第85章

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."

49.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 fjord, 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.

50.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 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, "Ifear, 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 Of Svein's men who came to meet King Olaf's gallant fleet.

From the North these warmen came To try the bloody game, --On the waves their corpses borne Show the game that Sunday morn.

The Throndhjem girls so fair Their jeers, I think, will spare, For the king's force was but small That emptied Throndhjem's hall.

But if they will have their jeer, 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 Ringanes a yacht of fifteen benches of rowers, which Ketil brought up the Raum river and into the Mjosen lake.

51.OF KING OLAF.