[Sidenote:  The enchanted cow.] Eystein, the Swedish king, now assembled a large army and declared war against the Danes, because their monarch had failed to return at the appointed time and claim the bride for whom he had sued.  Ragnar would fain have gone forth to meet the enemy in person, but Agnar and Erik, his two eldest sons, craved permission to go in his stead.  They met the Swedish king, but in spite of their valor they soon succumbed to an attack made by an enchanted cow.

“’We smote with swords; at dawn of day
Hundred spearmen gasping lay,
Bent beneath the arrowy strife. 
Egill reft my son of life;
Too soon my Agnar’s youth was spent,
The scabbard thorn his bosom rent.’”

                                    Death Song of Regner Lodbrock (Herbert’s tr.).

Ragnar was about to sally forth to avenge them, when Hastings and the other sons returned.  Then Aslaug prevailed upon her husband to linger by her side and delegate the duty of revenge to his sons.  In this battle Ivar made use of his magic to slay Eystein’s cow, which could make more havoc than an army of warriors.  His brothers, having slain Eystein and raided the country, then sailed off to renew their depredations elsewhere.

This band of vikings visited the coasts of England, Ireland, France, Italy, Greece, and the Greek isles, plundering, murdering, and burning wherever they went.  Assisted by Hastings, the brothers took Wiflisburg (probably the Roman Aventicum), and even besieged Luna in Etruria.

[Illustration:  STRATEGY OF HASTINGS—­Keller.]

As this city was too strongly fortified and too well garrisoned to yield to an assault, the Normans (as all the northern pirates were indiscriminately called in the South) resolved to secure it by stratagem.  They therefore pretended that Hastings, their leader, was desperately ill, and induced a bishop to come out of the town to baptize him, so that he might die in the Christian faith.  Three days later they again sent a herald to say that Hastings had died, and that his last wish had been to be buried in a Christian church.  They therefore asked permission to enter the city unarmed, and bear their leader to his last resting place, promising not only to receive baptism, but also to endow with great wealth the church where Hastings was buried.

[Sidenote:  Hastings’s stratagem.] The inhabitants of Luna, won by these specious promises, immediately opened their gates, and the funeral procession filed solemnly into the city.  But, in the midst of the mass, the coffin lid flew open, and Hastings sprang out, sword in hand, and killed the officiating bishop and priests.  This example was followed by his soldiers, who produced the weapons they had concealed upon their persons, and slew all the inhabitants of the town.

These lawless invaders were about to proceed to Romaburg (Rome), and sack that city also, but were deterred by a pilgrim whom they met.  He told them that the city was so far away that he had worn out two pairs of iron-soled shoes in coming from thence.  The Normans, believing this tale, which was only a stratagem devised by the quick-witted pilgrim, spared the Eternal City, and, reembarking in their vessels, sailed home.