n would follow me; for I was young, fifteen years old.
I made her in the likeness of a dragon. At the prow I carved the head
with open mouth and forked tongue thrust out. I painted the eyes red for
anger.

"'There, stand so!' I said, 'and glare and hiss at my foes.'

"In the stern I curved the tail up almost as high as the head. There I
put the pilot's seat and a strong tiller for the rudder. On the breast
and sides I carved the dragon's scales. Then I painted it all black and
on the tip of every scale I put gold. I called her 'Waverunner.' There
she sat on the rollers, as fair a ship as I ever saw.

"The night that it was finished I went to my father's feast. After the
meats were eaten and the mead-horns came round, I stood up from my bench
and raised my drinking-horn[3] high and spoke with a great voice:

"'This is my vow: I will sail to Norway and I will harry the coast and
fill my boat with riches. Then I will get me a farm and will winter in
that land. Now who will follow me?'

"'He is but a boy,' the men said. 'He has opened his mouth wider than he
can do.'

"But others jumped to their feet with their mead-horns in their hands.
Thirty men, one after another, raised their horns and said:

"'I will follow this lad, and I will not turn back so long as he and I
live!'

"On the next morning we got into my dragon and started. I sat high in
the pilot's seat. As our boat flashed down the rollers into the water I
made this song and sang it:

"'The dragon runs.
Where will she steer?
Where swords will sing,
Where spears will bite,
Where I shall laugh.'

"So we harried the coast of Norway. We ate at many men's tables
uninvited. Many men we found overburdened with gold. Then I said:

"'My dragon's belly is never full,' and on board went the gold.

"Oh! it is better to live on the sea and let other men raise your crops
and cook your meals. A house smells of smoke, a ship smells of frolic.
From a house you see a sooty roof, from a ship you see Valhalla.

"Up and down the water we went to get much wealth and much frolic. After
a while my men said:

"'What of the farm, Olaf?'

"'Not yet,' I answered. 'Viking is better for summer. When the ice
comes, and our dragon cannot play, then we will get our farm and sit
down.'

"At last the winter came, and I said to my men:

"'Now for the farm. I have my eye on one up the coast a way in King
Halfdan's country.'

"So we set off for it. We landed