Harald stood there,
Of armour bare,
His deadly sword still swinging.
The foeman feel its bite;
His Norsemen rush to fight,
Danger to share,
With Harald there,
Where steel on steel was ringing."

96. FALL OF KING HARALD.

King Harald Sigurdson was hit by an arrow in the windpipe, and that
was his death-wound. He fell, and all who had advanced with him, except
those who retired with the banner. There was afterwards the warmest
conflict, and Earl Toste had taken charge of the king's banner. They
began on both sides to form their array again, and for a long time there
was a pause in fighting. Then Thiodolf sang these verses:--

"The army stands in hushed dismay;
Stilled is the clamour of the fray.
Harald is dead, and with him goes
The spirit to withstand our foes.
A bloody scat the folk must pay
For their king's folly on this day.
He fell; and now, without disguise,
We say this business was not wise."

But before the battle began again Harald Godwinson offered his brother,
Earl Toste, peace, and also quarter to the Northmen who were still
alive; but the Northmen called out, all of them together, that they
would rather fall, one across the other, than accept of quarter from
the Englishmen. Then each side set up a war-shout, and the battle began
again. So says Arnor, the earls' skald:--

"The king, whose name would ill-doers scare,
The gold-tipped arrow would not spare.
Unhelmed, unpanzered, without shield,
He fell among us in the field.
The gallant men who saw him fall
Would take no quarter; one and all
Resolved to die with their loved king,
Around his corpse in a corpse-ring."

97. SKIRMISH OF ORRE.

Eystein Orre came up at this moment from the ships with the men who
followed him, and all were clad in armour. Then Eystein got King
Harald's banner Land-ravager; and now was, for the third time, one of
the sharpest of conflicts, in which many Englishmen fell, and they were
near to taking flight. This conflict is called Orre's storm. Eystein
and his men had hastened so fast from the ships that they were quite
exhausted, and scarcely fit to fight before they came into the
battle; but afterwards they became so furious, that they did not guard
themselves with their shields as long as they could stand upright. At
last they threw off their coats of ringmail, and then t