certain that King Eirik had fallen,
after having plundered the land of the King of England, they thought
there was no peace to be expected for them; and they made themselves
ready to depart from Northumberland, with all the ships King Eirik had
left, and all the men who would go with them. They took also all the
loose property, and goods which they had gathered partly as taxes in
England, partly as booty on their expeditions. With their army they
first steered northward to Orkney, where Thorfin Hausakljufer was earl,
a son of Torfeinar, and took up their station there for a time. Eirik's
sons subdued these islands and Hjaltland, took scat for themselves, and
staid there all the winter; but went on viking cruises in summer to the
West, and plundered in Scotland and Ireland. About this Glum Geirason
sings:--

"The hero who knows well to ride
The sea-horse o'er the foamingtide,--
He who in boyhood wild rode o'er
The seaman's horse to Skanea's shore.
And showed the Danes his galley's bow,
Right nobly scours the ocean now.
On Scotland's coast he lights the brand
Of flaming war; with conquering hand
Drives many a Scottish warrior tall
To the bright seats in Odin's hall.
The fire-spark, by the fiend of war
Fanned to a flame, soon spreads afar.
Crowds trembling fly,--the southern foes
Fall thick beneath the hero's blows:
The hero's blade drips red with gore,
Staining the green sward on the shore."

6. BATTLE IN JUTLAND.

When King Eirik had left the country, King Hakon, Athelstan's
foster-son, subdued the whole of Norway. The first winter (A.D. 936)
he visited the western parts, and then went north, and settled in
Throndhjem. But as no peace could be reasonably looked for so long as
King Eirik with his forces could come to Norway from the West sea, he
set himself with his men-at-arms in the middle of the country,--in the
Fjord district, or in Sogn, or Hordaland, or Rogaland. Hakon placed
Sigurd earl of Hlader over the whole Throradhjem district, as he and his
father had before had it under Harald Harfager. When King Hakon heard
of his brother Eirik's death, and also that his sons had no footing in
England, he thought there was not much to fear from them, and he went
with his troops one summer eastward to Viken. At that time the Danes
plundered often in Viken, and wrought much evil there; but when they
heard that King Hakon was come wi