the ship whereon he was must be closest to the ship
pertaining to the person of the Earl.

Now when they made sail south to More there came likewise Skopti, he
that was son-in-law to the Earl, with his long-ship well manned. Skopti,
as his men were rowing towards the fleet, called out to Thorleif to
leave the haven and let him lie-to there, but Eirik sprang up & answered
back bidding Skopti hie him to another berth. Now Earl Hakon hearing
that his son deemed himself too mighty to make way for Skopti,
straightway called out to Thorleif bidding him leave the berth, or he
would make it the worse for them, to wit, that he would have them
beaten. So Thorleif when he heard this shouted to his men to slip their
cables, and this they did according to his word; then did Skopti lie-to
in the berth he was wont to have, nearest the Earl's ship. Now Skopti
was called Tidings Skopti, & this had come about seeing that it had been
agreed that when they were together he was to make known to the Earl all
the tidings, or if it so happened that the Earl had heard them first
then it was he that would tell the tidings to Skopti. Now in the winter
that was after all that hath been before but now related, was Eirik with
his foster-father Thorleif, but even so soon as the earlier spring-tide
was he given a company of men.

Thorleif moreover gave him a fifteen-benched ship with all the gear,
tilts, and victuals that were needful. Eirik thence sailed from the
fjord, and so south to More. Now it befell that Tidings Skopti was also
at sea between his homesteads, & he too in a fifteen-benched craft;
Eirik forthwith bore straight down on him and offered battle, and in the
issue thereof fell Skopti, but Eirik gave quarter to such of his men who
were not slain. Thus saith Eyolf Dadaskald, in the Banda lay:

'Late in the day,
On the ski of the sea-king,
With combatants equal,
Fared the youth 'gainst the "hersir,"
Him the stout-hearted.
There 'neath the hand
That a bloody blade wielded
Fell Tidings Skopti.
(The feeder of wolves
Was food for the ravens.)'

|| With that sailed Eirik south along the coast to Denmark, and
adventured to King Harald Gormson, abiding with him the winter; but the
spring thereafter the Danish King sent Eirik north, & bestowed on him
the title Earl & therewith VingulmarkSec. and Raumariki, to be beneath his
sway even under the self-same tenure as had tribute-paying kings
aforetime been in fief and t