mbered that they told the tale of Olaf's last sea-fight to men
who knew from experience what Northern war was like, so they give us what
we chiefly want, a lifelike picture of a Viking battle.

Just as Shakespeare tells how at Shrewsbury "the King had many marching in
his coats," and to this day in an Abyssinian army several nobles are
dressed and armed like the King to divert personal attack from him, so, as
he stood on the after-deck of the "Long Serpent," Olaf had beside him one
of his best warriors, Kolbiorn Slatter, a man like himself in height and
build, and wearing the same splendid armour, with gilded shield and helmet
and crimson cloak. Round them were grouped the picked fighting men of the
bodyguard, the "Shield-burg," so called because it was their duty to form a
breastwork of their shields and ward off arrows and javelins from the King.
On the poop also were the King's trumpeters bearing the "war horns"--long
horns of the wild ox, which now sounded the signal for battle. The droning
call was taken up by ship after ship, as the shouting sailors sent down
sails and yards on deck. The ships closed on each other side by side, and
drew in their oars, forming in close line abreast, and then under bare
masts the long array of war galleys, with their high bows carved into heads
of beasts and birds and dragons, drifted with the current towards the
hostile fleet.

The sailors were lashing the ships together as they moved. Manoeuvring
appears to have had small part in most Viking fights. The fleet became one
great floating fortress, and as the ships met bow to bow the best warriors
fought hand to hand on the forecastle decks.

[Illustration: A VIKING FLEET]

The writer of the "Saga" tells how in the centre of the fleet the "Long
Serpent" lay, with the "Crane" and the "Short Serpent" to port and
starboard. The sterns of the three ships were in line, and so the bow of
the "Long Serpent" projected far in front of the rest. As the sailors
secured the ships in position, Ulf the Red-haired, who commanded on the
forecastle of the "Long Serpent," went aft and called out to the King that
if the "Serpent" lay so far ahead he and his men would have tough work in
the bow. "Are you afraid?" asked the King. "We are no more afraid forward
than you are aft," replied Ulf, with a flash of anger. The King lost his
temper and threatened Ulf with an arrow on his bowstring. "Put down your
bow," said Ulf. "If you shoot me you wound you