Turn them to the King’s stern-hold
Noble woman, an twain should be pressed back by
One Thingman (other than
That when young I learned me).’
¶ That spring Ulf the Marshal died, & Harald when he stood by his grave said ere he quitted it: ‘Here lies he that was ever the most faithful & the most dutiful to his lord.’ To Flanders also sailed Earl Tosti in springtide so that he should meet the men the which had followed him from England, with those others also who were to join him from England and likewise from Flanders.
¶ The host to King Harald was gathered together in Solundir[§] and when all things were made ready and he was about to set sail from Nidaros went he to the shrine of King Olaf, and thrusting his hands into the sanctuary cut he off the hair and the nails pertaining to the saint, and thereafter turned he the key once of the shrine and then threw that same key into the Nid; and since that time forsooth hath the shrine of the holy King Olaf never been opened. ¤ Five and thirty winters had been encompassed since his fall, and five and thirty years had he lived in the world. ¤ Then King Harald and the men that were with him gat them a course southward to meet his host; or ever that time it was a mighty force that met together, and it is told among men that to King Harald were nigh upon two hundred[§] keels, besides victualling ships and smaller craft. When they were lying off Solundir a certain man named Gyrd, who was on the own ship to the King, dreamed a dream, and to him it seemed as though he stood on that same ship and beheld up on the isle a great troll-woman, & in one hand held she a short sword and in the other a trough. And to him also did it appear that he was looking at all the other ships, and on the prow to each was perched a fowl of the air, and all of those same fowl were either eagles or ravens. ¤ The troll-woman sang:
‘King from the east in sooth
To battle inciteth
Many a warrior westward,
(Joyful am I therefor);