King Sigurd then proceeded on his voyage, and came to Norfasund; and
in the sound he was met by a large viking force, and the king gave them
battle; and this was his fifth engagement with heathens since the
time he left Norway. He gained the victory here also. So says Haldor
Skvaldre:--
"Ye moistened your dry swords with blood,
As through Norfasund ye stood;
The screaming raven got a feast,
As ye sailed onward to the East."
King Sigurd then sailed eastward along the coast of Serkland, and came
to an island there called Forminterra. There a great many heathen Moors
had taken up their dwelling in a cave, and had built a strong stone wall
before its mouth. They harried the country all round, and carried all
their booty to their cave. King Sigurd landed on this island, and went
to the cave; but it lay in a precipice, and there was a high winding
path to the stone wall, and the precipice above projected over it. The
heathens defended the stone wall, and were not afraid of the Northmen's
arms; for they could throw stones, or shoot down upon the Northmen under
their feet; neither did the Northmen, under such circumstances, dare
to mount up. The heathens took their clothes and other valuable things,
carried them out upon the wall, spread them out before the Northmen,
shouted, and defied them, and upbraided them as cowards. Then Sigurd
fell upon this plan. He had two ship's boats, such as we call barks,
drawn up the precipice right above the mouth of the cave; and had thick
ropes fastened around the stem, stern, and hull of each. In these boats
as many men went as could find room, and then the boats were lowered
by the ropes down in front of the mouth of the cave; and the men in the
boats shot with stones and missiles into the cave, and the heathens were
thus driven from the stone wall. Then Sigurd with his troops climbed
up the precipice to the foot of the stone wall, which they succeeded in
breaking down, so that they came into the cave. Now the heathens fled
within the stone wall that was built across the cave; on which the king
ordered large trees to be brought to the cave, made a great pile in the
mouth of it, and set fire to the wood. When the fire and smoke got the
upper hand, some of the heathens lost their lives in it; some fled; some
fell by the hands of the Northmen; and part were killed, part burned;
and the Northmen made the greatest booty they had got on all their
expeditions. So says Halder Skvaldre:--
"Forminterra lay
In the victor's way;
His ships' stems fly
To victory.
The bluemen there
Must fire bear,
And Norsemen's steel
At their hearts feel."