him to Earl Eric; but King Olaf threw his shield over his head, and sank beneath the waters. Kolbiorn held his shield behind him to protect himself from the spears cast at him from the ships which lay round the Serpent, and he fell so upon his shield that it came under him, so that he could not sink so quickly. He was thus taken and brought into a boat, and they supposed he was the king. He was brought before the earl; and when the earl saw it was Kolbiorn, and not the king, he gave him his life. At the same moment all of King Olaf’s men who were in life sprang overboard from the Serpent; and Thorkel Nefia, the king’s brother, was the last of all the men who sprang overboard. It is thus told concerning the king by Halfred:—
The Serpent and the Crane
Lay wrecks upon the main.
On his sword he cast a glance,—
With it he saw no chance.
To his marshal, who of yore
Many a war-chance had come o’er,
He spoke a word — then drew in breath,
And sprang to his deep-sea death.”
Chapter CXXII.
Of the report among the people of the island.
Earl Sigvald, as before related, came from Yend- land, in company with King Olaf, with ten ships; but the eleventh ship was manned with the men of Astrid, the king’s daughter, the wife of Earl Sigvald. Now when King Olaf sprang overboard, the whole army raised a shout of victory; and then Earl Sigvald and his men put their oars in the water and rowed towards the battle. Ilaldor the Unchristian tells of it thus:—
“Then first the Vendland vessels came
Into the fight with little fame;
The fight still lingered on the wave,
Tho’ hope was gone with Olaf brave.
War, like a full-fed ravenous beast,
Still oped her grim jaws for the feast.
The few who stood now quickly fled,
When the shout told—'Olaf is dead!'"
