ng from
shoulders to heel; for as his forefathers had been before him,
beyond the time when the Danes and Angles came from their far
eastern home {xvii}, led by Odin himself, he was the "godar",
the priest of the great gods of Asgard, and his it was to offer the
sacrifice now that Lodbrok his father was dead.

Now, as I stood there I thought how my father had told me that our
own family had been the godars of our race in the old days, so that
he and I in turn should have taken our place at such an offering as
Ingvar was about to make. And straightway I seemed to be back in
the long dead past, when on these same shores my forbears had
worshipped thus before seeking the new lands that they won beyond
the seas. And that was a strange thought, yet now I should know
from what our faith had brought us.

In a little while all Ingvar's following had come, and there were
many chiefs whose faces I had seen of late as they came to plan the
great raid that was to be when the season came. And the men with
them were very many, far more than we could have gathered to a levy
on so short notice; and all were well armed, and stood in good
order as trained and hardened warriors. No longer could I wonder at
all I had heard of the numbers of the Danish hosts who came to our
shores, and were even now in Northumbria, unchecked.

There was silence in all the great ring of men; and only the rustle
of the wind in the thick-standing ash trees around us--that seemed
to hem us in like a gray wall round the clearing--and the quick
croak and flap of broad wings as the ravens wheeled ever nearer
overhead, broke the stillness.

We of the crew for whose good voyage and safe return the offering
was made stood foremost, facing the altar stone and the sanctuary
door, and I, with Halfden and Thormod before me, and men of the
crew to right and left, stood in the centre of our line, so that I
could see all that went on.

Then, seeing that all was ready, Ingvar swung back the heavy door
of the shrine, and I saw before me a great image of Thor the
mighty, glaring with sightless eyes across the space at me. It was
carved in wood, and the god stood holding in one hand Mioelner, his
great hammer, and in the other the head of the Midgaard serpent,
whose tailed curled round his legs, as though it were vainly trying
to struggle free.

Then Ingvar turned and lighted the altar fire, and the smoke rose
straight up and hung in the heavy morning air in a cloud ov