And reached not the dry land."
The girl on the mountain crag continued to play her horn during the battle, until she saw the Laagen dyed with blood. She then threw the horn over her head, went away, and changed her song into weeping. Some say that Sinclair's wife was also killed in the fight, together with her child. According to tradition, when the rest went to battle, Kjel Fjerdingreen[103] of Hedalen, a parish annexed to Vaage, was persuaded by his sweetheart, who had a foreboding of misfortune, to remain behind; but when she heard that Sinclair's wife was with him, and that she carried a new-born babe, she became anxious about her fate, and as much as she had previously bid him remain behind, she now bade him go, not to take part in the carnage, but, if possible, to save the child. "You shall not gain my hand, Kjel," she is said to have told him, "before you have saved the child." He therefore accompanied the others. In the tumult of the battle, Kjel rushed forward in order to comply with the touching entreaties of his sweetheart. The child had just been hit by a ball. Kjel found Mrs. Sinclair, who was beside herself with grief, on horseback, and stanching the blood of her child. As he was going to take it (others say that it had fallen from her, she having dropped it in her fright, and that Kjel took it up and handed it to her), she thought he wanted to injure it, and impelled by fear and motherly affection she thrust a dagger into her benefactor's breast. Others say she stuck the dagger into his back as he was stooping to take the child. It is said that one of Kjel's companions then shot Mrs. Sinclair down from her horse, and that her body was afterwards seen in the Laagen. It is stated by others that the Bönder threw her into the Laagen, taking her for a witch, and that she sat (on the water) stanching the blood of her child, and that the Laagen bore her a long way before she was drowned. When the child was killed, and before Mrs. Sinclair fell a prey to the waves, she is said to have struck up a wild song in her despair,—others say in her scorn. The place where she remained for some moments on the surface of the water is said to have been immediately opposite to the most northerly point of Kringlen. Others again say that she was afterwards amongst the prisoners, and that her life was spared. The inscription in the parish register of Vaage[104] states that she survived.
The battle probably took place from a little north of that point to a little south of the highest part of Kringlen, where the wooden post stands. According to Kruse's Report, it lasted an hour and a half. As soon as the battle was over and the victory gained, the Bönder went after the men of the vanguard, whom they had allowed to pass unhindered. These had fled forward when they perceived the defeat of the rest; but they were overtaken on a plain at Solhjem farm, a little to the south of Kringlen. As the Bönder came rushing to the attack with the cry, "Fall to! fall to! here are more of them," and the Scots saw "what would result from it," they at once sent their interpreter forward and said they would surrender as prisoners. Thereupon they laid down their arms; but when they saw that the Bönder were not so many as they had at first thought, they took their arms up again and wanted to fight their way through; but they were now met in such a manner that they were all either shot and cut down or taken prisoners. Peder Klognæs the guide was with the vanguard, and nearly shared its fate; but on the cry, "I am Peder Klognæs, I am Peder Klognæs, and am one of your own people," he escaped, and returned later in safety to his home in Romsdalen.
The strength of the Bönder force which fought at Kringlen was between four hundred and five hundred men,[105] of whom six were killed and some few wounded. According to the ballad—
"When the Dalesmen this had done,
And thus destroyed the foe,
I have been told of a truth
That six of them were killed