rrows. Many had ram's horns hanging from their
necks.

King Harald rode at the front of his army with his standard-bearer
beside him. Chain-armor covered the king's body. A red cloak was thrown
over his shoulders. On his head was a gold helmet with a dragon standing
up from it. He carried a round shield on his left arm. The king had made
that shield himself. It was of brass. The rivets were of silver, with
strangely shaped heads. On the back of Harald's horse was a red cloth
trimmed with the fur of ermine.

King Harald looked up at his standard and laughed aloud.

"Oh, War-lover," he cried, "you and I ride out on a gay journey."

A horn blew again and the army started. The men shouted as they went,
and blew their ram's horns.

"Now we shall taste something better than even King Harald's ale,"
shouted one.

Another rose in his stirrups and sniffed the air.

"Ah! I smell a battle," he cried. "It is sweeter than those strange
waters of Arabia."

So the army went merrily through the land. They carried no tents, they
had no provision wagons.

"The sky is a good enough tent for a soldier," said the Norsemen. "Why
carry provisions when they lie in the farms beside you?"

After two days King Harald saw another army on the hills.

"Thorstein," he shouted, "up with the white shield and go tell King Haki
to choose his battle-field. We will wait but an hour. I am eager for the
frolic."

So Thorstein raised a white shield on his spear as a sign that he came
on an errand of peace. He rode near King Haki, but he could not wait
until he came close before he shouted out his message and then turned
and rode back.

"Tell your boy king that we will not hang back," Haki called after
Thorstein.

King Harald's men waited on the hillside and watched the other army
across the valley. They saw King Haki point and saw twenty men ride off
as he pointed. They stopped in a patch of hazel and hewed with their
axes.

"They are getting the hazels," said Thorstein.

"Audun," said King Harald to a man near him, "stay close to my standard
all day. You must see the best of the fight. I want to hear a song about
it after it is over."

This Audun was the skald who sang at the drinking of King Halfdan's
funeral ale.

King Haki's men rode down into the valley. They drove down stakes all
about a great field. They tied the hazel twigs to the stakes in a
string. But they left an open space toward King Harald's army and one
toward King Ha