“The next day they went to the woods, not far from the farm. The king took off his cloak, placed a target on a hill-slope, and marked out a long-shooting distance. Then a bow and arrow were given to him. He shot, and the arrow hit the target near its edge, and stuck there. Eindridi shot farther in on the target, but not in the middle. The king then shot a second time; they went to the target and the arrow was in the middle, and all called it a famous shot. Eindridi also praised the king’s skill, and said he thought it was not worth his while to try again. The king told him to give up if he liked, and acknowledge himself beaten in this idrótt. Eindridi replied that it might be so, but still he would try again; he shot, and his arrow entered the notch for the bowstring of the king’s last arrow, so that both of them stuck there. The king said: ‘A very skilled man art thou at idróttir, but this idrótt has not yet been fully tried. That handsome boy shall now be taken whom thou saidst thou lovedst so well the other day, and he shall be a target as I shall direct.’ The king let a piece of _hnefatafl_[275] be placed on the boy’s head. ‘Now we will shoot the piece down from the boy’s head,’ said the king, ‘so that he shall not be hurt.’ ‘You can do that if you wish, but I will certainly take revenge if the boy is harmed,’ replied Eindridi. A long linen cloth was tied round the boy’s head, and two men held the ends, so that he could not move his head when he heard the whistling of the arrow. The king went to the place where he was to stand, and made the mark of the cross before himself and before the point of the arrow before he shot; but Eindridi grew very red in the face. The arrow flew under the piece, and carried it off the boy’s head, but so near the skull that blood dripped from the top of his head. The king then told Eindridi to shoot after him if he wished; but Eindridi’s mother and sister begged him, weeping sorely, not to try it. Eindridi said to the king: ‘I am not afraid if I risked shooting that I should do the boy any harm, but nevertheless I will not shoot this time.’ ‘Then,’ said the king, ‘it seems to me that thou must acknowledge thyself beaten’” (Olaf Tryggvason’s Saga, vol. ii.; Fornmanna Sögur). Playing with dirks was a common practice. It consisted in playing simultaneously with three short swords, or dirks, so that one was always in the air, while one was in each hand; as one was thrown up, the player seized the falling one. A very uncommon accomplishment was to run on the oar-blades around a ship whilst it was being rowed. Among those thus skilled was Olaf Tryggvason, who, while he was walking over his ship, the _Long Serpent_, on the oar-blades of the rowers, could play with three dirks or short swords. “On the third day the king said to Eindridi: ‘Now the weather is fine and calm, and we will try the handsax game.’ “The men went out to look on; each took two saxes, and they played with them for awhile.