Читать книгу Draca - Geoffrey Gudgion - Страница 37

King Guthrum gathered a great army and harried in the Westlands, the folk fleeing before him wherever he went, for it was known that he had all men killed that stood before him. Then King Alfred came against him with an army of the West Saxons and there was straightaway a great strife both hard and long, but the end of it was that neither side had the victory.

After the battle King Guthrum withdrew to Jarvic^[1] and gave his son Jarl Harald charge over a mighty force of longships . He commanded Harald to sail straightway to the South and to fall upon the great harbour of the West Saxons at Fyrsig , where all the longships of his fleet might safely lie. Furthermore Jarl Harald was not to harry the lands in between, lest the news of his army fly to Alfred like fire in dry grass, but was to fall upon Alfred by surprise from the South while Jarl Guthrum came against him from the North.

Now Harald Guthrumsson was a great warrior and had good opportunity of choosing himself the foremost in strength or boldness, and many mighty men followed him and offered their sons to be his bodyguard and berserks. In Harald ’ s dragonhead ship, the stem men were the best chosen, for they bore the jarl ’ s standard, and the berserks took their place in the part which went from the stem back to the bailing place. Fearless were these men, strong as bears and mad like wolves. They bit their shields, and filled their foes with terror, and neither fire nor steel would deal with them.

Thus sailed Harald Guthrumsson with one hundred and twenty ships and half the army of King Guthrum .