ing brought his ships to land chose he out a battle-field
whereon to fight King Ragnfrod. Thus saith the Vellekla:

'Now did the chieftain meet in second battle
The slayer of the Vandals, and fell slaughter followed.
The prows were set to land,
And the ships steered even to the marches of the shires
At the bidding of the warrior.'

|| And it came to pass that both sides did dress their battle and fought
amazing fierce, but in men had Earl Hakon the super-abundance and the
issue was to him. This was at Thinganes, where Sogn and Hordaland meet.
King Ragnfrod fled from his ships, and of his folk there fell three
hundred men. Thus it is said in the Vellekla:

'Fierce was the strife before three hundred were pressed
Beneath the claws of the carrion bird
By the host of the warrior chief:
O'er the heads of the sea-dwellers,
Thence could the conquering chief stride--
Aye, and the deed was glorious.'

|| After this battle did King Ragnfrod hie him away from Norway and Earl
Hakon brought peace to the land; he gave licence that the great host
which had been with him in the summer should fare back northward, but he
himself abode hard by there where he gained the victory, not whiles only
that autumn but also throughout the winter that came after.

|| Earl Hakon took to wife a woman named Thora, who was exceeding fair.
The daughter was she of Skagi Skoptison, a man possessed of much wealth.

Their sons were Svein and Heming, & their daughter was Bergliot, who
thereafter was wedded to Einar Tamberskelfir. Earl Hakon was over much
given to women, and by them had many children. One of his daughters was
called Ragnhild, and he gave her in marriage to Skopti Skagason, the
brother of Thora. The Earl so loved Thora that her kinsmen became dearer
to him than all other men, and Skopti his son-in-law had more influence
with him than any other of his kindred. To him gave the Earl large fiefs
in More; & it was covenanted betwixt them that whensoever the fleet of
the Earl was at sea Skopti was to bring his ship alongside the Earl's,
and for none other was it to be lawful to lay his ship between their
ships.

|| Now it happened one summer when Earl Hakon was with his ships on the
main that Thorleif the Meek was master of one of them, & Eirik, the son
of the Earl, he being then some ten or eleven winters old, was aboard.
Of an evening when they were come into haven, Eirik would not have it
otherwise save that