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The Heimskringla on Long Serpent

Heimskringla > The Chronicle Of The Kings Of Norway > 95. Building Of The Ship Long Serpent.

attestation: The Long Serpent had thirty-four rowing benches, gilt head and tail, and bulwarks as high as sea-going ships.

"The long Serpent had thirty-four benches for rowers. The head and the arched tail were both gilt, and the bulwarks were as high as in sea-going ships"
attestation: The Long Serpent was considered the best and most costly ship ever made in Norway.

"This ship was the best and most costly ship ever made in Norway"

attestation: The Long Serpent's crew was carefully selected: no man older than sixty or younger than twenty, all distinguished for strength and courage.

"the crews were taken out for the ships, they were so carefully selected that no man on board the Long Serpent was older than sixty or younger than twenty years, and all were men distinguished for strength and courage"

attestation: The Long Serpent had thirty men in the fore-hold and eight men in every half-division, all chosen men.

"In every half division of the hold were eight men, and each and all chosen men; and in the fore-hold were thirty men"
attestation: The Long Serpent's crew was considered as distinguished among men as the Long Serpent was among ships.

"the Long Serpent's crew was as distinguished for bravery, strength, and daring, among other men, as the Long Serpent was distinguished among other ships"

attestation: The Long Serpent finally appeared as the fourth ship in a group, and when all recognized it, nobody disputed that Olaf Trygvason himself sailed in it, and all forces rushed to prepare for battle.

"when they really, saw the Long Serpent, all knew, and nobody had a word to say against it, that it must be Olaf Trygvason who was sailing in such a vessel; and they went to their ships to arm for the fight."
attestation: The ships misidentified before the Long Serpent were the Crane, the Short Serpent, and other large vessels that preceded the true flagship.

"Of the large ships which had gone before, and which they had taken for the Long Serpent, the first was the Crane; the one after that was the Short Serpent"

attestation: In Norse sea battles, ships were bound together at stems and sterns to form a compact body, with fighting primarily from forecastles and grappling irons used to drag enemy vessels into boarding distance.

"The mode of fighting in sea battles appears, from this and many other descriptions, to have been for each party to bind together the stems and sterns of their own ships, forming them thus into a compact body"

attestation: The Battle of Svold began in the year 1000, with King Svein attacking the Long Serpent directly.

"The kings now laid out their oars, and prepared to attack (A.D. 1000). King Svein laid his ship against the Long Serpent."

attestation: The forecastle men of the Long Serpent, Little Serpent, and Crane threw grapplings and stem chains into King Svein's ship, clearing its decks.

"The forecastle men of the Long Serpent, the Little Serpent, and the Crane, threw grapplings and stem chains into King Svein's ship, and used their weapons well against the people standing below them"

attestation: So many weapons were cast into the Long Serpent that the shields could scarcely receive them, as it was surrounded on all sides by warships.

"So many weapons were cast into the Serpent, and so thick flew spears and arrows, that the shields could scarcely receive them, for on all sides the Serpent was surrounded by war-ships."

attestation: The forecastle and forehold crews of the Long Serpent were chosen men fighting from the ship's highest points, while the middle section was thinned of defenders.

"there was the heaviest destruction of men done by the forecastle crew, and those of the forehold, for in both places the men were chosen men, and the ship was highest, but in the middle of the ship the people were thinned."