King Hakon took all the ships of the sons of Eirik that had been left
upon the strand, and had them drawn quite up, and brought on the land.
Then he ordered that Egil Ulserk, and all the men of his army who had
fallen, should be laid in the ships, and covered entirely over with
earth and stones. King Hakon made many of the ships to be drawn up to
the field of battle, and the hillocks over them are to be seen to the
present day a little to the south of Fredarberg. At the time when King
Hakon was killed, when Glum Geirason, in his song, boasted of King
Hakon's fall, Eyvind Skaldaspiller composed these verses on this
battle:--
"Our dauntless king with Gamle's gore
Sprinkled his bright sword o'er and o'er:
Sprinkled the gag that holds the mouth
Of the fell demon Fenriswolf (1).
Proud swelled our warriors' hearts when he
Drove Eirik's sons out to the sea,
With all their Guatland host: but now
Our warriors weep--Hakon lies low!"
High standing stones mark Egil Uslerk s grave.
ENDNOTES: (1) The Fenriswolf, one of the children of Loke, begotten with
a giantess, was chained to a rock, and gagged by a sword
placed in his mouth, to prevent him devouring mankind.
Fenriswolf's gag is a skaldic expression for a sword.--L.