Chapter XCVII: Earl Erlend’s Death

FIVE nights before Christmas, Swein, Asleif’s son, went east to Sandvik,[423] to his kinswoman Sigríd, because he had to make peace between her and her neighbour by name Björn. Before he went away he told Earl Erlend to sleep on board by night, and not to be less on his guard that he himself was absent. Swein spent one night with his kinswoman Sigríd. A tenant and dear friend of Sigríd’s, by name Gisl, asked Swein to stay with him, as he had been brewing ale, and wished to entertain him. When they came to Gisl they were told that Earl Erlend had not gone on board that night; and as soon as Swein heard it, he sent Margad, Grim’s son, and two other men to the Earl, and asked him to pay heed to his advice, although he had not done so the preceding night, and then he added: “I suspect that I shall not have long to provide for this Earl.”

Margad and his companions found Earl Erlend, and told him Swein’s words. The Earl’s men said: “He is a strange man; sometimes he is afraid of nothing, at other times he is so frightened that he does not know where to look for shelter to himself or others.” They said they would sleep quietly on shore, and not go on board. The Earl said they should do as Swein advised them, and he went on board with four-and-twenty men; the others slept at a house. Margad went to another creek, not far away. This very night the Earls Rögnvald and Harald surprised Earl Erlend, and neither the watchmen who kept guard on the island nor those on board the ship perceived them until they were climbing on board. A man named Orm and another Ufi were in the forepart of the Earl’s ship. Ufi jumped up and tried to rouse the Earl, but could not, for he was dead-drunk. Then he took him in his arms, and jumped overboard with him into a boat alongside the ship, and Orm jumped overboard on the other side, and escaped on shore. There Earl Erlend was slain, and most of those on board. Margad and his men were awakened during the night by the battle-cry, and took to their oars, and rowed round the headland. It was clear moonlight, and they saw when the Earls went away; and they felt sure that fate had decided between them. They rowed away first to Rennadal (Rendale), and sent men to Swein, Asleif’s son, to tell him what they had seen. Earl Harald wished to give Earl Erlend’s men peace, but Earl Rögnvald wished to wait, in order to know whether the Earl’s body would be found or not. The body was found two nights before Yule. A spear was seen standing in a heap of seaweed; and that spear was fast in Earl Erlend’s body.[424] Then it was brought to church, and peace was given to the Earl’s men, as well as to four of Swein’s men who had been taken.

A man named Jón Vœng was a sister’s son of that Jón Vœng who was mentioned before.[425] He had been with Hákon Karl, and had a child by his sister; then he ran away, and was with Anakol on piratical expeditions; but now he was with Erlend, yet he was not in the battle. All Erlend’s men went to Kirkiuvag, and took refuge in St. Magnus’s church. The Earls went there, and a meeting for peace-making was held in the church. The Earls would not pardon Jón until he promised to marry the woman. All the men swore oaths of fealty to the Earls, and Jón Vœng became Earl Harald’s steward.