rn poetry.--L.

27. EGIL ULSERK'S BURIAL-GROUND.

King Hakon took all the ships of the sons of Eirik that had been left
upon the strand, and had them drawn quite up, and brought on the land.
Then he ordered that Egil Ulserk, and all the men of his army who had
fallen, should be laid in the ships, and covered entirely over with
earth and stones. King Hakon made many of the ships to be drawn up to
the field of battle, and the hillocks over them are to be seen to the
present day a little to the south of Fredarberg. At the time when King
Hakon was killed, when Glum Geirason, in his song, boasted of King
Hakon's fall, Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed these verses on this
battle:--

"Our dauntless king with Gamle's gore
Sprinkled his bright sword o'er and o'er:
Sprinkled the gag that holds the mouth
Of the fell demon Fenriswolf (1).
Proud swelled our warriors' hearts when he
Drove Eirik's sons out to the sea,
With all their Guatland host: but now
Our warriors weep--Hakon lies low!"

High standing stones mark Egil Uslerk s grave.

ENDNOTES: (1) The Fenriswolf, one of the children of Loke, begotten with
a giantess, was chained to a rock, and gagged by a sword
placed in his mouth, to prevent him devouring mankind.
Fenriswolf's gag is a skaldic expression for a sword.--L.

28. NEWS OF WAR COMES TO KING HAKON.

When King Hakon, Athelstan's foster-son, had been king for twenty-six
years after his brother Eirik had left the country, it happened (A.D.
960) that he was at a feast in Hordaland in the house at Fitjar on the
island Stord, and he had with him at the feast his court and many of
the peasants. And just as the king was seated at the supper-table, his
watchmen who were outside observed many ships coming sailing along from
the south, and not very far from the island. Now, said the one to the
other, they should inform the king that they thought an armed force was
coming against them; but none thought it advisable to be the bearer of
an alarm of war to the king, as he had set heavy penalties on those who
raised such alarms falsely, yet they thought it unsuitable that the king
should remain in ignorance of what they saw. Then one of them went into
the room and asked Eyvind Finson to come out as fast as possible, for it
was very needful. Eyvind immediately came out and went to where he could
see the ships, and saw directly that a great army was on the wa