ght for the
projecting bows of the "Long Serpent." Red-haired Ulf grappled the Danish
King's ship, boarded her, and after a fierce fight in which the Norwegian
battle-axes did deadly work, cleared her from end to end. King Svend saved
his life by clambering on board of another ship. Olaf and his men from the
high stern of the "Long Serpent" shot their arrows with telling effect into
the Danish ships. All along the centre the Norwegians held their own, and
gradually the Danes began to give way. It was then only the Swedes worked
their ships into the melee that raged in front of the line of Norwegian
bows. To have swept round the line and attacked in flank and rear, while
the Danes still grappled it in front, would have been a more effective
method of attack, but the opponents thought only of meeting front to front
like fighting bulls. It may be too that Olaf's fleet had so drifted that
there was not much room to pass between its right wing on the land.

But however this may be, there was plenty of sea room on the left, and here
Erik Jarl, in the "Iron Beard," led the attack and used his advantage to
the full. Part of his squadron fell upon the Norwegian front; but the "Iron
Beard" and several of her consorts swung round the end of the line, and
concentrated their attack on the outside ship. Erik had grasped a cardinal
principle of naval tactics, the importance of trying to crush a part of the
hostile line by bringing a local superiority of force to bear upon it. It
was "hard against hard"--Viking against Viking--but the Norwegians in the
end ship were hopelessly outnumbered. They fought furiously and sold their
lives dearly; but soon the armed bow of the "Iron Beard" drove between
their ship and the next, the lashings were cut, and the Norwegian drifted
out of the line, with her deck heaped with dead. Erik let her drift and
attacked the next ship in the same way. He was eating up Olaf's left wing
ship by ship, while the Danes and Swedes kept the centre and right busy.

It was the bloodiest fight that the North had ever seen, a fight to the
death, for though there was now small hope of victory, the Norse battle
madness was strong in Olaf and his men. As the day wore on the right held
its own; but one by one every ship on the left had been cleared by Erik and
the Jarls, and now the battle raged round the three great ships in the
centre, the "Crane" and the two "Serpents." Erik came up and drove the bow
of the "Iron Beard" i