“Out oars, men!  Keep them swinging, but put no weight on them.  Let them pull after us and tire themselves.  I have a mind to see how our dragon looks on yonder high stem head.”

The men laughed grimly, and the oars were run out.  One called to me: 

“Maybe they beat us in sailing, king; we can teach them somewhat in weapon play.”

“See how they get their oars out,” said Kolgrim, with a sour grin; “a set of lubbers they are.”

One by one, and in no order, the long oars were being got to work.  The great ship was half as long again as ours, pulling twenty-eight oars a side to our twenty.  But while ours rose and fell as if worked by one man, theirs were pulled anyhow, as one might say.

“Better are they at sailing than rowing,” said Thord.

Nevertheless they flew down on us, and that because we only made a show of rowing.

Then we laid on the oars, and came head to wind.  The sail rattled down, and was stowed on deck; and silently we waited, arrows on string, for the fight that was now close at hand.

Then the great ship hove up, head to wind, right ahead of us, and a loud hail came from her.

“Who knows what tongue he talks?” I said.  “I cannot make him out rightly.”

“’Tis West Saxon,” said an old warrior from the waist.  “He asks who we are and what is our business.”

“Tell him therefore, if you can speak in his way,” I answered; “and ask the same of him.”

So a hail or two went backwards and forwards, and then: 

“Says he is Odda, jarl or somewhat of Devon in Wessex, and bids us yield to Alfred the king.”

“In truth,” said I, “if he had not spoken of yielding, I had had more to say to a king who can build ships like these.  Now we will speak with him on his own deck.  Tell him he will have to fight us first.”

The old warrior sent a mighty curt hail back in answer to Odda’s summons; then our war horns blew, and the oars rose and fell, and we were grinding our bows alongside the great ship’s quarter before they knew we were there.  Alfred’s men had yet somewhat to learn of fighting in a sea way, as it seemed, for we were on their deck aft before they had risen from their oar benches.  There were but one or two men on the quarter deck, besides the steersman, to oppose us.  Odda thought we should lay our ship alongside his towering sides if we fought, as I suppose, for he was amidships.

So we swept the decks from aft forward without any hurt to ourselves:  for the Saxons were hampered with the oars, and fell backward over them, and hindered one another.  It was strange to hear my men laughing in what seemed most terrible slaughter; for their foes fell before they were smitten, and lay helpless under the oars, while their comrades fell over them.

So we won to the foot of the mast, and then found that there were some on board who were none so helpless:  for as we came they swung the great yard athwart ships, and that stayed us; while over the heap of canvas glared those who would make it hard for us to win the ship altogether.