d with his host alongside the land, so that
he might call out a general muster of men and ships. But when they were
come eastward, and were off Vik, arose a strong contrary wind wherefore
was the fleet obliged to stand in for harbour, making such havens as
were to be found in the skerries as well as those in the fjords.

Quoth Thiodolf:

'Lee have the shaven hulls of the ships under the woods,
The King's war-host towards land doth lean with its prow beams.
The land-folk in the skerries, within the creeks, do lie;
The ships white-mailed hide under the land-necks.'

|| Now in the tempest which fell upon them the great ship had need of
good anchor tackle, and thus saith Thiodolf:

'Prow foremost the prince cleft
High fences of the sea;
The ropes of the King's ship
Are strained to the utmost;
The wind is unfriendly
Against the anchor-iron out-hollowed,
Grit and wind-squalls ugly
Chafe at the anchor flukes.'

|| As soon as there was come to him a fair wind, took King Harald the
host east to the River, and thither came towards nightfall. Thus saith
Thiodolf:

'Now drave King Harald hotly the war-ships towards the River,
At nightfall Norway's King anigh the marches is.
A Thing the King now holds at Thumla, there where Svein
Will meet to war if so be the Danes shirk not the tryst.'

|| When the Danes learned that the hosts of the Norwegians were come, all
those that were able to do so fled away.

The Norwegians likewise learnt that the Danish King had his host out,
and was lying south off Funen and the small-isles; but when King Harald
saw that King Svein would not come to meet him as had been agreed, nor
do battle with him, then did he after the same fashion as before & let
the peasant host return to Norway; but manned he one hundred and fiftySec.
ships, & with these steered a course alongside Halland. There he
plundered widely; and he put in also to Lofufjord with his host, and
going up onto the land harried there likewise. Somewhile later came King
Svein to the encounter with the Danish host, and to him was a tale of
three hundredSec. ships. When the Norwegians saw this fleet bade King
Harald a blast be blown to summon his host together, & many spake saying
that they ought to flee, & that it was unavailing for them to fight, but
the King answered thus: 'We will fall one atop of the other rather than
flee!' Thus saith Stein Herdason:

'Said the chief high-minded, what now