major confrontation. The battle was fought at sea, between the earls of Lade and a Danish invasion fleet. The battle is described in the Norse kings' sagas—such as Heimskringla—as well as in Jómsvíkinga saga and Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. Those late literary accounts are fanciful but historians believe that they contain a kernel of truth. Some contemporary skaldic poetry alludes to the battle, including verses by Þórðr Kolbeinsson and Tindr Hallkelsson. Hákon Sigurðarson was a strong believer in the Old Norse gods, and when King Harald Bluetooth attempted to force Christianity upon him, Haakon broke his allegiance to Denmark. A Danish invasion force was defeated at the battle of Hjörungavágr in 986. According to Heimskringla, Eric, apparently reconciled with his father, commanded 60 ships in the battle and emerged victorious. After the battle he gave quarter to many of the Jomsvikings, including Vagn Ákason. Exile In 995, as Óláfr Tryggvason seized power as King of Norway, Eric was forced into exile in Sweden. He allied himself with King Olof of Sweden and King Sweyn whose daughter, Gyða, he married. Using Sweden as his base he launched a series of raiding expeditions into the east. Harrying the lands of King Vladimir I of Kiev, Eric looted and burned down the town of Staraya Ladoga (Old Norse Aldeigja). There are no written continental sources to confirm or refute this but in the 1980s, Soviet archaeologists unearthed evidence which showed a burning of Ladoga in the late 10th century. Eric also plundered in western Estonia (ON Aðalsýsla) and the island of Saaremaa (ON Eysýsla). According to the Fagrskinna summary of Bandadrápa he fought Vikings in the Baltic and raided Östergötland during the same time. Battle of Svolder In the Battle of Svolder in 1000, Eric, Sweyn, and Olof ambushed king Óláfr Tryggvason by the island of Svolder. The place cannot now be identified, as the formation of the Baltic coast has been much modified in the course of subsequent centuries. Svolder was an island probably on the North German coast, near Rügen. During the summer, King Olaf had been in the eastern Baltic. The allies lay in wait for him at the island of Svolder on his way home. The Norwegian king had with him seventy-one vessels, but part of them belonged to an associate, Jarl Sigvaldi, a chief of the Jomsvikings, who was an agent of his enemies, and who deserted him.