Earl Hakon had sailed with his fleet from Throndhjem, and gone south to
More against King Olaf, as before related. Now when the king bore away,
and ran into the fjord, the earl followed him thither; and then Kalf
Arnason came to meet him, with many of the men who had deserted King
Olaf. Kalf was well received. The earl steered in through Todar fjord to
Valdal, where the king had laid up his ships on the strand. He took
the ships which belonged to the king, had them put upon the water and
rigged, and cast lots, and put commanders in charge of them according to
the lots. There was a man called Jokul, who was an Icelander, a son of
Bard Jokulson of Vatnsdal; the lot fell upon Jokul to command the Bison,
which King Olaf himself had commanded. Jokul made these verses upon
it:--
"Mine is the lot to take the helm
Which Olaf owned, who owned the realm;
From Sult King Olaf's ship to steer
(Ill luck I dread on his reindeer).
My girl will never hear the tidings,
Till o'er the wild wave I come riding
In Olaf's ship, who loved his gold,
And lost his ships with wealth untold."
We may here shortly tell what happened a long time after.--that this
Jokul fell in with King Olaf's men in the island of Gotland, and
the king ordered him to be taken out to be beheaded. A willow twig
accordingly was plaited in with his hair, and a man held him fast by it.
Jokul sat down upon a bank, and a man swung the axe to execute him; but
Jokul hearing the sound, raised his head, and the blow struck him in
the head, and made a dreadful wound. As the king saw it would be his
death-wound, he ordered them to let him lie with it. Jokul raised
himself up, and he sang:--
"My hard fate I mourn,--
Alas! my wounds burn,
My red wounds are gaping,
My life-blood escaping.
My wounds burn sore;
But I suffer still more
From the king's angry word,
Than his sharp-biting sword."