Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 1.djvu/496

 him to Earl Eric; but King Olaf threw his shield over his head, and sank beneath the waters. Kolbiorn held his shield behind him to protect himself from the spears cast at him from the ships which lay round the Serpent, and he fell so upon his shield that it came under him, so that he could not sink so quickly. He was thus taken and brought into a boat, and they supposed he was the king. He was brought before the earl; and when the earl saw it was Kolbiorn, and not the king, he gave him his life. At the same moment all of King Olaf’s men who were in life sprang overboard from the Serpent; and Thorkel Nefia, the king’s brother, was the last of all the men who sprang overboard. It is thus told concerning the king by Halfred:—

Earl Sigvald, as before related, came from Yend- land, in company with King Olaf, with ten ships; but the eleventh ship was manned with the men of Astrid, the king’s daughter, the wife of Earl Sigvald. Now when King Olaf sprang overboard, the whole army raised a shout of victory; and then Earl Sigvald and his men put their oars in the water and rowed towards the battle. Ilaldor the Unchristian tells of it thus:—