t, covering those within the circle.
The Romans had a similar military arrangement of shields in
sieges--the testudo.--L.

118. OF EINAR TAMBARSKELVER.

Einar Tambarskelver, one of the sharpest of bowshooters, stood by the
mast, and shot with his bow. Einar shot an arrow at Earl Eirik, which
hit the tiller end just above the earl's head so hard that it entered
the wood up to the arrow-shaft. The earl looked that way, and asked
if they knew who had shot; and at the same moment another arrow flew
between his hand and his side, and into the stuffing of the chief's
stool, so that the barb stood far out on the other side. Then said the
earl to a man called Fin,--but some say he was of Fin (Laplander) race,
and was a superior archer,--"Shoot that tall man by the mast." Fin shot;
and the arrow hit the middle of Einar's bow just at the moment that
Einar was drawing it, and the bow was split in two parts.

"What is that," cried King Olaf, "that broke with such a noise?"

"Norway, king, from thy hands," cried Einar.

"No! not quite so much as that," says the king; "take my bow, and
shoot," flinging the bow to him.

Einar took the bow, and drew it over the head of the arrow. "Too weak,
too weak," said he, "for the bow of a mighty king!" and, throwing the
bow aside, he took sword and shield, and fought Valiantly.

119. OLAF GIVES HIS MEN SHARP SWORDS.

The king stood on the gangways of the Long Serpent, and shot the greater
part of the day; sometimes with the bow, sometimes with the spear,
and always throwing two spears at once. He looked down over the ship's
sides, and saw that his men struck briskly with their swords, and yet
wounded but seldom. Then he called aloud, "Why do ye strike so gently
that ye seldom cut?" One among the people answered, "The swords are
blunt and full of notches." Then the king went down into the forehold,
opened the chest under the throne, and took out many sharp swords, which
he handed to his men; but as he stretched down his right hand with them,
some observed that blood was running down under his steel glove, but no
one knew where he was wounded.

120. THE SERPENT BOARDED.

Desperate was the defence in the Serpent, and there was the heaviest
destruction of men done by the forecastle crew, and those of the
forehold, for in both places the men were chosen men, and the ship was
highest, but in the middle of the ship the people were thinned. Now when
Earl Eirik saw