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The other Northmen from the ships joined them, and the fight raged with more fury than ever in the "death-ring," as the Skalds termed it, round the banner Land-Waster.
Already have I, in my office as Count of the Saxon Shore, battered them back to their ships at Lemanis, Llongporth and Rutupiæ; but here in the north, for all that the old lion, Uriens of Reged, worn with war and full of age, hath taken the field against them, here, behind your backs as ye battle, kin with kin, a great and a stubborn pagan, whom men call Hyring the Land-waster, hath entered the land and still prevails.
Though taken by surprise, outnumbered, and half-armed, Hardrada did not lose courage. He sent messengers to summon the rest of his men, and planting in the midst his banner, Land-Waster, ranged his troops round it in a circle, with the ends of their spears resting on the ground, and the points turned outward.
There fell, too, most of the bravest warriors of Norway, the last of the sea-kings who had carried the banner, known as the land-waster, far and wide over Europe. The slaughter was terrible, and at nightfall the Norsemen who survived broke and fled to the shelter of their ships.
They were on foot again by daybreak; and at length they came face to face with their foes. Near Stamford Bridge on the river Derwent, the Norwegian army was drawn up in a great circle, with the sunbeams glinting upon helmets and spear-points. High overhead floated the royal standard, a raven with outstretched wings, called by the Norwegians the land-waster.
"My banner, Land-Waster," answered Harald. "And wherefore?" "It has always been said that this banner carries victory with it, and so I have ever found it." "I will believe in that when thou hast borne it in three battles with thy nephew Magnus, and won them all."
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