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296 sunshine, the carpenters had been busy building the ship, and the Irish painters had been decorating the posts and carving and gilding the dragon’s head and tail and painting the wooden shields. No other artists seemed to have learned the color secrets and could reveal them so wonderfully on wood and steel and iron as these Celts. The ship which Olaf had captured from Raud and which had been considered such a marvel of strength, size, and beauty, seemed quite a poor affair beside the “Long Serpent” as it stretched its wonderful length on the sands of Nidaros,—full forty feet longer, with the golden dragon head far higher at the prow and the upturned tail still higher at the stern. As the “Long Serpent” stood with its wing-like sails unfurled and the glittering, overlapping shields on the sides like scales, it seemed indeed a mighty dragon, just poised for a deadly spring through the air. It was truly the greatest ship Norway had ever seen, and crowds gathered to admire it and to praise the workmanship. No timber but the stoutest oak had been allowed to enter its construction. The planks had been placed over the strong framework, each plank, planed and smooth as glass, overlapping the one below it. The forges of Nidaros had glowed night and day to make the iron bolts that bound the planks together. These bolts were riveted upon the inside of the planks, making the strongest clinker work. The long roots of the tallest oaks that had given the timber for the ship, had been plaited into