and ranks; but the king rode round it, and posted in the van all the smartest and most excellently-armed men, led by Ole, Regnald, and Wivil; then he massed the rest of the army on the two wings in a kind of curve.  Ung, with the sons of Alrek, and Trig, he ordered to protect the right wing, while the left was put under the command of Laesi.  Moreover, the wings and the masses were composed mainly of a close squadron of Kurlanders and of Esthonians.  Last stood the line of slingers.

Meantime the Danish fleet, favoured by kindly winds, sailed, without stopping, for twelve days, and came to the town (stead) of Kalmar.  The wind-blown sails covering the waters were a marvel; and the canvas stretched upon the yards blotted out the sight of the heavens.  For the fleet was augmented by the Sclavs and the Livonians and 7,000 Saxons.  But the Skanians, knowing the country, were appointed as guides and scouts to those who were going over the dry land.  So when the Danish army came upon the Swedes, who stood awaiting them, Ring told his men to stand quietly until Harald had drawn up his line of battle; bidding them not to sound the signal before they saw the king settled in his chariot beside the standards; for he said he should hope that an army would soon come to grief which trusted in the leading of a blind man.  Harald, moreover, he said, had been seized in extreme age with the desire of foreign empire, and was as witless as he was sightless; wealth could not satisfy a man who, if he looked to his years, ought to be well-nigh contented with a grave.  The Swedes therefore were bound to fight for their freedom, their country, and their children, while the enemy had undertaken the war in rashness and arrogance.  Moreover, on the other side, there were very few Danes, but a mass of Saxons and other unmanly peoples stood arrayed.  Swedes and Norwegians should therefore consider, how far the multitudes of the North had always surpassed the Germans and the Sclavs.  They should therefore despise an army which seemed to be composed more of a mass of fickle offscourings than of a firm and stout soldiery.

By this harangue of King Ring he kindled high the hearts of the soldiers.  Now Brun, being instructed to form the line on Harald’s behalf, made the front in a wedge, posting Hetha on the right flank, putting Hakon in command of the left, and making Wisna standard-bearer.  Harald stood up in his chariot and complained, in as loud a voice as he could, that Ring was requiting his benefits with wrongs; that the man who had got his kingdom by Harald’s own gift was now attacking him; so that Ring neither pitied an old man nor spared an uncle, but set his own ambitions before any regard for Harald’s kinship or kindness.  So he bade the Danes remember how they had always won glory by foreign conquest, and how they were more wont to command their neighbours than to obey them.  He adjured them not to let such glory as theirs to be shaken by the insolence of a conquered nation, nor to suffer the empire, which he had won in the flower of his youth, to be taken from him in his outworn age.