The Jomsvikings Part 5 : The Great Battle (An Independent Asatru)

The Jomsviking fleet sailed south along the coast, and though most fled before them, they still managed to kill a great many people. Vagn then sailed to the Island of Hod where he met a man named Ulf. Ulf told Vagn that Earl Hakon had one ship hidden behind the island in Hjorunga Bay. Vagn, who was wary of this stranger, told Ulf that he would accompany the Jomsvikings, and show them the way. Once they got close to where Earl Hakon was supposed to be, Ulf got nervous and suspected that Vagn sensed that there was treachery ahead. When Ulf could stand his fear no longer he jumped over the side of the ship and tried to swim to safety. Vagn would have none of this, however, and grabbed a spear and launched it at Ulf driving it through his middle and ending his cowardly life. 

When the Jomsvikings sailed further around the island and into the bay they saw that the coward Ulf had lied to them and that Hakon had not a single ship, but that the whole bay was covered with Hakon’s dragon longships. Vagn wasted no time and shouted orders to array his ships into a battle formation. Earl Hakon seeing the Jomsvikings readying for battle set his forces in motion to match the battle lines of Vagn’s ships. In the meantime Sigvaldi had sailed up alongside Vagn’s ships extending his lines. Earl Hakon matched him move for move.

Then the battle began ! The fighting started slowly at first, as both sides felt each other out, but within a short time both sides were fighting fiercely. Sigvaldi went up against the earl’ s ship himself, and that engagement ended with no clear winner. Vagn was fighting with Earl Eric but he could not best him either and their fight also settled into an uneasy stalemate. Only Bui, and his brother were able to make any headway into his opponents battle formation, and Earl Hakon’s men had to cut their lines and let their ships drift away from these determined Jomsvikings, which made an indentation in Hakon’s battle line.

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