Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/408

 come to his succour; and the earl had just reached the island when the king had received baptism. The king sends word to the earl to come to him, and when they met the king forced the earl to allow himself also to be baptized. So Earl Hakon and all the men who were with him were baptized; and the king gave them priests and other learned men with them, and ordered that the earl should make all the people in Norway be baptized. On that they separated; and the earl went out to sea, there to wait for a wind.

When a wind came with which he thought he could get clear out to sea, he put all the learned men on shore again, and set off to the ocean; but as the wind came round to south-west, and at last to west, he sailed eastward, out through the sound, ravaging the land on both sides. He then sailed eastward along Scania, plundering the country wherever he came. When he got east to the skerries of East Gotland, he ran in and landed, and made a great blood-sacrifice. There came two ravens flying which croaked loudly; and now, thought the earl, the blood-offering has been accepted by Odin, and he thought good luck would be with him any day he liked to go to battle. Then lie set fire to his ships, landed his men, and went over all the country with armed hand. Earl Ottar, who ruled over Gotland, came against him, and they held a great battle with each other; but Earl Hakon gained the day, and Earl Ottar and a great part of his men were killed. Earl Hakon now drove with fire and sword over both the Gotlands, until he came into Norway; and then he proceeded by land all the way north to Drontheim. The "Vellekla" tells about this:—