“King Olaf’s men now tied together the ships as bid; but when he saw that they began to tie together the stems of the Long Serpent and the Short Serpent, he called out loudly: ‘Bring forward the large ship; I will not be the hindmost of all my men in this host when the battle begins.’
“Then Ulf the red, the king’s standard bearer and his stem defender, said: ‘If the Serpent shall be put as much forward as it is larger and longer than the other ships, the men in the bows will have a hard time of it.’ The king answered: ‘I had the Serpent made longer than other ships, so that it should be put forward more boldly in battle, and be well known in fighting and sailing, but I did not know that I had a stem defender who was both red and faint-headed.’ Ulf replied: ‘Turn thou, king, no more than back forward in defending the lypting than I will in defending the stem.’ The king had a bow in his hand, and laid an arrow on the string and aimed at Ulf. Then Ulf said: ‘Do not shoot me, lord, but rather where it is more needed, that is at our foes, for what I win I win for thee. May be you will think your men not over many, before the evening comes.’ The king took off the arrow and did not shoot.
“King Ólaf stood on the lypting of the Serpent, and rose high up; he had a gilt shield and a gilt helmet, and was very easily recognised. He wore a short red silk kirtle over his coat of mail. When he saw that the hosts of his foes began to separate, and that the standards were raised in front of the chiefs, he asked: ‘Who is chief of that standard which is opposite us?’ He was told that it was King Svein with the Danish host. The king said: ‘We are not afraid of those cowards, for no more courage is there in the Danes than in wood-goats; never were Danes victorious over Northmen, and they will not conquer us to-day. But what chief follows the standards which are to the right?’ He was told that it was Olaf the Swede, with the Svia host. The king added: ‘Easier and pleasanter will the Swedes think it to sit at home and lick their sacrifice bowls[[161]] than to board the Long Serpent to-day under your weapons, and I think we need not fear the horse-eating Swedes; but who owns those large ships to the left of the Danes?’ ‘It is,’ they said, ‘Eirik jarl Hakonsson.’ King Olaf replied: ‘This host is full of high-born men whom they have ranged against us; Eirik jarl thinks he has just cause for fighting us, it is likely we shall have a hard struggle with him and his men, for they are Northmen like ourselves.’ Then the kings and the jarl rowed at King Olaf.... The horns were blown, and both sides shouted a war-cry, and a hard battle commenced. Sigvaldi let his ships row to and fro, and did not take part in the battle.
“The battle raged fiercely, at first with arrows from cross-bows and hand-bows, and then with spears and javelins, and all say that King Olaf fought most manfully....
“King Svein’s men turned their stems as thickly as they could towards both sides of the Long Serpent, as it stood much further forward than the other ships of King Olaf; the Danes also attacked the Short Serpent and the Crane, and the fight was of the sharpest, and the carnage great. All the stem-defenders on the Serpent who could fought hand-to-hand, but King Olaf himself and those aft shot with bows and used short swords (handsax), and repeatedly killed and wounded the Danir.
“Though King Svein made the hardest onset on the Northmen with sixty ships, the Danish and Swedish hosts nevertheless were incessantly within shooting distance; King Olaf made the bravest defence with his men, but still they fell. King Olaf fought most boldly, he shot chiefly with bows and spears, but when the chief attack was made on the Serpent he went forward in hand-to-hand fight, and cleft many a man’s skull with his sword.
“The attack proved difficult for the Danes, for the stem-defenders of the Long Serpent and on the Short Serpent and the Crane hooked anchors and grappling-hooks on to King Svein’s ships, and as they could strike down (upon the enemy) with their weapons, for they had much larger and higher-boarded ships, they cleared of men all the Danish ships which they had laid hold of. King Svein and all who could get away fled on board other ships, and thereupon they withdrew, tired and wounded, out of shooting distance. It happened as Olaf Tryggvason guessed, that the Danes did not gain a victory over the Northmen.
“It happened to the Swedes as to the Danes, that the Northmen held fast their ships with grappling-hooks and anchors, and cleared those they could reach. Their swords dealt one fate to all Swedes whom they reached with their blows. The Swedes became tired of keeping up the fight where Olaf with his picked champions went at them most fiercely.... Men say that the sharpest and bloodiest fight was that of the two namesakes before Olaf and the Swedes retreated. The Swedes had a heavy loss of men, and also lost their largest ships. Most of the warriors of Olaf the Swedish king were wounded, and he had won no fame by this, but was fain to escape alive. Now Olaf Tryggvason had made both the Danes and Swedes take to flight. It all went as he had said.
“Now must be told what Eirik Jarl did while the kings fought against Norway’s king. The Jarl first came alongside the farthest ship of King Olaf on one wing with the Járnbardi (iron-board), cleared it, and cut it from the fastenings; he then boarded the next one, and fought there until it was cleared. The men then began to jump from the smaller ships on to the larger ones, but the Jarl cut away each ship from the fastenings as it was cleared.
“The Danes and Swedes then drew up within shooting distance on all sides of King Olaf’s ships, but Eirik Jarl lay continually side by side with one of them in hand-to-hand fight; and as the men fell on his ship, other Danes and Swedes took their places. Then the battle was both hard and sharp and many of King Olaf’s men fell.