re; better prey would it be for ye to take the bear since ye have
come so nigh his lair.'

'What saith the carle?' they cry, 'Can ye tell us aught of Earl Hakon?'
The peasant made answer: 'Yesterday he sailed to Hiorundarfjord having
with him one or two ships, or three at most, & at that time he had not
heard aught of ye.' Forthwith ran Bui & his men to their ships, leaving
all their booty behind, & Bui called out saying: 'Let us make the most
of having got this news, so that we may be the ones nighest to the
victory.'

And when they had mounted up into their ships straightway rowed they out
north of the isle of Hod, and then rounding that island into the fjord.

|| Earl Hakon and his son Earl Eirik were lying in Hallsvik, with their
hosts and one hundred and fifty ships.

Now they had heard by this time that the Jomsborg vikings were lying-to
off Hod, and the Earls accordingly rowed northward to seek them, and
when they were come to the place which is called Hiorungavag met they
one with another.

Both sides then set themselves in array for battle. In the midst of his
host was the banner of Earl Sigvaldi and over against this Earl Hakon
took up his position; Earl Sigvaldi had twenty ships, and Earl Hakon
sixty.

In Earl Hakon's following were the chiefs Thorir Hart of Halogaland, and
Styrkar of Gimsar. As for the battle array, one wing consisted of the
twenty ships belonging to Bui the Burly and his brother Sigurd. Against
these Earl Eirik Hakonson placed sixty ships, with him being the chiefs
Gudbrand the White from the Uplands & Thorkel Leira from Vik.

In the other wing of the array was Vagn Akason with twenty ships, and
against him with sixty ships was Svein Hakonson with Skeggi of Uphaug in
Yriar, and Rognvald from Ervik in Stad. In Eirik's lay it is told of
thus:

'And the sea-ships to battle sped towards the Danish ships,
The sea-host sailed the coast along:
From before the vikings cleared the Earl away many at More
The ships drifted amid war-slain heaps.'

And thus saith Eyvind in the Halogaland tale:

'Hardly was it a tryst of joy in that day's dawning
For the foemen of Yngvi Frey,
When the land-rulers guided the long-ships across the waste,
And the sword-elf from the south-land
Thrust the sea-steeds against their hosts.'

|| Then the fleets were brought together and there ensued the grimmest of
battles, and many were slain on both sides, albeit the host of Hakon was
it wh