Kolbjörn stallari

Kolbiorn the marshal is Olaf Tryggvason's loyal officer — the man dressed in arms like the king's who stood beside him to the last on the Long Serpent. As the battle of Svolder turned hopeless and the earl's men crowded aboard the great ship, Kolbiorn — arrayed so like Olaf that enemies might mistake one for the other — climbed up beside the king on the quarterdeck when the last of the crew had fallen. When Olaf raised his shield over his head and sprang overboard in his armour rather than be taken, Kolbiorn was at his side at the end. He is the saga's image of the faithful marshal — the officer who shares his king's last stand on the doomed flagship, dressed as his double, standing with him on the quarterdeck as the Serpent is overrun, present at the famous leap that ended the most dazzling reign in the North. The loyal man at the king's shoulder when all was lost.