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Then he called on the oarsmen, and they cheered and tugged at the oars, the men in the waist helping them, and my fore deck warriors gripping the bulwarks against the shock. Down we swooped like a falcon on a wild duck, and as we came the Jomsburgers howled and left their own ship, climbing into Ingvar's to fly the crash, while some tried to cast off, but too late. "Shoot!"
If, as Ulf the shepherd had reported, Earl Hakon had but one or two ships, then it would be a very easy matter for the Jomsburgers to vanquish him, and who could tell what glorious results might not follow? Despite the fact that he was not himself the leader of this present expedition, Olaf was confident that the expected victory must bring about the furtherance of his own personal plans.
The ships of the vikings were higher in the hull than those of the Norwegians, and this gave them an advantage, for, when the grapplings were thrown out and the ships were lashed together, the Jomsburgers could fire their arrows and spears down upon the heads of their foes. The onset and attack were faultlessly made, and for a long while it seemed uncertain which side was getting the better hand.
So there was an end, and though many of us were wounded, we lost there but three men, for there were ale casks lying about, and the pirates fought ill. Now we stood among the dead and looked in one another's faces. There were no Danes among the Jomsburgers, and they had, as it seemed, found the place empty.
Sea-robber volunteers so especially abounding in that time, one perceives how easily the Jomsburgers could recruit themselves, build or refit new robber fleets, man them with the pick of crews, and steer for opulent, fruitful England; where, under Ethelred the Unready, was such a field for profitable enterprise as the viking public never had before or since.
At last he stood upright and came again to the doorway, trying to speak in his old way. "Here have you come in good time, comrades. Where are the Jomsburgers?" "Gone," said Thormod, curtly. "Where were you, King?" Now Ingvar heeded me not, but answered Thormod. "With Jarl Swend beating off more of this crew. Then I saw the ship leave, and I knew where she would go.
In brief, what we know is, fragments of ancient human bones and armor have occasionally been ploughed up in this locality, proof positive of ancient fighting here; and the fight fell out not long after Hakon's beating of the Jomsburgers at the Cape of Stad. And in such dim glimmer of wavering twilight, the question whether these of Loncarty were refitted Jomsburgers or not, must be left hanging.
So I and my men climbed on to the wharf, and there were the rest of the crew with Thormod, who had crossed the decks as we cleared a passage, even as the fog came down, and had driven the rest of the Jomsburgers away from the landing place before they could join those in the ship.
No use her biding here when the ship came." So I thought, but I was torn with doubt, not knowing if time for flight had been given, or if even now some party of Jomsburgers might not be following hard after her. I must go into the hall and find out, whatever the risk, for it was certain that it held the rest of the pirates. "Leave men here to guard the gates," I said to Thormod.
Then when I came they shouted, and one gray-headed warrior cried: "Now you have a good fight on hand, axeman." Then I asked: "Who are the strangers?" "It is a ship of the Jomsburg vikings," he said. "They know that our men are all in England, and have come to see what we have left behind Thor's bolt light on them!" Now, of all savage vikings these Jomsburgers are the worst.
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