hostility, he hurried northward to Drontheim with all the men he could gather, and placed them at the disposal of the earl. The Jomsvikings, in the meanwhile, occupied themselves in plundering the coasts of Norway, sailing slowly northward with a well-manned fleet of sixty ships. The number of their warriors was between seven and eight thousand. They met Earl Haakon and his sons Erik, Sweyn, Sigurd, and Erling at Hjörungavaag in Söndmöre. The earl had one hundred and eighty ships, the majority of which were inferior in size and equipment to those of his enemies; and according to a probable calculation, his force amounted to ten or eleven thousand men. So many men and ships had scarcely ever before been seen together in the North, and the sagas relate that the fight in Hjörungavaag (986) was the greatest battle that has ever been fought in Norway. [Illustration: RUNESTONE FROM STRAND IN RYFYLKE. THE INSCRIPTION WHICH IS IN THE OLDEST NORSE RUNES READS AS FOLLOWS: I, HAGUSTALD, BURIED IN THIS HILL MY SON, HADULAIK.] As Earl Haakon saw the first of the Jomsvikings sailing up the sound, he disposed his own ships in battle-array. He gave his oldest son Erik command of the right wing, placed Sweyn on the left, and himself commanded the centre. Opposite to Sweyn were the ships of the famous Jomsviking Vagn Aakesson, whose impetuosity and daring had made him dreaded far and wide. The young Earl Sweyn was no match for such an antagonist, and after a gallant resistance he began to retreat. His brother Erik, seeing the imminent danger, rowed around to his wing, drove Vagn back, and forced his brother to resume his position. Then he hastened back to his own wing, and came just in time to check the progress of Bue the Big (Digre), who commanded the corresponding wing of the Jomsvikings. The battle now grew furious, and the carnage on both sides was tremendous. The spears and arrows fell in rattling showers about Earl Haakon, as he stood in the prow of his ship, and so many hit him that his shirt of mail was torn into strips, and he was forced to throw it away. The ships of the vikings were higher than those of the Norsemen, and the advantage which this afforded the former told at first heavily against the latter. Then, it is told, Earl Haakon suddenly disappeared, and the legend relates that he took his youngest son Erling, went ashore with him, and sacrificed him to the gods for victory. Instantly the skies grew black, and a violent hail-storm beat down, pelting the faces of the Jomsvikings and almost blinding them. Every grain of hail, says the saga, weighed two ounces. Some even declared that they saw the maidens of Odin, the Valkyrias, Thorgerd and Irp, standing in the prow of Earl Haakon's ship, sending forth a deadlier hail of unerring arrows. The Jomsvikings fought half blindly, fell on the slippery decks in a slush of blood and melting hail, but in spite of the twilight and confusion yet held their own. Then suddenly