st,
and Odda himself was not far behind me, putting his best men along
the two foremost faces of the wedge.

"We shall not be foremost long," I said; "we shall be surrounded
when once we are through the line."

But as we came on, Hubba closed up his men into a dense, square
mass.

"Ho!" said Harek to me; "you are wrong, my king."

Now we were close at hand, and the Danish arrows flew among us, and
the javelins fell pretty thickly. I think that a wedge bears this
better than any other formation, for it is easy to stop the weapons
that reach it.

Our men were silent now, and I was glad, having known already what
that meant; but the Danes began to yell their war cries. Then we
were within ten paces of them, and I gripped shield and axe and
gave the word to charge, and Odda answered it.

Then was such a terrible roar from the Saxons as I had never
heard--the roar of desperate men who have their foes before them,
more awful than any war shout. And at that even the vikings shrank
a little, closing their ranks, and then, with all the weight of the
close-ranked wedge behind me, we were among them, and our axes were
at work where men were driven on one another before us; and the
press thinned and scattered at last, while the Danes howled, and
for a moment we three and a few lines behind us stood with no
foemen before us, while all down the sides of the wedge the fight
raged. Then we halted, and the Danes lapped round us. I do not know
that we lost more than two men in this first onset, so heavy was
it; but the Danes fell everywhere.

Now began fighting such as I had heard of, but had never seen
before. The scalds sing of men who fought as fights a boar at bay
in a ring of hounds, unfearing and silent; and so fought we. My axe
broke, and I took to sword Helmbiter, and once Kolgrim went
Berserker, and howled, and leaped from my side into a throng which
fell on us, and drove them back, slaying three outright, and
meeting with no hurt.

Our wedge held steady. Men fell, but we closed up; and there grew a
barrier of slain before us. I had not seen Hubba since we first
closed in, and then he had been a little to the right of where we
struck his line, under a golden banner, whereon was a raven
broidered, that hung motionless in the still morning air.

Presently the Danish onslaught slackened. Men were getting away
from their line to the rear, worn out or wounded, and the hill
beyond them was covered with those who had fall