The White ship is nowhere to be seen, so he knows only a part of the crew are asleep in the tents and decides to attack with the small force to hand.
Holding his bodyguard on the ridge, he sends the rest to attack the sleeping camp.
The sentries fail to spot them until they are almost upon them, and it is the sentries dying cries that awake the rest of the camp.
Vikings die as they struggle half armed from their tents, smashing their tents into the mud as they fall.
Harald Hagarsson can only watch in horror, he dare not leave his post as boat guard.
As daylight finally comes to the scene, he can see the bulk of the Fyrd arriving in the distance.
Where is the White ship? Indeed where are the rest of the crew?
He sees his father fall and leads the last few desperate defenders to retrieve the body for a true viking funeral.
With only a few men left he may well have to use the ships boat he has been guarding, but as he leaps to the shore he slips and falls; rising to one knee he manages to fend off the blows of a determined villager. He stands, parries another blow, then falls wounded.
The villagers, decide to waste no time and release the livestock from the holding pen, their own and that stolen from the neighbouring village of wittemburgzoo.
The last viking falls, but still the fyrd approaches cautiously, not quite believing their success.
Perhaps they are right, for the clearing mist reveals more of their foe advancing down the river bank towards them.
Seeing their shipmates lying on the ground.
Bjorn leads his force to rescue the wounded and give the dead a viking funeral.
The fyrd will pay for this. The tide is rising and soon the white ship should return.
Then the saxons will learn the fury of the northmen.
Pressing forward, he leads his men into the attack, only to join his colleages, dead and dying on the foreshore.
As the white ship finally hoves in sight, they see
Karl of the blue shield and his last companion fall in the surf.
Igor the shipmaster, reluctantly gives the order to sail on.
Today is not a good day, but tomorrow, the saxons will pay in blood.
The villagers are happy, their goods have been reclaimed. and the viking taught a lesson.
As the fyrd scavenge the battlefield, they discover most of the vikings are still alive but that is soon altered, and they leave the scene, taking with them both Hagar and his son Harald in chains and the bodies of their dead, Brice and Alun the shepherd.
As Hagar is lead away, he can only ponder on his fate and that of his son, but he wonders if Igors voyage had been a success, the information Bjorn had has died with him. So that must be learnt again, assuming that the Nones are kind to him.
rear and side view...
