(1) Both in land and sea fights the commanders appear to have been protected from missile weapons, -- stones, arrows, spears, -- by a shieldburg: that is, by a party of men bearing shields surrounding them in such a way that the shields were a parapet, covering those within the circle.
The Romans had a similar military arrangement of shields in sieges -- the testudo.-- L.
118.OF EINAR TAMBARSKELVER.
Einar Tambarskelver, one of the sharpest of bowshooters, stood by the mast, and shot with his bow.Einar shot an arrow at Earl Eirik, which hit the tiller end just above the earl's head so hard that it entered the wood up to the arrow-shaft.The earl looked that way, and asked if they knew who had shot; and at the same moment another arrow flew between his hand and his side, and into the stuffing of the chief's stool, so that the barb stood far out on the other side.Then said the earl to a man called Fin, -- but some say he was of Fin (Laplander) race, and was a superior archer, -- "Shoot that tall man by the mast." Fin shot;and the arrow hit the middle of Einar's bow just at the moment that Einar was drawing it, and the bow was split in two parts.
"What is that."cried King Olaf, "that broke with such a noise?""Norway, king, from thy hands," cried Einar.
"No! not quite so much as that," says the king; "take my bow, and shoot," flinging the bow to him.
Einar took the bow, and drew it over the head of the arrow."Too weak, too weak," said he, "for the bow of a mighty king!" and, throwing the bow aside, he took sword and shield, and fought Valiantly.
119.OLAF GIVES HIS MEN SHARP SWORDS.
The king stood on the gangways of the Long Serpent.and shot the greater part of the day; sometimes with the bow, sometimes with the spear, and always throwing two spears at once.He looked down over the ship's sides, and saw that his men struck briskly with their swords, and yet wounded but seldom.Then he called aloud, "Why do ye strike so gently that ye seldom cut?" One among the people answered, "The swords are blunt and full of notches." Then the king went down into the forehold, opened the chest under the throne, and took out many sharp swords, which he handed to his men; but as he stretched down his right hand with them, some observed that blood was running down under his steel glove, but no one knew where he was wounded.
120.THE SERPENT BOARDED.
Desperate was the defence in the Serpent, and there was the heaviest destruction of men done by the forecastle crew, and those of the forehold, for in both places the men were chosen men, and the ship was highest, but in the middle of the ship the people were thinned.Now when Earl Eirik saw there were but few people remaining beside the ship's mast, he determined to board;and he entered the Serpent with four others.Then came Hyrning, the king's brother-in-law, and some others against him, and there was the most severe combat; and at last the earl was forced to leap back on board his own ship again, and some who had accompanied him were killed, and others wounded.Thord Kolbeinson alludes to this: --"On Odin's deck, all wet with blood, The helm-adorned hero stood;And gallant Hyrning honour gained, Clearing all round with sword deep stained.
The high mountain peaks shall fall, Ere men forget this to recall."Now the fight became hot indeed, and many men fell on board the Serpent; and the men on board of her began to be thinned off, and the defence to be weaker.The earl resolved to board the Serpent again, and again he met with a warm reception.When the forecastle men of the Serpent saw what he was doing, they went aft and made a desperate fight; but so many men of the Serpent had fallen, that the ship's sides were in many places quite bare of defenders; and the earl's men poured in all around into the vessel, and all the men who were still able to defend the ship crowded aft to the king, and arrayed themselves for his defence.
So says Haldor the Unchristian: --
"Eirik cheers on his men, --
`On to the charge again!'
The gallant few Of Olaf's crew Must refuge take On the quarter-deck.
Around the king They stand in ring;
Their shields enclose The king from foes, And the few who still remain Fight madly, but in vain.
Eirik cheers on his men --
`On to the charge again!'"
121.THE SERPENT'S DECKS CLEARED.
Kolbjorn the marshal, who had on clothes and arms like the kings, and was a remarkably stout and handsome man, went up to king on the quarter-deck.The battle was still going on fiercely even in the forehold (1).But as many of the earl's men had now got into the Serpent as could find room, and his ships lay all round her, and few were the people left in the Serpent for defence against so great a force; and in a short time most of the Serpent's men fell, brave and stout though they were.King Olaf and Kolbjorn the marshal both sprang overboard, each on his own side of the ship; but the earl's men had laid out boats around the Serpent, and killed those who leaped overboard.Now when the king had sprung overboard, they tried to seize him with their hands, and bring him to Earl Eirik; but King Olaf threw his shield over his head, and sank beneath the waters.Kolbjorn 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 Kolbjorn, 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."ENDNOTES:
