mar- shal. KINGS OF NORWAY. 93 their shields as long as they could stand upright. At saga ix. last they threw off their coats of ring-mail, and then the Englishmen could easily lay their blows at them ; and many fell from weariness, and died without a wound. Thus almost all the chief men fell among the Norway people. This happened towards evening ; and then it went, as one might expect, that all had not the same fate, for many fled, and were lucky enough to escape in various ways ; and darkness fell before the slaughter was altogether ended. Styrkar, King Harald Sigurdsson's marshal, a gal- Chapter lant man, escaped upon a horse, on which he rode of styrkar away in the evening. It was blowing a cold wind, *{j^ and Styrkar had not much other clothing upon him but his shirt, and had a helmet on his head, and a drawn sword in his hand. As soon as his weariness was over, he began to feel cold. A waggoner met him in a lined skin-coat. Styrkar asks him, " Wilt thou sell thy coat, friend ?" " Not to thee," says the peasant : " thou art a Northman ; that I can hear by thy tongue." Styrkar replies, " If I were a Northman, what wouldst thou do?" '^ I would kill thee," replied the peasant ; ^' but, as ill luck would have it, I have no weapon just now by me that would do it." Then Styrkar says, ^' As you can't kill me, friend, I shall try if I can't kill you." And with that he swung his sword, and struck him on the neck, so that his head came ofi^. He then took the skin-coat, sprang on his horse, and rode down to the strand. Olaf Haraldsson had not gone on land with the others, and when he heard of his father's fall he made ready to sail away with the men who remained. When the Earl of Rouen, William the Bastard, Chapter heard of his relation King Edward's death, and also ofw?m' that Harald Godwinsson was chosen, crowned, and t^e Bas ' ' tard. lam
