The old hall was not changed at all; and handsome it seemed after Alsi’s, though it was not so large.  There were more and better weapons on the walls, and carved work was everywhere, so that in the swirl and heat-flicker of the torches the beams, and door posts, and bench ends, and the pillars of the high seat seemed alive with knotted dragons that began, and ended, and writhed everywhere, wondrous to look on.  Our English have not the long winter nights, and cruel frosts, and deep snow that make time for such work as this for the men of the household.

There fell a silence as we came in, and then Sigurd greeted us; and we were set on the high seat, and feasted royally.  On right and left of our host sat Havelok and Goldberga, and the jarl’s wife next to Havelok, and Biorn the Brown, the sheriff, next to our princess.  This was a newcomer here since my days, but well we liked him.

There is nothing to tell of what happened at this feast, for Sigurd asked no questions of us but the most common ones of sea, and wind, and voyage, and never a word that would have been hard for Havelok to answer in this company, where men of Hodulf’s might well be present.  Withelm noticed this, and said that no doubt it was done purposely, and he thought much of it.

When we had ended with song and tale, and it was near time for rest, Sigurd bade Biorn, the sheriff, take us to his house for the night, telling him that he must answer for our safety, and specially that of the fair lady who had come from so far.  And then he gave us a good guard of his housecarls to take us down the street, as if he feared some danger.

“Why, jarl,” said Biorn, “our guests will have a bad night if they think that in our quiet place they need twenty men to see them to bed thus!”

“Nay, but the town is strange to the lady,” answered Sigurd; “and who knows what she may fear in a foreign land!”

So Biorn laughed, and was content; and we bade farewell to the jarl, and went out.  And then I found that it was to my father’s house we were to go, for it had been given to Biorn.

Now, I was next to Goldberga as we came to the door, and there was a step into the house which we always had to warn strangers of when it was dark; and so, in the old way, without thinking for a moment, I said to her, “One step into the house, sister.”

“Ho, Master Radbard, if that is you, you have sharp eyes in the dark,” said Biorn at once; “I was just about to say that myself.”

“I have some feeling in my toes,” I answered; and that turned the matter, for they laughed.

And then, when we were inside, and the courtmen had gone clattering down the street homewards, Biorn took the great door bar from its old place and ran it into the sockets in the doorposts, as I had done so many times; and the runes that my father had cut on it when he made the house were still plain to be seen on it, with the notches I had made with the first knife that I ever had.  More I will not say, but everywhere that my eyes fell were things that I knew, even to fishing gear, for it seemed that Biorn was somewhat of a fisher, like Grim himself.