King Erik called upon Johan to build a new type of sea going craft. The Knarr had served the Vikings well, but recently Vikings sailors had returned home in badly damaged craft. They spoke of battles fought against strange ships that towered over the Knarr.

Johan sought out battle hardened sailors with clear descriptions of the craft that caused trouble for his kinsman. Then he found an ancient pine and set to work with his double edged axe. Now Johan was no longer a young man, but the bards tell us that no one had his skill at shaping keels and ribs. Johan set his son to seek the best timber for skinning the hull. Later Johan constructed a deck on the rear section of the hull with a kastali upon it. Sadly the new craft settled down at the rear, with the weight of the kastali. So Johan set about carving a likeness of his rotund wife and so was born the first Viking ship with a buxom figurehead. When the ship left the shore, old men smiled, but the Lady of Eikefjord would return unscathed, filled with slaves. The Lady of Eikefjord would become quite a terrifying legend.