Vemund was living in guest-quarters. Earl Rognvald surrounded the house in which they were quartered, and burnt the king in it, together with ninety men. Then came Berdlukaare to Earl Rognvald with a completely armed long-ship, and they both returned to More. The earl took all the ships Vemund had, and all the goods he could get hold of. Berdlukaare proceeded north to Drontheim to King Harald, and became his man; and a dreadful berserk he was.
Chapter XIII.
Death of Earl Hakon and of Earl Atle the Small.
The following spring King Harald went southwards with his fleet along the coast, and subdued the district of the Fiorde. Then he sailed eastward along the land until he came to Viken; but he left Earl Hakon Griotgardsson behind, and set him over the Eiorde district. Earl Hakon sent word to Earl Atle the Small that he should leave Sogne district, and be earl over Gaular district, as he had been before, alleging that King Harald had given Sogne district to him. Earl Atle sent word back that he would keep both Sogne district and Gaular district, until he met King Harald. The two earls quarrelled about this so long, that both gathered troops. They met at Fialar, in Stavanger fiord, and had a great battle, in which Earl Hakon fell, and Earl Atle got a mortal wound, and his men carried him to the island of Atle[1], where he died. So says Eyvind Skaldaspiller:—
"He who stood a rooted oak,
Unshaken by the swordsman's stroke,
Amidst the whiz of arrows slain,
Has fallen upon Fialar's plain.
There, by the ocean's rocky shore,
The waves are stained with the red gore
Of stout Earl Hakon Griotgard's son,
And of brave warriors many a one."
- ↑ Atla isle in Fialar, now included in Sbndfiord, has probably got its name from Atle. Three standing stones at Velnoes church, supposed to have been erected to his memory, still remain.
