Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/51

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 43 came Erling Skialgsson to meet them, with many saga vn. people and many lendermen with him. Now they steered eastward with their whole fleet to Viken, and Earl Swend ran in there towards the end of Easter. The earl steered his fleet to Grenmore, and ran into Nessie. King Olaf steered his fleet out from Viken, until the Chapter two fleets were not far from each other, and they got King news of each other the Saturday before Palm Sunday. J?^ s s King Olaf himself had a ship called the Carl's Head*, on the bow of which a king's head was carved out, and he himself had carved it. This head was used long after in Norway on ships which kings steered them- selves. As soon as day dawned on Sunday morning, King Chapter Olaf got up, put on his clothes, went to the land, Kino. " and ordered to sound the signal for the whole army to olaf ' s come on shore. Then he made a speech to the troops, and told the whole assembly that he had heard there was but a short distance between them and Earl Swend. " Now," said he, " we shall make ready ; for it can be but a short time until we meet. Let the peo- ple arm, and every man be at the post that has been appointed him, so that all may be ready when I order the signal to sound for casting off from the land.f Then let us row off at once; and so that none go on before the rest of the ships, and none lag be- veneration. King Olaf's son Magnus was called after Charlemagne. ■j" Signals by call of trumpet, or war-horn, or lure, appear to have been well understood by all. We read of the trumpet-call to arm, to attack, to advance, to retreat, to land; and also to a Court Thing, a House Thing, a General Thing. The instrument now in use in Nor- way among the peasants for calling across valleys or rivers, or to their comrades or servants, in situations, so common in mountain-districts, in which the distance through the air is small, yet the labour of going be- tween great, is the bark of the birch tree rolled off, and the pieces bound together so as to form a tube of six or eight feet in length. But the Northmen appear to have had instruments of metal, and regular trum- peters.
 * The head probably of Charlemagne, whose name was held in great