With his long-ships surprised the foe
At Staurin, and their strength laid low.
Many a corpse floats round the shore;
The strand with dead is studded o'er;
The raven tears their sea-bleached skins—
The land thrives well when Eric wins."
Chapter. XCVII.
Earl Eric's foray on the Baltic coasts.
Earl Eric sailed back to Sweden in autumn, and staid there all winter; but in spring he fitted out his war force again, and sailed up the Baltic. When he came to Valdemar's dominions he began to plunder and kill the inhabitants, and burn the dwellings every where as he came along, and to lay waste the country. He came to Aldeigioburg[1] and besieged it until he took the castle; and he killed many people, broke down and burned the castle, and then carried destruction all around far and wide in Russia. So it is told in the "Banda-drapa:"—
"The generous earl, brave and hold,
Who scatters his bright shining gold,
Eric, with fire-scattering hand,
Wasted the Russian monarch's land,—
With arrow-shower, and storm of war,
Wasted the land of Waldemar.
Aldeigia burns, and Eric's might
Scours through all Russia by its light."
Earl Eric was five years in all on this foray; and when he returned from Russia he ravaged all Adalsyssel and Eysyssel[2], and took there four viking ships from the Danes, and killed every man on board. So it is told in the "Banda-drapa:"—
"Among the isles flies round the word,
That Eric's blood-devouring sword
Has flashed like fire in the Sound,
And wasted all the land around.
- ↑ Aldeigioborg is the town at Aldeigia or the Ladoga lake, and is supposed to be the present town of Notaburg, on an island in this lake.
- ↑ Estland was the country along the Gulph of Finland, as far west as the Vistula; and Eysyssel was the district of the islands of Osel and others along this coast. Adalsyssel was the district on the mainland opposite to Eysyssel.
