severe an assault that the Danes had to retreat before him. The earl
went on in this way all the night, coming forward where he was most
wanted, and wheresoever he came none could stand against him. Hakon
rowed outside around the battle. Towards the end of the night the
greatest part of the Danish fleet broke into flight, for then King
Harald with his men boarded the vessel of King Svein; and it was so
completely cleared that all the crew fell in the ship, except those who
sprang overboard. So says Arnor, the earls' skald:--

"Brave Svein did not his vessel leave
Without good cause, as I believe:
Oft on his casque the sword-blade rang,
Before into the sea he sprang.
Upon the wave his vessel drives;
All his brave crew had lost their lives.
O'er dead courtmen into the sea
The Jutland king had now to flee."

And when King Svein's banner was cut down, and his ship cleared of its
crew, all his forces took to flight, and some were killed. The ships
which were bound together could not be cast loose, so the people who
were in them sprang overboard, and some got to the other ships that
were loose; and all King Svein's men who could get off rowed away, but
a great many of them were slain. Where the king himself fought the ships
were mostly bound together, and there were more than seventy left behind
of King Svein's vessels. So says Thiodolf:--

"Svein's ships rode proudly o'er the deep,
When, by a single sudden sweep,
Full seventy sail, as we are told,
Were seized by Norway's monarch bold."

King Harald rowed after the Danes and pursued them; but that was not
easy, for the ships lay so thick together that they scarcely could move.
Earl Fin Arnason would not flee; and being also shortsighted, was taken
prisoner. So says Thiodolf:--

"To the six Danish earls who came
To aid his force, and raise his name,
No mighty thanks King Svein is owing
For mighty actions of their doing.
Fin Arnason, in battle known,
With a stout Norse heart of his own,
Would not take flight his life to gain,
And in the foremost ranks was ta'en."

ENDNOTES: (1) The Laplanders paid their seat, or yearly tax, in bows and
arrows; and the meaning of the skald appears to be, that as
many as were paid in a year were shot at the foe.--L.

66. KING SVEIN'S FLIGHT.

Earl Hakon lay behind with his ships, while the king and the rest of th