Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/484

 The Swedish king and Earl Eric sailed to meet the Danish king,-and they had all when together an immense force.

At the same time that King Swend sent a message to Sweden for an army, he sent Earl Sigvald to Vendland to spy out King Olaf Tryggvesson's proceedings, and to bring it about by cunning devices that King Swend and King Olaf should fall in with each other. So Sigvald sets out to go to Yendland. First, he came to Jomsburg, and then he sought out King Olaf Tryggvesson. There was much friendship in their conversation, and the earl got himself into great favour with the king. Astrid, the earl's wife, King Burislaf's daughter, was a great friend of King Olaf Tryggvesson, particularly on account of the connection which had been between them when Olaf was married to her sister Geira. Earl Sigvald was a prudent, ready-minded man; and as he had got a voice in King Olaf's council, he put him off much from sailing homewards, finding various reasons for delay. Olaf's people were in the highest degree dissatisfied with this; for the men were anxious to get home, and they lay ready to sail, waiting only for a wind. At last Earl Sigvald got a secret message from Denmark that the Swedish king's army was arrived from the east, and that Earl Eric's also was ready; and that all these chiefs had resolved to sail eastwards to Vendland, and wait for King Olaf at an island which is called Svald. They also desired the earl to contrive matters so that they should meet King Olaf there.

There came first a flying report to Vendland that the Danish king, Swend, had fitted out an army; and