They prepared for battle, and the news reached King Halfdan. He started up and went with all his men to his ships, and they prepared them for battle at once. Some of Halfdan's men protested to him that it was not advisable to fight, and suggested that he should take to flight as the odds were too heavy against them. The King replied that they would all fall dead one on the top of another before he would flee. Both sides now prepared to give battle, and closed forthwith in a fierce combat, the result of which was that King Halfdan fell with all his host; and Sˆrli took possession of the warship and everything on it that was of value. Then Sˆrli learned that Hˆgni had returned from a raiding expedition and was lying off Odins¯. Sˆrli set off thither with his ships, and when they met, he told him of the death of Halfdan, his father, and made him an offer of reconciliation on his own terms, suggesting also that they should become foster-brothers; but Hˆgni declined all his offers. Then they joined battle, as is told in the poem dealing with Sˆrli. Haakon fought very boldly and slew SÊvar, Sˆrli's standard-bearer and fo'c'sle-man. Then Sˆrli slew Haakon, but Hˆgni slew King Erling, Sˆrli's father. After that Hˆgni and Sˆrli fought together, and Sˆrli went down before Hˆgni from weariness and wounds. And Hˆgni afterwards caused him to be healed of his wounds, and they swore foster-brotherhood to one another, and both remained true to their oaths as long as they lived. Sˆrli was the first to die. He fell in the Baltic at the hands of vikings, as is told in the poem of which he is the subject. And when Hˆgni heard of Sˆrli's death, he went raiding in the Baltic the same summer, and was victorious everywhere. He became king over those regions; and it is said that twenty kings were vassals to King Hˆgni and paid him tribute. Hˆgni became so famous on account of his great deeds and his raiding expeditions that his name was as well known in the north of Finland as away in Paris, and everywhere in between.