into her, and thus stove out her bottom, so that in the end she filled
and sank.

Even while she was down the fray went on. Nearly all my people were
down; indeed but two remained to me when Steinar, not knowing who I was,
rushed up and, having lost his sword, gripped me round the middle.
We wrestled, but Steinar, who was the stronger, forced me back to the
bulwarks and so overboard. Into the sea we went together just as
the ship sank, drawing us down after her. When we rose Steinar was
senseless, but still clinging to me as I caught a rope that was thrown
to me with my right hand, to which the Wanderer's sword was hanging by a
leathern loop.

The end of it was that I and the senseless Steinar were both drawn back
to my own ship just as the darkness closed in.



An hour later came the dawn, showing a sad sight. My father, Thorvald's,
ship and one of Athalbrand's lay helpless, for all, or nearly all, their
crews were dead, while the other had drifted off and was now half a mile
away.

Ragnar's ship was still grappled to its foe. My own was perhaps in the
best case, for here over twenty men were left unhurt, and another ten
whose wounds were light. The rest were dead or dying.

I sat on a bench in the waist of the ship, and at my feet lay the man
who had been dragged from the sea with me. I thought that this man was
dead till the first red rays of dawn lit upon his face, whereon he sat