Among the few Norsemen of rank who had joined Olaf before he crossed the boundary, was his half-brother Harold, the son of Sigurd Syr. He was only fifteen years old, but large for his age. He led 720 men under his banner. When the king's entire army was mustered, the day before the battle, it was found to number 4,100 men; but 500 of these were sent away because they were heathen, and many of them no doubt joined the hostile army. The king woke early on the morning of the battle, and called the poet, Thormod Kolbruna-Scald, and asked him to sing to him. Thormod stood up and sang with a ringing voice the ancient Bjarkemaal, which resounded over forest and field. The army woke and was arranged in battle array on the heights of Stiklestad in Vaerdalen; the peasant army, 10,000 strong being seen approaching in the distance. With the battle-cry: "Forward, Christ's men, Crusaders, the King's men!" Olaf's warriors rushed down the hill-sides, and the peasant army stormed to meet them with the cry: "Forward, forward, peasant-men!" The fight was long indecisive, though the king's men, on account of the advantage of their position, had the upper hand in the first onset. The peasants, however, fought with dogged determination, and their superior number told, the longer the battle raged. Olaf's ranks wavered and grew thinner. Then, with desperate courage, the king broke forth from the shield-burgh that surrounded him, and followed by a small band of devoted men, dashed against the front of the peasant host. One by one his men fell about him, and again and again his standard-bearer was cut down. Severely wounded, he stood leaning against a boulder, when Thore Hund sprang forward and plunged his spear into his abdomen. In the next moment Kalf Arnesson gave him a cut across the throat, which was the immediate cause of his death, though Thore Hund's spear had already dealt him a mortal wound. Then, so runs the record, the sun grew blood-red, and a strange red sheen spread over the landscape. Darkness fell upon the fighting hosts, and the sun grew black. A great terror took possession of the peasants, who saw in the eclipse [A] an evidence of the wrath of Olaf's God. [Footnote A: This eclipse--lasting from 1 o'clock 31' P.M. to 4 o'clock 58', Aug. 31, 1030--fixes definitely the date of the battle. It was total in Vaerdalen.]