Saga of Olaf Haroldson

42. OF EARL SVEIN.

Earl Svein and Einar Tambaskelfer gathered a large armed force,
with which they came by the upper road into Gaulardal, and so
down to Nidaros, with nearly 2000 men. King Olaf's men were out
upon the Gaular ridge, and had a guard on horseback. They became
aware that a force was coming down the Gaulardal, and they
brought word of it to the king about midnight. The king got up
immediately, ordered the people to be wakened, and they went on
board of the ships, bearing all their clothes and arms on board,
and all that they could take with them, and then rowed out of the
river. Then came the earl's men to the town at the same moment,
took all the Christmas provision, and set fire to the houses.
King Olaf went out of the fjord down to Orkadal, and there landed
the men from their ships. From Orkadal they went up to the
mountains, and over the mountains eastwards into Gudbrandsdal.
In the lines composed about Kleng Brusason, it is said that Earl
Eirik burned the town of Nidaros: --

"The king's half-finished hall,
Rafters, root, and all,
Is burned down by the river's side;
The flame spreads o'er the city wide."

43. OF KING OLAF.

King Olaf went southwards through Gudbrandsdal, and thence out to
Hedemark. In the depth of winter (A.D. 1015) he went about in
guest-quarters; but when spring returned he collected men, and
went to Viken. He had with him many people from Hedemark, whom
the kings had given him; and also many powerful people from among
the bondes joined him, among whom Ketil Kalf from Ringanes. He
had also people from Raumarike. His stepfather, Sigurd Syr, gave
him the help also of a great body of men. They went down from
thence to the coast, and made ready to put to sea from Viken.
The fleet, which was manned with many fine fellows, went out then
to Tunsberg.

44. OF EARL SVEIN'S FORCES.

After Yule (A.D. 1015) Earl Svein gathers all the men of the
Throndhjem country, proclaims a levy for an expedition, and fits
out ships. At that time there were in the Throndhjem country a
great number of 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 fjord, 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 Nesjar (A.D. 1015).

45. 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.

46. 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, "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 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."

47. OF THE BATTLE AT NESJAR.

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 war-horns to sound to
battle, to leave the harbour, and row off to seek the earl. Now
when they came to 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 "Nesjar 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 fjord."

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;
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 ring-mail, 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."

48. 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 banners waving:
`On with the king!' the spears he's braving!
`On, steel-clad men! and storm the deck,
Slippery with blood and strewed with wreck.
A different work ye have to share,
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. So says Sigvat: --

"Into the ship our brave lads spring, --
On shield and helm their red blades ring;
The air resounds with stroke on stroke, --
The shields are cleft, the helms are broke.
The wounded bonde o'er the side
Falls shrieking in the blood-stained tide --
The deck is cleared with wild uproar --
The dead crew float about the shore."

And also these lines: --

"The shields we brought from home were white,
Now they are red-stained in the fight:
This work was fit for those who wore
Ringed coats-of-mail their breasts before.
Where for the foe blunted the best sword
I saw our young king climb on board.
He stormed the first; we followed him --
The war-birds now in blood may swim."

Now defeat began to come down upon the earl's men. 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,
To cut the posts loud order gave.
The ship escaped: our greedy eyes
Had looked on her as a clear prize.
The earl escaped; but ere he fled
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 fjord together.
Thereafter the whole of the earl's fleet took to flight, and
rowed out of the fjord. 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 him -- for he knew Berse,
who was distinguished as a remarkably handsome man, always well
equipped in clothes and arms -- "Farewell, Berse!" He replied,
"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,)
To me who knows the art of song.
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:
His fortunes I will ne'er forsake,
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."