and there a band came against him, and King
Harald did battle with them and gained the day.

|| Now having come thus far on his journey King Harald fared south to the
Humber and went up that river and lay in it beside the banks.

At that time there were up in Jerirk (York) Earl Morcar and his brother
Earl Walthiof and with them was a vast host. King Harald was lying in
the Ouse when the host of the Earls swooped down against him.

And King Harald went ashore and set to arraying his host, and one arm of
the array was ranked on the banks of the river, whereas the other
stretched up inland over towards a certain dyke, and a deep marsh was
there, both broad, and full of water.

The Earls bade the whole multitude of their array slink down alongside
the river.

Now the banner to the King was nigh unto the river and there the ranks
were serried, but near the dyke were they more scattered, and the men
thereof also the least trustworthy.

The Earls then came down along by the dyke, and that arm of the
battle-array of the Norwegians which faced the dyke gave way, and
thereon the English pushed forward after them and deemed that the
Norwegians would flee. Therefore did the banner of Morcar fare forward.

|| But when King Harald saw that the array of the English had descended
alongside the dyke and was coming right toward them, then commanded he
the war-blast to be sounded, and eagerly encouraged his men, and let the
banner 'Land-waster' be carried forward; and even so fierce was their
advance on the English, that all were repulsed and there fell a many men
in the host of the Earls.

This host was even soon routed, and some fled up beside the river and
some down, but the most of the folk ran right out into the dyke, and
there the fallen lay so thick that the Norwegians could walk dry-shod
across the marsh.

There too fell Earl Morcar.Sec. Thus saith Stein Herdason:

'Many in the river sank
(The sunken men were drowned);
All round about young Morcar of yore lay many a lad.
To flight the chieftain put them;
The host to swiftest running
Olaf the Mighty is.'Sec.

|| The song that followeth was wrought by Stein Herdason about Olaf ye
son to King Harald, and he saith, the which also we wot of that Olaf was
in the battle with his father. This is told likewise in 'Haraldsstikka:'

'There the dead lay
Down in the marsh
Walthiof's fighters
Weapon-bitten,
So that they might
The war-wonted hors