lendermen; and many of them were so powerful and well-born, that they descended from earls, or even from the royal race, which in a short course of generations reckoned to Harald Harfager, and they were also very rich. These lendermen were of great help to the kings or earls who ruled the land; for it was as if the lenderman had the bonde-people of each district in his power. Earl Svein being a good friend of the lendermen, it was easy for him to collect people. His brother-in-law, Einar Tambaskelfer, was on his side, and with him many other lendermen; and among them many, both lendermen and bondes, who the winter before had taken the oath of fidelity to King Olaf. When they were ready for sea they went directly out of the fiord, steering south along the land, and drawing men from every district. When they came farther south, abreast of Rogaland, Erling Skialgson came to meet them, with many people and many lendermen with him. Now they steered eastward with their whole fleet to Viken, and Earl Svein ran in there towards the end of Easter. The earl steered his fleet to Grenmar, and ran into Nesiar [1015].

* The lendermen appear to have been sheriff's for collecting the scat and other revenues of the kings, and to have held the function in feu, paying for it to the king a proportion of the income of the district. The fines due to the king for misdemeanours, murders, &c., must have come through them into the royal coffers; for we find the appointment of new lendermen for every district the first act of every king on acquiring a part of the country. It is literally men having a lend; and the name includes those who held in lehn (or loan) the land, land-tax, or other revenues from the king, for a certain fixed payment.-L.

CHAPTER XLV.—King Olaf's Forces.

*

King Olaf steered his fleet out from Viken, until the two fleets were not far from each other, and they got news of each other the Saturday before Palm Sunday. King Olaf himself had a ship called the Carl's Head, on the bow of which a king's head was carved out, and he himself had carved it. This head was used long after in Norway on ships which kings steered themselves.

CHAPTER XLVI.-King Olaf's Speech.

As soon as day dawned on Sunday morning, King Olaf got up, put on his clothes, went to the land, and ordered to sound the signal for the whole army to come on shore. Then he made a speech to the troops, and told the whole assembly that he had heard there was but a short distance between them

and Earl Svein.

"Now," said he,

"Now," said he, "we shall make ready; for it can be but a short time until we meet. Let the people arm, and every man be at the post that has been appointed him, so that all may be ready when I order the signal to sound for casting off from the land. Then let us row off at once; and so that none go on before the rest of the ships, and none lag

Consequently April 3.

The head probably of Charlemagne, whose name was held in great veneration. King Olaf's son Magnus was called after Charlemagne.-L.

Signals by call of trumpet, or war-horn, or loor, appear to have been well understood by all. We read of the trumpet-call to arm, to attack, to advance, to retreat, to land; and also to a Court Thing, a House

behind, when I row out of the harbour: for we cannot tell if we shall find the earl where he was lying, or if he has come out to meet us. When we do meet, and the battle begins, let people be alert to bring all our ships in close order, and ready to bind them together. Let us spare ourselves in the beginning, and take care of our weapons, that we do not cast them into the sea, or shoot them away in the air to no purpose. But when the fight becomes hot, and the ships are bound together, then let each man show what is in him of manly spirit."

CHAPTER XLVII.-Of the Battle at Nesiar.

King Olaf had in his ship 100* men armed in coats of ring-mail, and in foreign helmets. The most of his men had white shields, on which the holy cross was gilt; but some had painted it in blue or red. He had also had the cross painted in front on all the helmets, in a pale colour. He had a white banner on which was a serpent figured. He ordered a mass to be read before him, went on board ship, and ordered his people to refresh themselves with meat and drink. He then ordered the warhorns to sound to battle, to leave the harbour, and row off to seek the earl. Now when they came to Thing, a General Thing. The instrument now in use in Norway among the peasants for calling across valleys or rivers, or to their comrades or servants, in situations, so common in mountain-districts, in which the distance through the air is small, yet the labour of going between great, is the bark of the birch-tree rolled off, and the pieces bound together so as to form a tube of six or eight feet in length. But the Northmen appear to have had instruments of metal, and regular trumpeters.-L.

the harbour where the earl had lain, the earl's men were armed, and beginning to row out of the harbour; but when they saw the king's fleet coming they began to bind the ships together, to set up their banners, and to make ready for the fight. When King Olaf saw this he hastened the rowing, laid his ship alongside the earl's, and the battle began. So says Sigvat the skald :

"Boldly the king did then pursue

Earl Svein, nor let him out of view.
The blood ran down the reindeer's flank *
Of each sea-king-his vessel's plank.
Nor did the earl's stout warriors spare
In battle-brunt the sword and spear.
Earl Svein his ships of war pushed on,

And lashed their stout stems one to one."

It is said that King Olaf brought his ships into battle while Svein was still lying in the harbour. Sigvat the skald was himself in the fight; and in summer, just after the battle, he composed a lay, which is called the Nesiar Song, in which he tells particularly the circumstances:

"In the fierce fight 'tis known how near
The scorner of the ice-cold spear

Laid the Charles' head + the earl on board,
All eastward of the Agder fiord."

Then was the conflict exceedingly sharp, and it was long before it could be seen how it was to go in the end. Many fell on both sides, and many were the wounded. So says Sigvat :

"No urging did the earl require,

'Midst spear and sword-the battle's fire;

*The ships are called the reindeer of the sea-kings by the skalds.-L. + The king's ship had a head of Charlemagne.-L.

VOL. II.

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No urging did the brave king need
The ravens in this shield-storm to feed.
Of limb-lopping enough was there,
And ghastly wounds of sword and spear.
Never, I think, was rougher play

Than both the armies had that day."

The earl had most men, but the king had a chosen crew in his ship, who had followed him in all his wars; and, besides, they were so excellently equipped, as before related, that each man had a coat of ringmail, so that he could not be wounded. So says Sigvat:

"Our lads, broad-shouldered, tall, and hale,

Drew on their cold shirts of ring-mail.
Soon sword on sword was shrilly ringing,
And in the air the spears were singing.
Under our helms we hid our hair,
For thick flew arrows through the air.
Right glad was I our gallant crew,
Steel-clad from head to foot, to view."

CHAPTER XLVIII.-Earl Svein's Flight.

When the men began to fall on board the earl's ships, and many appeared wounded, so that the sides. of the vessels were but thinly beset with men, the crew of King Olaf prepared to board. Their banner was brought up to the ship that was nearest the earl's, and the king himself followed the banner. So says Sigvat:

"On with the king!' his banner's waving :

'On with the king!' the spears he's braving!

* Ring-mail was a kind of network of metal rings sewed upon a leathern or woollen shirt, like a frock or blouse; or it consisted also of rings of metal linked together. It did not impede the movement of the limbs so much as plate-armour, and seems to have been less costly orless esteemed by the great than plate-armour.-L.