Part 186 - Of Erling Skjalgson's Fall

King Olaf then steered in towards the Bokn fjord, by which the ships came out of sight of each other. Thereafter the king ordered his men to strike the sails, and row forwards through a narrow sound that was there, and all the ships lay collected within a rocky point. Then all the king's men put on their weapons.

Erling sailed in through the sound, and observed nothing until the whole fleet was before him, and he saw the king's men rowing towards him with all their ships at once.

Erling and his crew let fall the sails, and seized their weapons; but the king's fleet surrounded his ship on all sides. Then the fight began, and it was of the sharpest; but soon the greatest loss was among Erling's men.

Erling stood on the quarter-deck of his ship. He had a helmet on his head, a shield before him, and a sword in his hand. Sigvat the skald had remained behind in Viken, and heard the tidings. He was a great friend of Erling, had received presents from him, and had been at his house.

Sigvat composed a poem upon Erling's fall, in which there is the following verse: —

"Erling has set his ship on sea —
Against the king away is he:
He who oft lets the eagle stain
Her yellow feet in blood of slain.
His little war-ship side by side
With the king's fleet, the fray will bide.
Now sword to sword the fight is raging,
Which Erling with the king is waging."

Then Erling's men began to fall, and at the same moment his ship was carried by boarding, and every man of his died in his place.

The king himself was amongst the foremost in the fray.

So says Sigvat: —

"The king's men hewed with hasty sword, —
The king urged on the ship to board, —
All o'er the decks the wounded lay:
Right fierce and bloody was that fray.
In Tungur sound, on Jadar shore,
The decks were slippery with red gore;
Warm blood was dropping in the sound,
Where the king's sword was gleaming round."

So entirely had Erling's men fallen, that not a man remained standing in his ship but himself alone; for there was none who asked for quarter, or none who got it if he did ask. There was no opening for flight, for there lay ships all around Erling's ship on every side, and it is told for certain that no man attempted to fly; and Sigvat says: —

"All Erling's men fell in the fray,
Off Bokn fjord, this hard-fought day.
The brave king boarded, onward cheered,
And north of Tungur the deck was cleared.
Erling alone, the brave, the stout,
Cut off from all, yet still held out;
High on the stern — a sight to see —
In his lone ship alone stood he."

Then Erling was attacked both from the forecastle and from the other ships. There was a large space upon the poop which stood high above the other ships, and which nobody could reach but by arrow-shot, or partly with the thrust of spear, but which he always struck from him by parrying.

Erling defended himself so manfully, that no example is known of one man having sustained the attack of so many men so long. Yet he never tried to get away, nor asked for quarter.

So says Sigvat: —

"Skjalg's brave son no mercy craves, —
The battle's fury still he braves;
The spear-storm, through the air sharp singing,
Against his shield was ever ringing.
So Erling stood; but fate had willed
His life off Bokn should be spilled.
No braver man has, since his day,
Past Bokn fjord ta'en his way."

When Olaf went back a little upon the fore-deck he saw Erling's behaviour; and the king accosted him thus: —

"Thou hast turned against me to-day, Erling."

He replies,

"The eagle turns his claws in defence when torn asunder."

Sigvat the skald tells thus of these words of Erling: —

"Erling. our best defence of old, —
Erling the brave, the brisk, the bold, —
Stood to his arms, gaily crying,
'Eagles should show their claws, though dying:'
The very words which once before
To Olaf he had said on shore,
At Utstein when they both prepared
To meet the foe, and danger shared."

Then said the king,

"Wilt thou enter into my service, Erling?"

"That I will,"

said he; took the helmet off his head, laid down his sword and shield, and went forward to the forecastle deck.

The king struck him in the chin with the sharp point of his battle-axe, and said,

"I shall mark thee as a traitor to thy sovereign."

Then Aslak Fitiaskalle rose up, and struck Erling in the head with an axe, so that it stood fast in his brain, and was instantly his death-wound. Thus Erling lost his life.

The king said to Aslak,

"May all ill luck attend thee for that stroke; for thou hast struck Norway out of my hands."

Aslak replied,

"It is bad enough if that stroke displease thee, for I thought it was striking Norway into thy hands; and if I have given thee offence, sire, by this stroke, and have thy ill- will for it, it will go badly with me, for I will get so many men's ill-will and enmity for this deed that I would need all your protection and favour."

The king replied that he should have it.

Thereafter the king ordered every man to return to his ship, and to get ready to depart as fast as he could.

"We will not plunder the slain,"

says he,

"and each man may keep what he has taken."

The men returned to the ships and prepared themselves for the departure as quickly as possible; and scarcely was this done before the vessels of the bondes ran in from the south into the sound. It went with the bonde-army as is often seen, that the men, although many in numbers, know not what to do when they have experienced a check, have lost their chief, and are without leaders.

None of Erling's sons were there, and the bondes therefore made no attack, and the king sailed on his way northwards. But the bondes took Erling's corpse, adorned it, and carried it with them home to Sole, and also the bodies of all who had fallen. There was great lamentation over Erling; and it has been a common observation among people, that Erling Skjalgson was the greatest and worthiest man in Norway of those who had no high title.

Sigvat made these verses upon the occasion: —

"Thus Erling fell — and such a gain
To buy with such a loss was vain;
For better man than he ne'er died,
And the king's gain was small beside.
In truth no man I ever knew
Was, in all ways, so firm and true;
Free from servility and pride,
Honoured by all, yet thus he died."

Sigvat also says that Aslak had very unthinkingly committed this murder of his own kinsman: —

"Norway's brave defender's dead!
Aslak has heaped on his own head
The guilt of murdering his own kin:
May few be guilty of such sin!
His kinsman's murder on him lies —
Our forefathers, in sayings wise,
Have said, what is unknown to few,
'Kinsmen to kinsmen should be true.'"