Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/19

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 11 " King Ethelred has found a friend : saga VII. Brave Olaf will his throne defend — In bloody fight Maintain his right, Win back his land With blood-red hand, And Edmund's son upon his throne replace— Edmund, the star of every royal race ! " Sigvat also relates as follows : — " At London Bridge stout Olaf gave Odin's law to his war-men brave — c To win or die ! ' And their foemen fly. Some by the dyke-side refuge gain — Some in their tents on Southwark plain ! This sixth attack Brought victory back." King Olaf passed all the winter with King Ethelred, Chapter and had a great battle at Hringmara Heath* in Ulf- The kel's land, the domain which Ulfkel Snelling at that ^^ time held ; and here again the king was victorious. So Says Sigvald the scald : — " To Ulfkel's land came Olaf bold, A seventh sword-thing he would hold. The race of Ella filled the plain — Few of them slept at home again ! Hringmara heath Was a bed of death : Haarfager's heir Dealt slaughter there." And Ottar sings of this battle thus : — " From Hringmar field The chime of war, Sword striking shield, Rings from afar. The living fly ; The dead piled high The moor enrich: Red runs the ditch." Angeln, as it is called Ulfkel Snelling's land, and he appears to have been chief of the part of England called East Angeln occupied by the Danes. Ashdown in Kent, and Assington in Essex, have each been taken by antiquaries for this battle-field.
 * This is an unknown place, Hringmaraheidi ; but must be in East