Clanged with iron mouths;
Din of swords at sea was there
(Wolves’ fare the eagle tore),
The lads’ dear leader strove
Ere many from him fled.’
¶ Now rowed away the Wendland cutter, whereon were Astrid’s men, back to Wendland, and straightway did many men say that King Olaf must have drawn off his shirt of mail in the water, dived down away from the long-ship, and thereafter swum even to the Wendland cutter and so been brought to shore by the folk of Astrid. ¤ And many are the tales which have been told by certain men of the journeyings of King Olaf; nevertheless in this wise speaketh Hallfrod:
‘I wot not whether he who stilled the raven’s hunger
Should of me be praised as of the living or the dead,
Since of a truth his men tell either tale
(Bootless of himself to question) though wounded was he surely.’