Strange and grievous it was to me to see our shipyard empty, and
sad to have to tell the story of the good ship's loss to those
whose mourning was not yet over. Yet they were sailors' wives and
children, and to them death at sea was honourable, as is to a
warrior's wife that her husband should fall in a ring of foes with
all his wounds in front. And they blamed me not; but rather
rejoiced that I was safe returned.

Now without thought of any foe, or near or far, Lodbrok and I
hunted and hawked over our manors, finding good sport, and in a
little while I forgot all about Beorn, for I had seen him go in the
king's train as they rode out to Winchester.

Out of that carelessness of mine came trouble, the end of which is
hard to see, and heavily, if there is blame to me, have I paid for
it. And I think that I should have better remembered my father's
words, though I had no thought but that danger was far away for the
time.

We hunted one day alone together, and had ridden far across our
nearer lands to find fresh ground, so that we were in the wide
forest country that stretches towards Norwich, on the south of the
Yare. Maybe we were five miles from the old castle at Caistor.
There we beat the woods for roebuck, having greyhounds and hawks
with us, but no attendants, as it happened, and for a time we found
nothing, not being far from the road that leads to the great city
from the south.

Then we came to a thicket where the deer were likely to harbour,