and spare nothing to get them into thy quarrel, whatever price
they ask.”
Now King Sigtrygg fares and seeks the vikings, and found them
lying outside off Man; King Sigtrygg brings forward his errand at
once, but Brodir shrank from helping him until he, King Sigtrygg,
promised him the kingdom and his mother, and they were to keep
this such a secret that Earl Sigurd should know nothing about it;
Brodir too was to come to Dublin on Palm Sunday.
So King Sigtrygg fared home to his mother, and told her how
things stood.
After that those brothers, Ospak and Brodir, talked together, and
then Brodir told Ospak all that he and Sigtrygg had spoken of,
and bade him fare to battle with him against King Brian, and said
he set much store on his going.
But Ospak said he would not fight against so good a king.
Then they were both wroth, and sundered their band at once.
Ospak had ten ships and Brodir twenty.
Ospak was a heathen, and the wisest of all men. He laid his
ships inside in a sound, but Brodir lay outside him.
Brodir had been a Christian man and a mass-deacon by
consecration, but he had thrown off his faith and become God’s
dastard, and now worshipped heathen fiends, and he was of all men
most skilled in sorcery. He had that coat of mail on which no
steel would bite. He was both tall and strong, and had such long
locks that he tucked them under his belt. His hair was black.
155. OF SIGNS AND WONDERS
It so happened one night that a great din passed over Brodir and
his men, so that they all woke, and sprang up and put on their
clothes.
Along with that came a shower of boiling blood.
Then they covered themselves with their shields, but for all that
many were scalded.
This wonder lasted all till day, and a man had died on board
every ship.
Then they slept during the day, but the second night there was
again a din, and again they all sprang up. Then swords leapt out
of their sheaths, and axes and spears flew about in the air and
fought.
The weapons pressed them so hard that they had to shield
themselves, but still many were wounded, and again a man died out
of every ship.
This wonder lasted all till day.
Then they slept again the day after.
But the third night there was a din of the same kind, and then
ravens flew at them, and it seemed to them as though their beaks
and claws were of iron.
The ravens pressed them so hard that they had to keep them off
with their swords, and covered themselves with their shields, and
so this went on again till day, and then another man had died in
every ship.
