The whole hostile fleet now rowed forward from behind the island, and it seemed as if the sea was covered with ships as far as the eye could reach. King Sweyn, with his sixty galleys, became first visible.
"What chieftain is that right opposite to us?" asked King Olaf.
"That is King Sweyn with the Danish army," answered one of his men.
"I have no fear of them," said the king. "Never yet have Danes beaten Norsemen, and they will not beat us to-day. But to what chieftain belong the standards there on the right?"
He was told that they belonged to Olaf, the king of the Swedes.
"The Swedes," said he, "would find it more agreeable to sit at home and lick their sacrificial bowls,[A] than to meet our arms to-day on 'The Long Serpent.' Scarcely do I think that we need be afraid of those horse-eaters. But whose are those large ships on the left side of the Danes?"
[A] This is meant as a taunt at the Swedes, who were yet heathen.
"That," answered his informant, "is Earl Erik, Earl Haakon's son."
