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Updated: July 18, 2025
"Aye, by the storms of the world, my son. We are what men call hermits." Dalfin looked at me with a rueful face when he heard that. What a hermit might be I did not at all know, and it meant nothing to me. I was glad enough to think that there was a roof of any sort for Gerda. "Why, father," said my comrade, "you do not sleep on the bare ground, surely?" "Not at all, my son.
"There are thirty of us on board, mind you," the man who set us free said, as he gathered the loose cords and went his way. "Better join us offhand, and make the best of the business." "Good advice that, maybe," said Dalfin, stretching himself. "Pass along yon ale pot. I have a mighty thirst on me." "That is better," said the man, and laughed.
Then, when he was thus pent up by us, Heidrek had tried to cut his way to the camp and take Myrkiartan prisoner, that he might hold him as hostage for safe departure. It was a mad attempt, but at least had some meaning in it which we could not understand at the time. Moreover, had it not been for the men who came up with Dalfin it had been done. Now Hakon made no delay.
Dalfin leapt ashore and called to them, and they knew him, welcoming him with a yell of delight, and crowding to do him noisy homage. There were ten or fifteen of them, and it was some time before the prince had a chance to make himself heard.
But below the bend rose a black cloud of smoke, for the other ship was on fire, and Hakon had sent a boat to see that all was well with the ship he had left there. There was no surprise at the message from Dalfin. Thoralf only laughed, and Hakon said he would wait for half an hour in case the supplies came. As for the men, he would take them willingly.
He went on his knee before Dalfin, and seized his hand and kissed it again and again, crying words of welcome. "My prince, my prince," he said, with tears of joy running down his cheeks. "It was told me that you had gone across the seas but I did not know it was for this." Dalfin reddened, and raised the hermit from the sand. "Father," he said quickly, "I am not the avenger.
One of the men who followed him broke in on that, "No use, Asbiorn. We cannot put into any Irish port in safety. And over there princes are thick as blackberries, and as poor as the brambles that bear them." "Aye, and as prickly," said Dalfin. "Have you learned that also?" The men laughed. One of them said that the Irishman's Danish speech was not bad, and that it was a pity
Even Dalfin had twisted his up into somewhat like what it might have been before he left Ireland, lest he should be out of the fashion, and it spoilt his looks, though it would be many a long day before he had it properly matted together again. It was strange to see men tossing these shocks aside as they turned.
From him we learned two things one which Asbiorn had not yet told us, and the other which he also would learn. Heidrek had fled from us thinking that the ships could be only those of Sigtryg, the Dublin king, with whom he had some deadly feud. I minded that when Dalfin had offered ransom for both of us how Asbiorn had said that the Irish shore was not open to him.
Dalfin was bringing his father to see the place of the fight, and to welcome us as friends. It was not altogether a new thing that Norseman and Dane should be known as foes to one another here on the Irish coast, which both wasted. The folk called us the "white" and the Danes the "black" Lochlannoch, and I cannot say which they feared the most, though the Danes were the most hated.
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