Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway

6. BATTLE IN THE ISLAND FORMINTERRA.

King Sigurd then proceeded on his voyage, and came to Norfasund; and in the sound he was met by a large viking force, and the king gave them battle; and this was his fifth engagement with heathens since the time he left Norway. He gained the victory here also. So says Haldor Skvaldre:—

     "Ye moistened your dry swords with blood,
     As through Norfasund ye stood;
     The screaming raven got a feast,
     As ye sailed onward to the East."

King Sigurd then sailed eastward along the coast of Serkland, and came to an island there called Forminterra. There a great many heathen Moors had taken up their dwelling in a cave, and had built a strong stone wall before its mouth. They harried the country all round, and carried all their booty to their cave. King Sigurd landed on this island, and went to the cave; but it lay in a precipice, and there was a high winding path to the stone wall, and the precipice above projected over it. The heathens defended the stone wall, and were not afraid of the Northmen's arms; for they could throw stones, or shoot down upon the Northmen under their feet; neither did the Northmen, under such circumstances, dare to mount up. The heathens took their clothes and other valuable things, carried them out upon the wall, spread them out before the Northmen, shouted, and defied them, and upbraided them as cowards. Then Sigurd fell upon this plan. He had two ship's boats, such as we call barks, drawn up the precipice right above the mouth of the cave; and had thick ropes fastened around the stem, stern, and hull of each. In these boats as many men went as could find room, and then the boats were lowered by the ropes down in front of the mouth of the cave; and the men in the boats shot with stones and missiles into the cave, and the heathens were thus driven from the stone wall. Then Sigurd with his troops climbed up the precipice to the foot of the stone wall, which they succeeded in breaking down, so that they came into the cave. Now the heathens fled within the stone wall that was built across the cave; on which the king ordered large trees to be brought to the cave, made a great pile in the mouth of it, and set fire to the wood. When the fire and smoke got the upper hand, some of the heathens lost their lives in it; some fled; some fell by the hands of the Northmen; and part were killed, part burned; and the Northmen made the greatest booty they had got on all their expeditions. So says Halder Skvaldre:—

     "Forminterra lay
     In the victor's way;
     His ships' stems fly
     To victory.
     The bluemen there
     Must fire bear,
     And Norsemen's steel
     At their hearts feel."

And also thus:—

     "'Twas a feat of renown,—
     The boat lowered down,
     With a boat's crew brave,
     In front of the cave;
     While up the rock scaling,
     And comrades up trailing,
     The Norsemen gain,
     And the bluemen are slain."

And also Thorarin Stutfeld says:—

     "The king's men up the mountain's side
     Drag two boats from the ocean's tide;
          The two boats lay,
          Like hill-wolves grey.
     Now o'er the rock in ropes they're swinging
     Well manned, and death to bluemen bringing;
          They hang before
          The robber's door."