King Olaf Trygvason's Saga

116. FLIGHT OF SVEIN AND OLAF THE SWEDE.

This battle was one of the severest told of, and many were the
people slain. The forecastle men of the Long Serpent, the Little
Serpent, and the Crane, threw grapplings and stem chains into
King Svein's ship, and used their weapons well against the people
standing below them, for they cleared the decks of all the ships
they could lay fast hold of; and King Svein, and all the men who
escaped, fled to other vessels, and laid themselves out of
bow-shot. It went with this force just as King Olaf Trygvason
had foreseen. Then King Olaf the Swede laid himself in their
place; but when he came near the great ships it went with him as
with them, for he lost many men and some ships, and was obliged
to get away. But Earl Eirik laid his ship side by side with the
outermost of King Olaf's ships, thinned it of men, cut the
cables, and let it drive. Then he laid alongside of the next,
and fought until he had cleared it of men also. Now all the
people who were in the smaller ships began to run into the
larger, and the earl cut them loose as fast as he cleared them of
men. The Danes and Swedes laid themselves now out of shooting
distance all around Olaf's ship; but Earl Eirik lay always close
alongside of the ships, and used hid swords and battle-axes, and
as fast as people fell in his vessel others, Danes and Swedes,
came in their place. So says Haldor, the Unchristian: --

"Sharp was the clang of shield and sword,
And shrill the song of spears on board,
And whistling arrows thickly flew
Against the Serpent's gallant crew.
And still fresh foemen, it is said,
Earl Eirik to her long side led;
Whole armies of his Danes and Swedes,
Wielding on high their blue sword-blades."

Then the fight became most severe, and many people fell. But at
last it came to this, that all King Olaf Trygvason's ships were
cleared of men except the Long Serpent, on board of which all who
could still carry their arms were gathered. Then Earl Eirik lay
with his ship by the side of the Serpent, and the fight went on
with battle-axe and sword. So says Haldor: --

"Hard pressed on every side by foes,
The Serpent reels beneath the blows;
Crash go the shields around the bow!
Breast-plates and breasts pierced thro' and thro!
In the sword-storm the Holm beside,
The earl's ship lay alongside
The king's Long Serpent of the sea --
Fate gave the earl the victory."

117. OF EARL EIRIK.

Earl Eirik was in the forehold of his ship, where a cover of
shields (1) had been set up. In the fight, both hewing weapons,
sword, and axe, and the thrust of spears had been used; and all
that could be used as weapon for casting was cast. Some used
bows, some threw spears with the hand. So many weapons were cast
into the Serpent, and so thick flew spears and arrows, that the
shields could scarcely receive them, for on all sides the Serpent
was surrounded by war-ships. Then King Olaf's men became so mad
with rage, that they ran on board of the enemies ships, to get at
the people with stroke of sword and kill them; but many did not
lay themselves so near the Serpent, in order to escape the close
encounter with battle-axe or sword; and thus the most of Olaf's
men went overboard and sank under their weapons, thinking they
were fighting on plain ground. So says Halfred: --

"The daring lads shrink not from death; --
O'erboard they leap, and sink beneath
The Serpent's keel: all armed they leap,
And down they sink five fathoms deep.
The foe was daunted at the cheers;
The king, who still the Serpent steers,
In such a strait -- beset with foes --
Wanted but some more lads like those."

118. OF EINAR TAMBARSKELVER.

Einar Tambarskelver, one of the sharpest of bowshooters, stood by
the mast, and shot with his bow. Einar shot an arrow at Earl
Eirik, which hit the tiller end just above the earl's head so
hard that it entered the wood up to the arrow-shaft. The earl
looked that way, and asked if they knew who had shot; and at the
same moment another arrow flew between his hand and his side, and
into the stuffing of the chief's stool, so that the barb stood
far out on the other side. Then said the earl to a man called
Fin, -- but some say he was of Fin (Laplander) race, and was a
superior archer, -- "Shoot that tall man by the mast." Fin shot;
and the arrow hit the middle of Einar's bow just at the moment
that Einar was drawing it, and the bow was split in two parts.

"What is that."cried King Olaf, "that broke with such a noise?"

"Norway, king, from thy hands," cried Einar.

"No! not quite so much as that," says the king; "take my bow,
and shoot," flinging the bow to him.

Einar took the bow, and drew it over the head of the arrow. "Too
weak, too weak," said he, "for the bow of a mighty king!" and,
throwing the bow aside, he took sword and shield, and fought
Valiantly.

119. OLAF GIVES HIS MEN SHARP SWORDS.

The king stood on the gangways of the Long Serpent. and shot the
greater part of the day; sometimes with the bow, sometimes with
the spear, and always throwing two spears at once. He looked
down over the ship's sides, and saw that his men struck briskly
with their swords, and yet wounded but seldom. Then he called
aloud, "Why do ye strike so gently that ye seldom cut?" One
among the people answered, "The swords are blunt and full of
notches." Then the king went down into the forehold, opened the
chest under the throne, and took out many sharp swords, which he
handed to his men; but as he stretched down his right hand with
them, some observed that blood was running down under his steel
glove, but no one knew where he was wounded.

120. THE SERPENT BOARDED.

Desperate was the defence in the Serpent, and there was the
heaviest destruction of men done by the forecastle crew, and
those of the forehold, for in both places the men were chosen
men, and the ship was highest, but in the middle of the ship the
people were thinned. Now when Earl Eirik saw there were but few
people remaining beside the ship's mast, he determined to board;
and he entered the Serpent with four others. Then came Hyrning,
the king's brother-in-law, and some others against him, and there
was the most severe combat; and at last the earl was forced to
leap back on board his own ship again, and some who had
accompanied him were killed, and others wounded. Thord
Kolbeinson alludes to this: --

"On Odin's deck, all wet with blood,
The helm-adorned hero stood;
And gallant Hyrning honour gained,
Clearing all round with sword deep stained.
The high mountain peaks shall fall,
Ere men forget this to recall."

Now the fight became hot indeed, and many men fell on board the
Serpent; and the men on board of her began to be thinned off, and
the defence to be weaker. The earl resolved to board the Serpent
again, and again he met with a warm reception. When the
forecastle men of the Serpent saw what he was doing, they went
aft and made a desperate fight; but so many men of the Serpent
had fallen, that the ship's sides were in many places quite bare
of defenders; and the earl's men poured in all around into the
vessel, and all the men who were still able to defend the ship
crowded aft to the king, and arrayed themselves for his defence.
So says Haldor the Unchristian: --

"Eirik cheers on his men, --
`On to the charge again!'
The gallant few
Of Olaf's crew
Must refuge take
On the quarter-deck.
Around the king
They stand in ring;
Their shields enclose
The king from foes,
And the few who still remain
Fight madly, but in vain.
Eirik cheers on his men --
`On to the charge again!'"

121. THE SERPENT'S DECKS CLEARED.

Kolbjorn the marshal, who had on clothes and arms like the kings,
and was a remarkably stout and handsome man, went up to king on
the quarter-deck. The battle was still going on fiercely even in
the forehold (2). But as many of the earl's men had now got into
the Serpent as could find room, and his ships lay all round her,
and few were the people left in the Serpent for defence against
so great a force; and in a short time most of the Serpent's men
fell, brave and stout though they were. King Olaf and Kolbjorn
the marshal both sprang overboard, each on his own side of the
ship; but the earl's men had laid out boats around the Serpent,
and killed those who leaped overboard. Now when the king had
sprung overboard, they tried to seize him with their hands, and
bring him to Earl Eirik; but King Olaf threw his shield over his
head, and sank beneath the waters. Kolbjorn held his shield
behind him to protect himself from the spears cast at him from
the ships which lay round the Serpent, and he fell so upon his
shield that it came under him, so that he could not sink so
quickly. He was thus taken and brought into a boat, and they
supposed he was the king. He was brought before the earl; and
when the earl saw it was Kolbjorn, and not the king, he gave him
his life. At the same moment all of King Olaf's men who were in
life sprang overboard from the Serpent; and Thorkel Nefia, the
king's brother, was the last of all the men who sprang overboard.
It is thus told concerning the king by Halfred: --

"The Serpent and the Crane
Lay wrecks upon the main.
On his sword he cast a glance, --
With it he saw no chance.
To his marshal, who of yore
Many a war-chance had come o'er,
He spoke a word -- then drew in breath,
And sprang to his deep-sea death."

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