The next day the gale was such that no boat was permitted to put out to sea. In the evening there was very little talking, and for a while no one said a word; then Captain Johansen broke the silence and said: "Paul, this Arctic Ocean is the home of gales; these often bring sadness to many homes; some of us here have lost friends and relatives at sea. Some years ago a fishing fleet of eight hundred boats was caught in one of these sudden gales. After the boats had come safely into port the roll-call showed that twenty boats with their crews were missing." "How sad!" I exclaimed; and as Captain Johansen was speaking I wondered how many people thought, when they ate fish, of the hard life of the poor and brave fishermen and of the gales they encounter. The fishermen wanted to entertain me before we retired for the night, and Captain Larsen said, "I will tell you, Paul, about one of the great sea battles of the Vikings." CHAPTER XXX A GREAT VIKING SEA FIGHT.--SVEIN KING OF DENMARK, OLAF KING OF SWEDEN, ERIK JARL OF NORWAY, AGAINST KING OLAF TRYGGVASSON OF NORWAY.--THEY LIE IN AMBUSH.--MAGNIFICENT SHIPS.--THE _LONG SERPENT_.--READY FOR THE FIGHT.--THE ATTACK.--THE _JARN BARDI_.--DEFEAT OF OLAF TRYGGVASSON. After we had clustered round Captain Larsen, he gave three or four big puffs of his pipe and began: The battle of Svold took place in the year one thousand. Olaf Tryggvasson, King of Norway, had left Vindland in the Baltic and was on his way back to Norway with his fleet. He was on his ship the _Ormrinn Lange_ (the "Long Serpent"). Svein, the King of Denmark, Olaf King of Sweden, and Erik Jarl of Norway, his enemies, lay in ambush for him under the island of Svold with all their ships. The three chiefs landed on the island. After a while they espied some ships of the fleet of Olaf. Among them was a particularly large and splendid one. Both kings said: "This is an exceedingly fine ship; it must be the _Long Serpent_." Erik Jarl, who knew the _Long Serpent_, answered: "This is not the _Long Serpent_, which is much larger and grander, though this is a fine ship." Ship after ship passed by and the two kings took each of them to be the _Long Serpent_, but they received invariably the same answer from Erik Jarl. The three chiefs drew lots to know who should first attack Olaf Tryggvasson's ship. Svein, King of Denmark, drew the lot to attack first; then Olaf, King of Sweden, and Erik Jarl last, if it should be found necessary. It was agreed between the three chiefs that each should own the ships which he himself cleared of men and captured. Erik Jarl's ship was called the _Jarn Bardi_, an iron-clad ram which had the reputation of cleaving through every ship it attacked; there were beaks on the top of both stem and stern, and below these were thick iron plates which covered the whole of the stem and stern all the way down to the water.