but to make him prisoner. Olaf
knew well that if his life was spared for a while it would be only to put
him to death finally with the cruelty the heathen Vikings delighted in
inflicting on their enemies. As his men fell round him and his party was
driven further and further astern, he must have seen that, outnumbered as
his men were, and with himself wounded, he would soon be overmastered and
made prisoner. There was just one chance of escape for the best swimmer in
Norway. Holding up his shield he stepped on the bulwark, threw the shield
at his enemies, and dived overboard. Kolbiorn tried to dive with him, but
was seized and dragged back to the ship. When Erik found he was not the
King he spared his life.

The few who remained of the Shield-burg sprang overboard. Some were killed
by men who were waiting in boats to dispose of the fugitives, others
escaped by diving and swimming, and reached Danish and Swedish ships where
they asked for, and were given, quarter. Einar, the archer, was one of
those thus saved, and he is heard of later in the Danish wars of England.

Olaf was never seen again. Sigvald's ships, after having watched the fight
from afar, were rowing up to the victorious fleets, and for a long time
there was a rumour that King Olaf had slipped out of his coat of mail as he
swam under water, and then rose and eluded Erik's boats, and reached one of
Sigvald's ships, where he was hidden. The tale ran that he had been taken
back to Wendland, where he was waiting to reappear some day in Norway and
claim his own. But years went on and there were no tidings of King Olaf
Tryggveson. He had been drowned in his armour under the stern of the "Long
Serpent."

King Olaf is still, after nine centuries, one of the popular heroes of the
Norwegian people. He had a twofold fame, as the ideal of a sea-king, as the
ruler who tried in his own wild untaught way to win the land of the Fiords
to Christendom. Another Olaf, who completed this last work a few years
later, and who, like Olaf Tryggveson, reigned over Norway in right of his
prowess and his descent from Harold the Fair-haired, is remembered as St.
Olaf, saint and martyr; but no exploit of either king lives in popular
tradition so brightly as the story of Olaf Tryggveson's death-battle at
Svold. "My life is in God's hands," he had said, "but flight would be shame
for ever." His fight against desperate odds and ending in defeat and death
won him fame for ever.