Kyrpingaorm and Ragnhild, a daughter of Sveinke Steinarson, had a son
called Erling. Kyrpingaorm was a son of Svein Sveinson, who was a son of
Erling of Gerd. Otto's mother was Ragna, a daughter of Earl Orm Eilifson
and Sigrid, a daughter of Earl Fin Arnason. The mother of Earl Orm
was Ragnhild, a daughter of Earl Hakon the Great. Erling was a man of
understanding, and a great friend of King Inge, by whose assistance and
counsel Erling obtained in marriage Christina, a daughter of King Sigurd
the Crusader and Queen Malmfrid. Erling possessed a farm at Studla in
South Hordaland. Erling left the country; and with him went Eindride
Unge and several lendermen, who had chosen men with them. They intended
to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and went across the West sea to
Orkney. There Earl Ragnvald and Bishop William joined them; and they had
in all fifteen ships from Orkney, with which they first sailed to the
South Hebrides, from thence west to Valland, and then the same way King
Sigurd the Crusader had sailed to Norvasund; and they plundered all
around in the heathen part of Spain. Soon after they had sailed
through the Norvasund, Eindride Unge and his followers, with six ships,
separated from them; and then each was for himself. Earl Ragnvald
and Erling Skakke fell in with a large ship of burden at sea called a
dromund, and gave battle to it with nine ships. At last they laid their
cutters close under the dromund; but the heathens threw both weapons and
stones, and pots full of pitch and boiling oil. Erling laid his ship so
close under the dromund, that the missiles of the heathens fell without
his ship. Then Erling and his men cut a hole in the dromund, some
working below and some above the water-mark; and so they boarded
the vessel through it. So says Thorbjorn Skakkaskald, in his poem on
Erling:--
"The axes of the Northmen bold
A door into the huge ships' hold
Hewed through her high and curved side,
As snug beneath her bulge they ride.
Their spears bring down the astonished foe,
Who cannot see from whence the blow.
The eagle's prey, they, man by man,
Fall by the Northmen's daring plan."
Audunraude, Erling's forecastle-man, was the first man who got into the
dromund. Then they carried her, killing an immense number of people;
making an extraordinarily valuable booty, and gaining a famous victory.
Earl Ragnvald and Erling Skakke came to Palestine in the course of their
expedition, and all the way to the river Jordan. From thence they
went first to Constantinople, where they left their ships, travelled
northwards by land, and arrived in safety in Norway, where their journey
was highly praised. Erling Skakke appeared now a much greater man than
before, both on account of his journey and of his marriage; besides he
was a prudent sensible man, rich, of great family, eloquent, and devoted
to King Inge by the strictest friendship more than to the other royal
brothers.