north, collect people, and fight King Olaf again; but as they had lost many people, the most were of opinion that the earl should leave the country, and repair to his brother-in-law the Swedish King, and strengthen himself there with men. Einar Tambaskelfer approved also of that advice, as they had no power to hold battle against Olaf. So they discharged their fleet. The earl sailed across Folden,† and with him Einar Tambaskelfer. Erling Skialgson again, and likewise many other lendermen who would not abandon their udal possessions, went north to their homes; and Erling had many people that summer about him. CHAPTER L.-King Olaf's and Sigurd's Consultation. When King Olaf and his men saw that the earl had gathered his ships together, Sigurd Syr was in * Earl Svein was married to the Swedish King Olaf's sister Holmfrid. + Christiania fiord is called Folden, or Folden fiord.-L. haste for pursuing the earl, and letting steel decide their cause. But King Olaf replies, that he would first see what the earl intended doing,-whether he would keep his force together or discharge his fleet. Sigurd Syr said, "It is for thee, king, to command ; but," he adds, "I fear, from thy disposition and wilfulness, that thou wilt some day be betrayed by trusting to those great people, for they are accustomed of old to bid defiance to their sovereigns." There was no attack made, for it was soon seen that the earl's fleet was dispersing. Then King Olaf ransacked the slain, and remained there some days to divide the booty. At that time Sigvat made these verses: "The tale I tell is true: To their homes returned but few From the North these warmen came To try the bloody game,— On the waves their corpses borne The Throndhjem girls so fair They may ask their sweethearts dear, Why they have returned shorn Who went to shear that Sunday morn." And also these: "Now will the king's power rise, For the Upland men still prize The king who o'er the sea Steers to bloody victory. Earl Svein! thou now wilt know That our lads can make blood flow That the Hedemarkers hale Can do more than tap good ale." King Olaf gave his stepfather King Sigurd Syr, and the other chiefs who had assisted him, handsome presents at parting. He gave Ketil of Ringunes a yacht of fifteen benches of rowers, which Ketil brought up the Raum river and into the Mjosen lake. CHAPTER LI.-Of King Olaf. King Olaf sent spies out to trace the earl's doings [1015]; and when he found that the earl had left the country he sailed out west, and to Viken, where many people came to him. At the Thing there he was taken as king, and so he proceeded all the way to the Naze; and when he heard that Erling Skialgson had gathered a large force, he did not tarry in North Agder, but sailed with a steady fair wind to Throndhjem country; for there it appeared to him was the greatest strength of the land, if he could subdue it for himself while the earl was abroad. When Olaf came to Throndhjem there was no opposition, and he was elected there to be king. In harvest [1015] he took his seat in the town of Nidaros, and collected the needful winter provision [1016]. He built a king's house, and raised Clement's church on the spot on which it now stands. He parcelled out building ground, which he gave to bondes, merchants, or others who he thought would build. There he sat down, with many men-at-arms around him; for he put no great confidence in the Throndhjem people, if the earl should return to the country. The people * Glommen. |