Then said Harald, the King of the English, to those Norwegians who were with him: ‘Knowest thou the big man yonder who fell from his horse, the man with the blue kirtle and the fair helme?’ ‘That is the King,’ said they. ¤ ‘A big man and of masterful appearance, yet belike his luck is over,’ answered the English King.
¶ Twenty horsemen rode forward from the Thingmanna host before the battle-array of the Norwegians; and they were wholly clad in chain-mail and their horses like unto them. Then said one horseman: ‘Is Earl Tosti in the host?’ to which was made answer: ‘There is no hiding it, ye can find him there.’ ¤ Then said the horseman: ‘Harald, thy brother, sent thee a greeting, and word therewith that thou shouldst have grace & the whole of Northumberland; and rather than thou shouldst not go over to him will he give thee a third share of the whole of his kingdom.’ Then answered the Earl: ‘That is a very different message from the strife and scorn of the winter: had it been offered then many a man would still be alive who is now dead, & more firmly too would the kingdom stand in England. Now if I should accept these terms, what would he offer King Harald Sigurdson for his pains?’ ‘He hath said something of what he would grant him in England, Seven feet of room or as much longer as he is taller than other men,’ made answer that rider. ‘Fare thee now to King Harald and bid him make ready for battle,’ said the Earl, ‘other shall be said among Norwegians than that Earl Tosti quitteth King Harald Sigurdson for the fellowship of his foemen when he hath to fight in England. Nay, let us all rather be of one mind: to die with honour or to win England by conquest.’ Then did the horseman ride away, and King Harald Sigurdson asked of the Earl, ‘who was that long-tongued man, yonder?’ ‘That was King Harald Godwinson,’ said the Earl. ‘Too long was this kept from us,’ said King Harald Sigurdson, ‘they were come so nigh unto our host, that nought would this Harald have known how to tell of the death of our men.’ ‘True it is,’ said the Earl, ‘that such a chief went right unwarily, and that it might have been as thou sayest; I saw that he wished to offer me grace and much dominion, but that I should be his slayer an I said who he was. Rather would I that he should be my slayer than I his.’ Then said King Harald Sigurdson: ‘A little man was he, but firm in his stirrups.’ ¤ It is said that King Harald chanted this verse:
‘Forward go we in folk array
Without our mail
Under blue blades;
The helmets shine,
No mail have I;
On the ships yonder
Our garb doth lie.’
¶ Now the mail-shirt to Harald was hight ‘Emma,’ and it was so long that it reached down even unto the midst of his foot, and so strong that no weapon had ever lodged fast in it. Then said King Harald Sigurdson: ‘That was ill wrought; I must make another, a better verse in its place,’ and then he chanted this: