The fight still lingered on the wave,
Tho' hope was gone with Olaf brave.
War, like a full-fed ravenous beast,
Still oped her grim jaws for the feast.
The few who stood now quickly fled,
When the shout told -- `Olaf is dead!'"

But the Vindland cutter, in which Astrid's men were, rowed back
to Vindland; and the report went immediately abroad and was told
by many, that King Olaf had cast off his coat-of-mail under
water, and had swum, diving under the longships, until he came to
the Vindland cutter, and that Astrid's men had conveyed him to
Vindland: and many tales have been made since about the
adventures of Olaf the king. Halfred speaks thus about it: --

"Does Olaf live? or is he dead?
Has he the hungry ravens fed?
I scarcely know what I should say,
For many tell the tale each way.
This I can say, nor fear to lie,
That he was wounded grievously --
So wounded in this bloody strife,
He scarce could come away with life."

But however this may have been, King Olaf Trygvason never came
back again to his kingdom of Norway. Halfred Vandredaskald
speaks also thus about it:

"The witness who reports this thing
Of Trygvason, our gallant king,