“They (Olaf Tryggvason and Eindridi) went to the shore and the men with them. The king and Eindridi undressed. They swam off and played a long time with each other, and alternately dragged each other down, and finally they were so long under water that they were not expected to come up; but at last King Olaf rose and swam ashore. He went up and rested himself, but did not dress; no one knew nor dared to ask what had become of Eindridi. After a long time they saw him; he had got a very large seal, and sat on its back; he clung to it with both hands in its bristles, and thus steered it, and, when he came near the shore, let it go. The king sprang up and swam out to him, thrust him under water and held him down for a long time; when they came up, the king swam ashore, but Eindridi was so exhausted that he could not save himself; when the king saw this, he went to him and helped him ashore. When Eindridi began to recover and they were dressed, the king said: ‘Thy swimming idrótt is great, Eindridi; but nevertheless God is to be thanked that thou wast inferior to me, as all could see, when I had to take thee ashore.’ ‘Thou canst think whatever thou likest about that,’ replied Eindridi. ‘But,’ asked the king, ‘why didst thou not kill the seal, and drag it ashore?’ ‘Because,’ answered Eindridi, ‘I did not want thee to say that I had found it dead.’” (Olaf Tryggvason’s Saga, vol. ii., p. 270; Fornmanna Sögur). Kjartan, son of the Icelandic chief Olaf, went to Nidaros in Norway. “One fine day in autumn men went from the town to swim in the river Nid. The Icelanders saw this. Kjartan told his companions that they ought to go to the swimming and amuse themselves; this they did. One man swam far better than others. Kjartan asked Bolli if he would try his powers of swimming with this man of the town. Bolli answered: ‘I do not think I am able to do it.’ Kjartan said: ‘I do not know where thy ambition is now; then I will.’ Bolli replied: ‘Do as thou likest.’ Kjartan threw himself into the river, and swam to the man who was the best swimmer; he took him down at once, and kept him beneath the surface for a while; he then let him come up, and when they had not been long above water the man took hold of Kjartan and pulled him under water, and they were under water as long as Kjartan thought convenient. They came up again, and said nothing. They went down a third time, and were by far the longest time under water. Kjartan did not see how it would end, and thought he had never been so hard tried before. At last they came up and swam to the bank. The townsman asked: ‘Who is this man?’ Kjartan told his name. The townsman said: ‘Thou art a good swimmer; art thou as skilled in other idróttir as in this?’ Kjartan answered, rather slowly: ‘When I was in Iceland it was said that my other idróttir were equal, but now it is of little consequence’”[274] (Laxdæla, ch. 10).