SWOLD (or SwoLD), BATTLE OF, the most famous of the sea-fights of the ancient Norsemen. It took place on Sept. 9, L000. The place cannot now be identified. Swold was an island probably on the North German coast, near Rilgen. The battle was fought between Olaf Trygvesson, king of Norway, and a coalition of his enemies—Eric Hakonson, his cousin and rival; Olaf, king of Sweden ; and Sweyn Forkbeard, king of Denmark.
Olaf had been during the summer in the eastern Baltic. The allies lay in wait for him at the island of Swold on his way home.
The Norse king had with him seventy-one vessels, but part of them belonged to an associate, Sigwald, a chief of the Jomsburg vikings, who was an agent of his enemies, and who deserted him. The allies allowed the bulk of the Norse ships to pass, and then stood out to attack Olaf.
The Norse writers, who are the only authorities, gave all the credit to their own countrymen, and according to them all the intelligence of Olaf's enemies, and most of their valour, were to be found in Eric Hakonson. They say that the Danes and Swedes
rushed at the front of Olaf's line without success. Eric Hakonson attacked the flank. His vessel, the "Iron Ram," was "bearded," that is to say, strengthened across the bows by bands of iron, and he forced her between the last and last but one of Olaf's line. In this way the Norse ships were carried one by one, till the "Long Serpent" alone was left. At last she too was overpowered. Olaf leapt into the sea holding his shield edgeways, so that he sank at once and the weight of his hauberk dragged him down. A legend of later days has it that at the last moment a sudden blaze of light surrounded the king, and when it cleared away he had dis appeared. King Olaf is one of that company of legendary heroic figures in whose death the people would not believe, and whose return was looked for.
See the Heims-Kringla, in the Saga Library, trans. by W. Morris and E. Magnusson (1893) and the Saga of King Olaf Tryggwason, trans. by J. Sephton (1895).