es, and coats of mail, and it was only now and
then--as when a shaft happened to enter a man's eye--that any fell.
When Haldor's forecastle men attacked the berserkers on the high fore
deck of the Dragon, the fighting was terrible, for the berserkers all
roared aloud and fought with the wild fury of madmen, and so fierce was
their onslaught that Haldor's men were forced at first to give back.
But Thorer the Thick guarded himself warily, and being well armed
escaped injury for a time. When he saw the berserkers beginning to
flag, he leaped forward like a lion, and hewed them down right and left,
so that his men drove the enemy back into the Dragon. Some of them
slipped on the gun-wales, and so did some of Haldor's men, all of whom
fell into the sea, and a few of them were drowned, while others were
killed, but one or two escaped by swimming.

Ulf's ship was also pretty close to the Dragon, and he wished greatly to
board it, but was so hard beset by the ship of Nicolas Skialdvarsson
that he could not do so for a long time. Here Kettle Flatnose did
prodigies of valour. He stood on the high fore-deck with his favourite
weapon, the hook, and therewith pulled a great number of men off the
enemy's deck into the sea. At last he got a footing on their gunwale,
dropped his hook, drew his sword, and soon cleared his way aft. Ulf
leaped after him, drove the men into the waist, and then the most of
them were slain, and lay in heaps one upon another. After that it was
not difficult to clear the poop. Skialdvarsson defended it well, but he
could not stand before Ulf, who finally cut off his head, and so the
ship was won.

This vessel lay alongside that of King Harald; and although the King was
fully engaged with Haldor at the time, he observed the conquest of
Skialdvarsson by Ulf, and also perceived that Ulf's men were crowding
the side of the vessel, and throwing grappling-irons into his own ship
with a view to board it; for there was a space between the ships a
little too wide for men to leap. Springing to the side, the King cut
the grappling-irons with a sweep of his sword.

"That was well tried," he said.

"It shall be tried again," cried Ulf, heaving another iron, which nearly
struck the King, but Harald's sword flashed through the air, and again
the iron was cut.

At that moment Kettle Flatnose stepped back a few paces, and with a
mighty rush leaped right over the space in all his war gear, and
alighted on the Dra