ich fared the worst, for the Jomsborg vikings fought stoutly both
with boldness & dexterity, shooting clean through the shields. So great
in number were the missiles which struck Earl Hakon that his shirt of
mail became all rent and useless so that he threw it from him.

Of this speaketh Tind Halkelson:

'The kirtle which gold bedecked women wrought for the Earl
(The sparks from the sword wax brighter)
Could no longer be borne;
Then the mailed hero from off him cast the King's shirt
(Ready were the steeds of the sea).
Asunder, on the sand, blown from the Earl by the wind
Was the ring-weaved shirt of Sorli
(Thereof bore he the marks).'

|| Now the ships of the Jomsborg vikings were both larger, and higher in
the gunwale, than were those of Earl Hakon, but nevertheless were they
boldly beset from both sides. Vagn Akason pressed the ships of Svein
Hakonson so hard that Svein let his men backwater & came nigh to
fleeing, whereupon Earl Eirik came up into his place & thrust himself
into the battle against Vagn, and Vagn backed his ship, and the craft
lay again as they had lain at first.

Then Eirik returned to his own battle, where his men were now going
astern, and Bui having cut himself free from his lashings was about to
follow the fugitives.

Eirik then laid his ship alongside the ship of Bui, & a sharp hand to
hand struggle took place, and two or three of the ships of Eirik set on
the one ship whereon was Bui.

Then a storm came on, and there fell hailstones so heavy that one stone
alone weighed an ounce. Then did Sigvaldi cut his ship adrift & went
about, with the intention of fleeing; Vagn Akason cried out to him
bidding him stay, but never a moment would Sigvaldi heed give to what he
said, so Vagn sent a javelin after him, and smote the man who held the
tiller. Earl Sigvaldi rowed out of the battle with thirty-five ships and
left twenty-five behind him.

Then did Earl Hakon bring his ship round to the other side of that of
Bui, and short respite then had the men of Bui between the blows. Now
there was an anvil with a sharp end standing on the forecastle of the
ship that pertained to Bui, and the reason thereof was that some man had
made use thereof when welding the hilt of his sword, and Vigfus the son
of Vigaglums, who was a man of great strength, took up the anvil &
throwing it with both hands, drave it into the head of Aslak Holmskalli,
so that the snout thereof entered his brain. No we