‘For I should dearly like to bring her home with me,’ he said, ‘even though I cannot be completely sure that she is the margrave’s daughter. I am already getting on excellently with her and, when she is able to speak our language, and we can understand each other’s conversation, it will be better still.’
Berse remarked that this might not turn out to be such an advantage as Toke supposed, and Krok added that the ships were going to be so heavily laden with all the booty they had won that, even allowing for the fact that they lost eleven men in the fight, he doubted whether there would be room for the girl on board; as things were they would probably have to leave some of the less valuable booty behind.
At this, Toke rose to his feet, lifted the girl on to his shoulder and commanded them all to have a good look at her and to note how beautiful she was, and what a fine figure she had.
‘I do not doubt,’ he said, ‘that she is well able to excite the lust of any man. Now, if there be any man here who covets her, I shall be happy to fight him for her, here and now, either with sword or with axe, whichever weapon he cares to choose. Let the winner keep the girl; and the man who dies will, by his absence, lighten the ship more than she will burden it; and in this way, I can fairly take her with me.’
The girl held tightly with one hand to the beard on Toke’s cheek, and went red and wriggled her legs and put her other hand over her eyes; but then she took it away again, seeming to enjoy being looked at. They all thought that Toke’s proposition had been cunningly devised. But none of them elected to fight with him, despite the beauty of the girl, for they all liked him and, besides, feared him for his strength and his skill at arms.
When all the booty had been shared out and stored aboard, it was decided that Toke should be permitted to bring his girl aboard Krok’s ship, although it was heavily laden; for they agreed that he had deserved such a reward for his part in the storming of the fortress. Then they held counsel regarding the question of the homeward voyage, and agreed that they should return along the Asturian and Frankish coasts if the weather was bad, but that, if it were good, they should try to make for Ireland, thence to proceed homewards round the Scottish islands; for, with such booty as they had, it would be taking an unnecessary risk to sail through unfrequented waters, where they might encounter other ships.
They ate and drank as much as they could hold, having now an abundance of food and drink, more indeed than they could take with them; and all the men were merry and excited, telling each other what they would buy with their new-found wealth when they reached home. Krok was, by this time, himself again; but the captain of one of the others ships had fallen in the fortress, and Berse took command of his vessel. Toke and Orm sat down to their old oars in Krok’s ship, finding it easy work with the current to help them; and Toke kept a close eye on his girl, who spent most of the time sitting by him, and was careful to see that nobody came near her without good cause.
How Krok’s luck changed twice, and how Orm became left-handed
They rowed down to the mouth of the river on the ebb tide, and offered up a skin of wine and a pot of flesh for the homeward voyage. Then they set sail, shipped their oars and moved out under a gentle wind into the long sweep of the bay. The heavily laden ships lay deep in the water, and made slow progress; and Krok remarked that they would have to row until their arms ached before they saw their home shores again. Orm, afterwards, in his old age, used to say that these were the unluckiest words he had ever heard spoken, for, from that moment, Krok’s luck, which had hitherto been so good, suddenly broke, just as though a god had heard him speak and had decided there and then to make him a true prophet.
Seven ships appeared round the southern point of the bay, heading northwards. On sighting Krok’s ships, however, they turned into the bay and approached them at a great pace, their oars moving nimbly through the water. They were ships such as Krok’s men had never before set eyes on, being long and low and very light in the water, and were filled with armed men, wearing black beards and strange coverings on their helmets. The men who were rowing them, two at each oar, were naked, and their skins a polished black-brown. They headed towards the Vikings amid hoarse cries and the sharp tumult of small drums.
Krok’s three ships at once came abreast of each other, keeping close to the land on their side of the bay, in order to avoid being encircled. Krok was unwilling to give the order to lower sail; for, he said, should the wind rise, it would be to their advantage. Toke made haste to hide his girl among the bales of booty, piling them around and even on top of her, so as to protect her from spears and arrows. Orm helped him; then they took their places at the gunwale with the others. By this time, Orm was well armed, for he had provided himself with a mail-shirt and a shield and a good helmet from the fortress. A man standing near them wondered whether these strangers might perhaps be Christians, bent on revenge; but Orm thought it more likely that they were the Caliph’s men, since no cross was visible on their shields or standards. Toke said that he was glad that he had quenched his thirst before the fighting began, for it looked as though it might be hot.
‘And such of us as survive the day,’ he said, ‘will have a story worth telling our children; for these men have a savage air about them, and they far outnumber us.’
By this time the foreigners had approached to within a short distance, and they now assailed the Vikings with showers of arrows. They rowed cunningly, slipping round the Viking ships and attacking them from all sides. The ship which Berse was commanding lay next to the shore, so that they could not surround her; but Krok’s own ship lay at the extreme right of the three, furthest from the land, and was at once engaged in hard fighting. Two of the strangers’ ships drew alongside her on the seaward side, the one lying beyond the other. They grappled the three vessels together with chains and iron hooks; then the men from the outer ship, yelling wildly, jumped across to the inner one, whence they all swarmed on to the Viking ship. They poured abroad her in overwhelming numbers, fighting very fiercely and skilfully, so that Krok’s ship, by now very low in the water, lagged sadly behind her two companions. Then a third enemy ship managed to slip round her bows and grapple her on the shoreward side. So the situation now was that Berse’s ship and the third Viking vessel had managed to get clear of the bay, though they had four enemy ships harrying them and were hard pressed to hold them off, while Krok’s ship was engaging three opponents single-handed. At this stage of the battle, the wind rose, so that both Berse’s ships were driven still further from the shore, with fierce fighting raging aboard them and broad ribbons of blood trailing behind them in the water.
But the men in Krok’s ship had no time to worry about how their companion vessels were faring, for they had their hands more than full with their own adversaries. So many foemen had climbed aboard over one of the gunwales that the ship had keeled over and was in danger of sinking; and, although many of the raiders were hewn down and fell into the water or back into their own ship, a high proportion of them remained aboard, while others were swarming to their assistance from both sides. Krok fought bravely, and such of the foreigners as challenged him soon ceased their whooping; but, before long, he recognized that the enemy’s superiority in numbers was too great. Then he threw aside his shield, sprang on to the gunwale and, swinging his axe with both hands, severed two of the chains that bound his ship to the enemy; but a man whom he had felled clutched hold of one of his legs and, in the same instant, he received a spear through the shoulders and toppled headlong into the enemy ship, where many of his foes fell upon him, so that he was taken prisoner and bound fast.
After this, many of Krok’s men were slain, though they defended themselves to the limit of their strength, and at last the whole ship