lected in all haste. Then said Egil Ullsaerk,—"At one time the peace had lasted so long I was afraid I might come to die the death of old age [1], within doors upon a bed of straw, although I would rather fall in battle following my chief. And now it may so turn out in the end as I wished it to be."
Chapter XXIV.
Battle at Fraadarberg.
Eric's sons sailed northwards around Stad, as soon as the wind suited; and when they had passed it, and heard where King Hakon was, they sailed to meet him. King Hakon had nine ships, with which he lay under Frgedarberg in Freyarsund; and Eric's sons had twenty ships, with which they brought up on the south side of the same cape, in Freyar Sound. King Hakon sent them a message, asking them to go upon the land; and telling them that he had hedged in with hazel boughs a place of combat at Rastarkalf, where there is a flat large field, at the foot of a long and rather low ridge. Then Eric's sons left their ships, and went northwards over the neck of land within Ersedarberg, and onward to Kastarkalf. Then Egil asked King Hakon to give him ten men with ten banners, and the king did so. Then Egil went with his men under the ridge; but King Hakon went out upon the open field with his army, and set up his banner, and drew up his army, saying, "Let us draw up in a long line, that they may not surround us, as they have the most men." And so it was done; and there was a severe battle, and a very sharp attack. Then Egil Ullsserk set up the ten banners he had with him, and placed the men who carried them so that they should go as near the summit of the ridge as possible, and leaving a space between each of them. They went so near the summit that the banners could be seen over it, and moved on as if they were coming behind the army of Eric's sons. Now when the men
- ↑ In all the sagas of this pagan time, the dying on a bed of sickness is mentioned as a kind of derogatory end of a man of any celebrity.
