to wait for us to come down to him, for it was of no use to try to take
the strong camp which sheltered us. And so, after council held, we did
not keep him waiting, but left the hill and marched on him. We had the
camp to fall back on if things went the wrong way, and beyond that the
road to the sea and the ships was open, with a chance of meeting Ragnar
on the way, moreover.

Very long and deep seemed the line as we neared it, and it was formed on
the banks of a stream that runs down the valley, so that we must cross
the water to attack. But the stream was shallow now with the August
heat, and it was not much sunk between its banks.

When he saw that, Sigurd, who was a man of many fights, said that we had
better send the marshmen round to fall on the wings of the foe, while we
went straight for the centre of the line in the wedge formation that the
Viking loves. For so we should have no trouble in crossing the stream,
and should cut the force against us in two.

So the two Welsh thanes led their wild levies out on either side of us
Danes, who were in the centre, and then we formed the wedge. Havelok
himself would have gone first of all at its point: but that we would not
suffer, for if he fell the battle was lost at its beginning.

"Nay," he said, "for we fight for Goldberga."

"And what would she say were we to set you foremost of us all?" asked
Withelm. "Little love were there to either of you in that. You are the
heart of the host, and one shields that although it gives strength to
all the hands which obey it."