Agerhøne 1004
It was spring when we next sailed to war and this time King Sweyn had chosen to raid the Land of the East Angles and the most important city on that coast, Northwic. The city had many Vikings living there as well as Angles and Saxons but they had all chosen to support King Aethelred. They would regret that choice. There were other reasons why the clever Karl Three Fingers had suggested the raid there to the king. It was a shorter voyage; we could simply sail south and west, and the English would have no warning. We had not raided there before, and they would not be expecting us, but the most important reason was its riches. With more than twenty churches and many warehouses, it was a major port on the east coast. Lundenwic and Jorvik each had a long river journey for ships wishing to land their cargoes. Northwic was closer to the coast. Even Jarl Sweyn agreed with the choice. The flat land in the east suited us and meant that there were few burhs. The many rivers afforded opportunities for us to use our drekar for support. The river, Yare, was wide enough for our drekar and we could surprise them by attacking at dawn.
We would be sailing with fewer ships as the Norse would not be with us. They would be raiding Northumbria. Uhtred the Bold ruled Northumbria and had recently defeated the Scots. With their eyes on the north the Norse thought that they could raid Northumbria and weaken it for King Sweyn now, clearly, had his eyes on the crown of what men now termed England.
There was great excitement in Agerhøne as we prepared to meet the fleet, this time off our coast. We had a new ship and many new warriors. Our new formation gave more warriors the chance for glory and, thanks to our successes we had many more mailed men than most other clans. The bird after which the clan was named might not have fine plumage but we did. Gunhild was now old enough to know that her father was leaving, and she wept. It touched me. Steana was too young to know too much but I knew that there would come a time when he wished to sail with me and that would, in turn, bring tears from Mary.
Lodvir brought the ships from Ribe and the ten drekar in our fleet waited close to the port for King Sweyn and the sixty ships he would be bringing. While we waited Lodvir told us what he had learned from Aksel. Hawk’s father-in-law traded with not only Frankia and the Empire but also England. He knew the leaders and gave us information about their defences. We had no need to worry about his tongue being loose as he knew he would benefit from our success and he ensured that none of his ships would be anywhere near the east coast while we attacked!
“Ulfcetel Snilling, some men call him the Bold, is the local lord and while not an eorledman we have heard that he is a good leader and he will not develop a sudden sickness as did Aelric. This man will fight. It is said he is descended from the Saxon hero, Byrhtnoth, who fell at the Battle of Maldon. Whatever the truth of his heritage, he is not to be underestimated. So long as Karl advises the king then all should be well.”
We had become used to weak Saxons and I wondered if this might be a stiffer test of our new warriors. Cnut felt himself to be one of those new warriors. When Karl had come to tell us of our raid he had brought a byrnie and helmet for Cnut. He had grown over the winter and broadened out. The training had made him stronger and he had skills. None of us wanted him to be in the front rank of a shield wall but he could now defend himself and use a spear and a shield. I was curious how he would be used but that was as far as it went. With my new responsibilities, should we use the Boar’s Snout formation, I could not afford to be distracted by worrying about the king’s son. At least he now knew his way around a drekar and what his function was. He was Thorstein’s assistant and he commanded the ship’s boys. He did not have to do as they did but he had sailed enough to give commands especially to the four young boys for whom this would be their first raid.
Lodvir had also found a Saxon who worked for Aksel the Swede, Edgar. He knew the river and when the rest of the fleet hove to we passed on the information to Karl Three Fingers. The result was that we would lead the fleet to assault the city. It meant that once we reached the coast of the East Angles then we would follow Lodvir. We had now sailed enough times with King Sweyn and his fleet to be more confident about the way we sailed. We were no longer wary of a drekar suddenly appearing at night to ram into our steerboard. I did not realise, until that voyage, the advantages such confidence gave. It meant that when we were not on watch we were able to sleep soundly rather than with half an ear for the sound of a collision. We made the crossing in four easy days. The new ‘Sea Serpent’ had seemed eager to show us what she could do but Thorstein restrained her. The time would come when we would be able to unleash her full potential. We did not need it as we sailed to Northwic.
When we saw, to the west, the smudge that was the coast, we hove to for we had mail to don and a mast to place on the mast fish. We wished to be invisible. In addition, one or two drekar were a little tardy and the sun had yet to set. We would begin to row and head west as the sun dipped towards the horizon and use our oars. Lodvir would lead and we would be close behind. Cnut was given the unenviable task of sitting astride the prow and giving hand signals to avoid us ramming ‘Aksel’s Gift’. Once we were ready, we began to row. It would be in silence to avoid alerting the countryside and it would be steady for we did not need speed. We had miles to row and a steady rhythm would help us. Those of us close to the steerboard had a great responsibility for the rest would take their cue from us. We had to keep steady and maintain a regular pace with Lodvir. To that end, the Jarl stood close to us and slapped his thigh to give us the beat. He, in turn, was guided by Cnut. As we rowed through the flatlands and Fens of the land of the East Angles I could not but reflect that we worked well together. The days of Thrond and discord were gone. The entire crew were in harmony, even with the addition of an outsider, like the princeling, Cnut. Thorstein too kept an eye on Cnut as the steering board edged us around the bends in the river. That they were not severe was good. We caught the whiff of both woodsmoke as well as animal and human waste as we ghosted along the River Yare. People in the small settlement at the mouth may have seen us as we sailed along the river but as no church bell had tolled it meant they either had no church or had decided not to risk our wrath. I suspected the latter. Even without sails, our drekar would have been seen as grey shadows on the water. Our guide had told us that there were neither towns nor villages between the mouth of the river and Northwic. That was confirmed as we sailed down a silent river. Only the oars striking the water and hulls as they slid through the Yare made a sound.
This was the time of year when the days were becoming longer than the nights, but not by much, and the first hint of false dawn must have appeared ahead for we were ordered, by Sweyn Skull Taker’s slaps, to row a little faster. Lodvir’s guide must have recognised that we were close. When Thorstein began to put over the steering board and our jarl instructed us to raise our oars then we knew we had arrived. Our fleet would tie up first and the rest would use us to make a longphort. We would fill the river and our drekar would become a bridge into the heart of Northwic.
A shout from the shore and the sound of a tolling bell let us know that we had been seen. Our ship’s boys were fast and we were secured to the wooden quay before we had finished stacking our oars. I did not bother with Saxon Slayer and I slung my shield from my back. I had practised more with two swords and found that I could manage the weapons easily. With a newly acquired pair of seaxes tucked in the top of each seal skin boot, I was confident I could deal with the warriors we found in Northwic. It was not a burh and there would not be a large garrison! The nearest burh was more than a hundred miles to the southwest.
We three were the first off the drekar and our feet landed on the wood quay before Lodvir’s men. Jarl Sweyn Skull Taker took command, “On me!” We needed to clear the drekar so that King Sweyn and his men could cross and follow us. Our job was to secure the wooden gates to the town. We would have a short time to do so as the town watch would be our only opposition. Of course, the tolling bell would rouse the men of the town and they would dress for war. That all took time and we raced towards the gate. The ones who had given the alarm were already racing through it and a few arrows came our way from the fighting platform. I guess that the Saxons were petrified for even as they slammed the gates shut, I heard someone curse as the bar was dropped. The four of us, with men close behind us, ran as fast as we could, and we simply hurled our mailed and metal covered bodies at the gate. We were lucky or perhaps the Saxons were careless and they had not quite locked the bar in place. Our weight burst it asunder and when it cracked open, we almost fell as we stumbled over the watch who had been knocked to the ground. Leaving the five men to be dealt with by those behind we ran towards the sound of the tolling bell. It would be either a church or a tower but, either way, would be the rallying point for the defenders. If we could get there first, then the town would be ours! We did not try to stay together but ran along the stone made streets swinging our weapons at any who looked like they posed a threat. After we had struck six men the rest fled before us. At our backs came the rest of the crew and, as I glanced round, I saw that Cnut was flanked by Faramir and Gandálfr. I had not asked them to do so but they knew it was the right thing to do.
The bell was tolling from a large church and while the lower part was stone, Roman by the look of it, the upper parts were wooden. Men were forming ranks before it, but they would be too late and without breaking stride, we threw ourselves at them. A spear was jabbed at me but I partly deflected it with the sword in my left hand and the head of the spear scraped along my mail. Had I not worn mail I might have been hurt. Oathsword came down from on high to slice into the neck of the unfortunate Saxon. Our sheer weight had driven us through the thin line of Saxons, and we burst into the door of the church before they were able to close it. Had they done so it would have been of little consequence for we would simply have burned them alive. Their church might be a sanctuary if we were a Christian army but despite the crosses worn by our king, we were still what they deemed to be barbarians.
A priest raised a cross before me and said, “God strike you dead, Viking!”
Hawk shouted, “Kill him!”
I could not do so for Mary would be unhappy. Her father had been a priest. I pulled back Oathsword and smacked it into the cross with such force that it broke his nose and knocked him unconscious. He would have a reminder of this day but he would live. I do not think that Jarl Sweyn relished slaughtering women and children for most of those in the church were not warriors. He roared, “Flee! If you stay, then you die!”
We did not need slaves and their flight would make others run too. We wanted the riches of the city and not its people. They saw the barbarians with bloody swords, and they ran. There were four doors in the church, and they used them all. We had been the first inside the walls and so there was no one in the north part of the town. That was the way that they fled.
“Lodvir, secure the church and its treasure. Agerhøne with me.”
It was a clever move on the part of the jarl. He knew that the rougher parts of the city would be close to the river where there was trade. The better homes and the houses of the merchants would be in the north part of the city where it would be quieter. Our pursuit made those who thought about collecting treasure from beneath their floors think twice and just run. By the time we reached the north gate, the sun had risen and, so far as we could tell the only ones left in in the walls of Northwic were Danish. With the gates in our hands, we systematically went through every house to dig up treasure and take the other valuables that they had within their homes. We had a rich haul and by the middle of the day, we had returned to our drekar to store what we had. Bolli had made the ship so that we had two holds to use and it was the forward one we filled with the treasure. The ships of the longphort were largely empty as the warband was busy doing what we had done and looting.
It took two days to empty the town by which time the Saxons had raised an army to face us. They arrived at the south side of the longphort. They outnumbered us but that did not worry us. Their leader was indeed, Ulfcetel Snilling and he looked like a warrior who could handle himself. He had scale armour and a good shield and sword. He took off his masked helmet, a sign that he wished to speak. He came forward with his oathsworn and we went with King Sweyn, Karl Three Fingers and Jarl Sweyn Skull Taker.
“Danes, do we fight, or will you leave?”
King Sweyn smiled, “There is still much to take in this land. England is rich and Denmark is poor.”
Ulfcetel the Bold snorted, “I doubt it for you bleed this land dry. We will fight you.”
King Sweyn nodded, “And many of your men will die, more than we will lose for my men are mailed and powerful. Yours are farmers with bill hooks. Do you really want your people to be slaughtered?”
Even the oathsworn who faced us were not all mailed in contrast to us who each wore a gleaming mail shirt.
After looking at our numbers the Saxon gave a resigned nod, “Then can we have a truce while we collect gold to pay you to leave?”
With a magnanimous bow, the king said, “Of course. A week?”
“Ten days would be better.”
“Ten days then.”
As soon as he said it then I knew that King Sweyn had no intention of honouring a truce. Ulfcetel made the mistake of not asking for an oath. King Sweyn purported to be a Christian and had the Saxon asked him to swear an oath on a cross then the breaking of the truce might not have happened. The Saxons left but not without leaving five hundred men camped just half a mile south of the river.
Once we had crossed to the longphort King Sweyn called a council of war. I was there to watch Cnut who stood close to his father. This was, I think, the start of a change in their relationship. He now saw his son as a potential heir. He might not be the one who would become King of Denmark, but he definitely saw him as a potential leader of some sort.
“We have some days to empty and then burn this town. We wait until the wind is blowing from the south to do that. Tomorrow I want Jarl Eirik of Heiða-býr to take the horses we have captured and find another place we might raid. I want the rest of you to raid the land close by and take what food you can. As the Saxons are camped south of the river then it will, perforce, have to be the north side.”
Lodvir asked, “And the truce?”
King Sweyn laughed, “Means nothing. If they bring the gold within a couple of days, then I might honour it, but I think that they are simply raising a larger army.” In that, he may have been right for the Saxon general did not look afraid of a fight, just afraid of a fight he knew he would lose.
It told us much about our king. As the Saxons were close to the south bank of the river it was decided to move the ships of the King to that bank. That pleased us as it meant we no longer had a bridge over our drekar, and we could use the whole hold. Thorstein would be happier about that for he liked a balanced ship.
We found little food and, from those we found it seemed that the land had a famine. Perhaps God had abandoned the English and the lack of food was a sign. Whatever the reason, we did not enjoy the normal feast we usually did.
Jarl Eirik returned so quickly, within a day and a night, that we knew he had found a target worthy of breaking a truce but it was better news than we expected. “Almost thirty miles south of here, King Sweyn, is Thetford, not only does it have fine churches the king’s mint is there. They make all the coins for this part of the world. It would make the treasures taken thus far seem like nothing.”
He made an instant decision, “Tomorrow, before dawn and hidden from the Saxon camp, we take the crews of my ships and raid Thetford. Jarl Sweyn Skull Taker you will remain here and I will leave four of my crews to watch my ships. If the wind changes tomorrow, then fire Northwic. It should attract the attention of the Saxons. We will return in three days.” He turned to his son, “Would you like to come raiding with us?”
Cnut was much taller these days and whilst not as tall as his father he was closer in height than he had been when the king had sent him to us. He was able to look directly at his father, “Will there be a battle?”
The king looked at Jarl Eirik who shook his head, “There is no wall and we only spied thirty warriors and their thegn.”
Cnut shook his head, “Then I will stay here for I have not seen a wooden town burned.”
That was not quite true for we had burned Exeter, Wilton and Sarum. It told me that he was making an excuse and wished to stay with us. I wondered how his father would take the rejection. He dismissed it, easily, “Your loss and I doubt that we shall see a battle. This Ulfcetel must be like Aelric and will not have stomach for a fight.”
From what I had seen and heard, I thought him wrong. Of course, if the king took the mint and all its coins then that treasure would go to him. He might share some but there was no compulsion for him to do so. Jarl Sweyn was philosophical about the matter, “We were the first in Northwic and we took more than did the king. We are saved a sixty-mile march. We eat well here and the wind, I think is changing. Tonight we might be able to light the fire the king wishes.”
We descended once more into the city to see if we had missed anything and Cnut came with me. I noticed that Faramir and Gandálfr also followed. “I was surprised, Cnut, when you did not go with your father. You would gain riches.”
He smiled, “When I inherit, I will gain all that belongs to my father, or half at least. Besides, I think that there is more chance of a battle here.”
We all stopped for he seemed so confident in his words. “Are you now fey? Do you have the ability to see into the future?” I deliberately avoided using the word Norn and especially not Verðandi, as I did not wish to invoke their enmity.
“No, Sven, but I think that this Saxon will have us watched and if he sees more than two-thirds of our men leaving to head south knowing that they break the truce, then he might break the truce himself and attack us.”
There is a phrase my mother had used, ‘out of the mouths of babes’. What Cnut had said made perfect sense. The Saxon camp had five hundred men already in their camp. Ulfcetel the Bold could quickly reinforce them and perhaps the king was right. It could be that the Saxons were raising a better-armed army to fight us. At the very least they could cause mischief to our ships and King Sweyn had conveniently now moored most of them on the south bank of the river. As soon as we returned to Jarl Sweyn I told him what Cnut had said.
He nodded, “That makes sense and explains why the back of my neck is itching. Lodvir, have two ships used to bridge the gap between the drekar in the middle of the river so that we can cross to the other side. Choose drekar we can burn if we have to. When I fire the city take half of our men to reinforce the south bank.”
We had something to do and we set about the arson eagerly. By burning the town with the wind now blowing from the south-west it ensured that the north bank would be safe and there would be no places for an enemy to hide. We used every man and boy to light the fires and we worked our way south so that the last place we fired was the wooden wall of the town. As we stood on the quay all that remained were the warehouses and the quay. They would be burned when we left if we left!
The jarl was in control and his mind had already planned the next steps, “Thorstein, I give you command of all the ships. I want the boys and the captains ready to defend these drekar and, if they are threatened to sail them into the middle of the river. We dare not lose these ships or we cannot get home. We would die the richest Danes in England! I will sound my horn five times if you are to abandon us!”
That made Thorstein smile, “Do not worry, Jarl Sweyn, they shall not get their hands on our new drekar.”
The fire we had lit made the night day. King Sweyn and Karl Three Fingers might even see the glow in the eastern sky and wonder. If all had gone well, they would have taken the town and the mint by noon. It is in the nature of men who enjoy a victory to celebrate. They would be in the town enjoying the food and ale there but they would have men watching the land. The fire would be seen and King Sweyn would know that his orders had been obeyed.
By the time we were ready Lodvir had secured two drekar so that we had a narrow bridge. It was not a longphort and by the severing of the ropes which attached the two ships then the bridge of boats would be broken. We might lose half the fleet, but we would still have ships we could use to sail home and, more importantly, treasure in our holds.
Lodvir had organised the men who had been left to watch the Saxons and we four, along with Cnut joined him. “Falmr Flame Bearer says that the Saxon camp is quiet. He and his men were about to go to bed when I came.”
The jarl nodded and smiled at Falmr, who was an older warrior, “Do as you planned, Falmr, but have your men ready to rise and fight.”
“Aye, Jarl Sweyn.”
“And us?”
“We too, sleep, Lodvir, but without fires.”
Cnut said, “But I might be wrong! I am young and if no one else thinks this…”
My foster father smiled, “I should have thought of this as a possibility and all that you did, Cnut, was open the wind hole in my mind to see it. If we have to endure a cold night sleeping on the ground in mail then so be it but, before you sleep, Cnut, find a good horse. If you are right, then I want you to ride to Thetford and fetch your father and his army for if they do plan mischief then they will bring far more men than we have at our disposal.”
“Aye, foster father!” He seemed pleased at the prospect of doing something so noteworthy.
As he went the jarl nodded, “I have hopes for that one. He may change but I see in him a strong man with a sharp mind!”
Although we lay down to sleep, we had four or five men in each group of sleepers watching. It would not matter if they dozed for they would be sitting and you can never have a sound sleep like that.
It was Dreng who shook me awake, “Sven Saxon Sword, we have spied movement towards the Saxon camp.”
I stood immediately and listened. Sure enough, there were sounds and although dawn was not far off the sounds were not of men waking and lighting fires. There was the jingle of mail. I roused the jarl and Cnut, “Jarl, the Saxons are coming. Cnut, ride to your father. If they leave as soon as you reach them then we might be saved.”
Cnut just nodded and ran to the horse which he had left saddled and tethered. It was thirty miles to Thetford and if he did not spare the horse or himself he could be there not long after dawn. I doubted if the whole army could reach us but even a couple of hundred, force-marched or using the horses and ponies they had taken, might prevent us from being massacred.
We roused the men silently. The movements we had heard did not suggest an imminent attack. That would be improbable anyway. Ulfcetel Snilling would have heard of Sweyn’s treachery by noon then he would have had to gather his men and march to the camp. We had time. The fires of the burning city had died but there was a pall of smoke behind us. It would disguise us from the rising sun and slow down the arrival of dawn. If Cnut and the jarl were right then the Saxons might seek to win this war by destroying our ships. To do that they had to approach silently or else we might simply sail downriver.
It was dawn and the sky was a little lighter when we saw the movements of the Saxons. We had not stood to make a shield wall but men crouched, with weapons ready. The only ones the Saxons would see, and they would be solitary shadows, were the sentries they expected to see. We saw the Saxons because we were looking to see them. Our men, and the four crews left by the king, were in a half-circle with each end anchored at the river and the extreme of our drekar. The centre of our line was held by the crew of ‘Sea Serpent’. Even our new warriors were trained so well that the jarl could be confident that they would hold. To our right was Lodvir and his crew. Even if the flanks crumbled then we could fall back to the drekar.
Obligingly the Saxons did not move until dawn had broken. We saw their line as they began to move towards us. We four were standing but the rest still crouched, laid down, or were seated. There were at least two thousand of them. Ulfcetel the Bold had raised the local fyrd and brought more mailed men than when he had first come to the aid of Northwic. I saw the mail of thegns as they led their farmers and townsfolk towards us. We had few archers but the ones we had were here in the centre behind us. There were no slingers for they were on the drekars.
“Archers, be ready!” We watched the Saxons move forward steadily and already I was impressed by this Ulfcetel. He had not indulged in the normal practice we had seen before. There had been no ceremony exhorting God to strike us down. His men advanced behind a wall of shields and spears. There were not as many mailed men as we had seen at Dean but there were enough to stiffen the Saxon line. The jarl waited until they were two hundred paces from us and then shouted, “Rise! Shield wall! Hawk, the horn!”
As every man rose and we faced the Saxons with our shields and spears, five clear notes rang out. Thorstein knew his business and the captains and boys would have been ready but what they were about to do took time and we would have to buy them that time. The payment would be dead warriors. He would have to untie the drekars from their moorings on both sides and then move them so that they were in a long double line in the centre of the river. They would have to be far enough from the banks to prevent the Saxons from getting close to them and they would need to be anchored. They would give us support if we found our backs to the river but I hoped it would not come to that.
As soon as the horn sounded the Saxons stopped and looked at the Danes who had risen like wraiths from the ground. As they were in range the jarl shouted, “Archers, loose!”
There were just a hundred arrows and some struck mail, helmets, and shields but many were hit because they were not expecting it. I heard an order shouted and a wall of shields covering both the front and top of the Saxons appeared. The next shower of arrows merely rattled off wood! They began to advance but it was a slow march for these were the fyrd. The seasoned warriors, the thegns and housecarls, could move faster but these were farmers and villeins who were unused to marching in time to their neighbours. All this suited us for it gave more time for Thorstein to save the ships and increased the likelihood that Cnut would find his father and bring reinforcements.
“Lock shields!” I was not next to the jarl for I was with Leif and Lars in case we had the chance for a Boar’s Snout formation. It felt strange to be going to war without my family close by. This would be the first time since that raid in Wessex when I had found Oathsword. Wyrd!
The men around me pressed close to my side and my back. Lars said, “Do not worry, Sven Saxon Sword, we shall not let you down. The Oathsword will not be lost while one of us lives. We swore an oath.”
I glanced at his brother who nodded. When had they made this oath? Leif held up his right hand and I saw the fresh scar along his palm. They had sworn a blood oath and recently. It made me more determined than ever that they would survive.
I shouted, “We will all live! These are Saxon farmers we face, and we are the warriors of Agerhøne. We will teach these easterners the lesson those in the west learned to their cost, that we are the best of the best!”
It was the right thing to say and the men around me all cheered and shouted, “Oathsword!”
With the Jarl to my left, a few warriors away, and Lodvir the same number to the right I knew that I would be as safe as any Danish warrior, but this was no Aelric who came towards us and Ulfcetel the Bold was living up to his name!
I know not if it was planned but the men who faced us were not led personally by Ulfcetel. He attacked our line to the right of Lodvir. A thegn led his people towards me. I commanded the men around me and I shouted, “Thrust!” I knew the importance of all our spears striking at once. The thegn apart our spears were all a foot longer than the Saxons and I could see that our shields were better too. Our spears smashed into the Saxons. Some of our spears deflected theirs while the ones which came at us were either blocked by our shields or mail. The thegn’s thrust was a good one. We both hit the other at the same time. The only difference that I could tell between the weapons was that Saxon Slayer had a narrower tip and while his broad head hurt when it struck my byrnie, Saxon Slayer burst first one and then another six mail links on his. I pushed harder and the broader part of my spear enlarged the hole and then found flesh. I twisted the head to aggravate the wound and was rewarded with a spurt of blood. We both withdrew our weapons. Gandálfr and Snorri were behind us and their spears had darted out too. As the Saxon line was pressed close to ours by the mass of men behind them so those two spears found flesh. Gandálfr’s drove through the cheek of the thegn while Snorri’s found the eye of the oathsworn next to him. The thegn was hurt but I could not bring another weapon to bear for we were too close together. I used the only weapons I had, my head and my knee. I pulled back my head and butted the thegn. He had a nasal on his helmet, but it mattered not for I still managed to break his nose. At the same time, I drove my knee up hard between his legs. He could not control his actions and his head jerked forward which allowed me to ram the edge of my shield under his chin. The combination of blows rendered him unconscious and it was only the press of men which held him there. I took the opportunity, as the weight of his mail dragged his body down, to turn Saxon Slayer. I had enough space to drive the spearhead into his throat as he lay at my feet.
I quickly turned the head up and before the man behind could react, I stabbed upwards with Saxon Slayer. It found flesh beneath his jaw and the spearhead entered his skull. As he was dying his hands grabbed the haft of the spear and locked on. A Saxon sword hacked down at the same time and bit into the ash of the spear. I let go for I knew I could not rely upon the weapon. Drawing Oathsword I could not resist saying its name, “Oathsword!”
The name acted like a spur and with a roar and a cheer the men I led stabbed and stepped forward. Thanks to Snorri’s thrust and the warrior wounded by Lars we had space and we moved up to stab at those who were without mail. They were also not warrior trained and we were. Oathsword slashed across the neck of the first Saxon and gave him a quick and merciful death. The spears of those around me were still whole and they either found flesh or forced back the fyrd who faced us. We were becoming, almost unconsciously, the Boar’s Snout.
Lodvir shouted a word of warning, “Sven, do not advance! The Saxons are close to our right flank. You will be surrounded.”
Was this to be like the Battle of Dean again? We were winning but others were not. I nodded and shouted, “Agerhøne, hold. Let us make these East Angles bleed!”
The Saxons might not have understood my words, but they recognised our action and that we had stopped. They hurled themselves at us. It was futile for their weapons were not good enough to penetrate the mail we wore and our shields were all superior to theirs. When Oathsword smashed down on the shield which was made of boards nailed together I broke the shield and his arm. When I punched him in the face with my metal boss he fell to the ground where his fellows trampled him to death. In their eagerness to get at me they struck blindly and with spears protruding from behind me and Oathsword darting like the tongue of a snake they either died or were so badly wounded that they were out of the battle. The pressure ceased as they stood to face us.
Jarl Sweyn Skull Taker shouted, “The flanks are collapsing, Agerhøne, fall back!”
I knew that the river was a good one hundred paces behind us, and we had space to walk but I did not like the move. The Saxons took heart and, as we stepped back, they ran at us with renewed courage. The result was the same. We had yet to lose a single man from those around me, yet a wall of Saxons lay before us. The fact that they were poorly armed and protected explained their deaths but as I looked to my right and left, I saw that our frontage had shrunk. Of the crews left by King Sweyn, I saw not a single warrior. It was just the men of Agerhøne who were left and that meant the odds were even more in favour of the Saxons. Had they continued their advance then we would have been pushed into the river and many of us would have perished, drowned by our armour, but Ulfcetel the Bold also halted his men. We had paused in the middle of a battle. He was reordering his lines.
“Archers!” Jarl Sweyn took advantage and more of the Saxons who wore no mail died before they could raise their shields. Only fifteen or so were killed and wounded but it halted any movement towards us. It took almost half an hour for the Saxons to reorganise their lines so that Ulfcetel and his best warriors, all mailed, moved to face Jarl Sweyn, Lodvir and me. He had recognised our strength and intended to break us once and for all. Our wounded had been moved to the river and without looking I knew that Thorstein and Griotard would have ferried the wounded back to the ships in the river. It would give them more men to defend our ships if we all died. We expected to die.
Sweyn One Eye began a chant. It was to put heart into the warriors.
The king did call and his men they came
Each one a warrior and a Dane
The mighty fleet left our home in the west
To sail to Svolder with the best of the best
Swedes and Norse were gathered as one
To fight King Olaf Tryggvasson
Mighty ships and brave warriors blades
The memory of Svolder never fades
The Norse abandoned their faithless king
Aboard Long Serpent their swords did bring
The Norse made a bridge of all their ships
Determined that King Sweyn they would eclipse
Brave Jarl Harald and all his crew
Felt the full force of a ship that was new
Mighty ships and brave warriors blades
The memory of Svolder never fades
None could get close to the Norwegian King
To his perilous crown he did cling
Until Skull Taker and his hearth weru
Attacked the side of the ship that was new
We did not finish the song for the Saxon leader recognised what we were doing and he ordered the charge. It was premature and they were not all locked together. This time it was a mixture of swords and spears which came at us. I could see Saxon Slayer still sticking from the dead Saxon. The housecarl who came at me had a two-handed axe and his shield hung over his back. He ran at me so that he could swing it in an arc. Gandálfr and Snorri’s spears still flanked me, but they would not stop him. I looked at the swing of the axe head and estimated where it would strike. That would determine if I used my shield or my sword. I guessed it would be my shield. I did the unexpected. As the axe came down, I dropped to one knee and angled my shield to take the blow. At the same time, I drove up with Oathsword. My movement made him mistime his strike and while he still hit my shield the blow was not as hard as I had expected. Although he wore a long byrnie my sword drove up into his unprotected groin and when I felt flesh, I rammed harder and twisted. My hand felt his breeks, they were wet and when the axe fell to bounce from my shield then I knew he was dead.
As I rose, I found myself face to face with a Saxon who wore a short byrnie. The readjustment by Ulfcetel the Bold was working and we would not enjoy the success we once had.
Even as I resigned myself to a glorious death here on the banks of the Yare, I heard a distant horn and Griotard’s voice as he roared, “Hold, Agerhøne! Karl Three Fingers and Cnut have fetched our men!”
The battle did not end then. I still had time to slay another two of the mailed enemy but the Saxons saw the approach of our men and I heard Ulfcetel, at least I think it was him, shout, “Fall back!”
Had we not been fighting for hours we might have followed them, but it would have meant many unnecessary deaths. We had done all that could be expected of us and saved the ships, but it had been the hardest battle I could remember since Svolder and the only one where the Saxons gave a good account of themselves.