Hard was the fight for the helmets wasted,
And empty did his craft float ere the eloquent friend of the Jutes
Fled from his dead chosen fighters.’
¶ After the banner of King Svein had fallen & the ships to him had been cleared, fled away all his men save those who were slain, & they that fled sprang into the deep from those ships that were lashed together or climbed on to other ships that were faring loose, but all of the men of King Svein who were able to do so rowed off. Full many men fell there. And there, where the Kings themselves had fought & the greater number of the ships had been lashed one to another, lay over seventy of the ships of that King; thus saith Thiodolf:
‘Bold King of the Sogn-folk,
(So ’tis sung) ships seven
Times ten of men and arms
From Svein’s fleet cleared away.’
¶ King Harald after the Danes rowed hard and put them to rout, but no easy task was it, for so little sea-room was there betwixt the keels that motion was well-nigh not possible. Earl Fin would in no wise consent to flee and was taken captive; he could not see well. This is what Thiodolf saith:
‘To six Danish earls a guerdon hast thou to give