As he smote yet another of the heathens, Alun smiled grimly at the thought of sending his victim to Woden’s feasting hall, for he knew about their beliefs. It occurred to him that every Dane that he and Alfred slew was one less threat to his homeland. He blessed the acuity that had led him to propose this alliance to his sovereign.
The battle raged for hours because the Danes, even in defeat, were stubborn fighters who knew that the tides of warfare were as variable as those swirling in the English estuaries.
But, when many thousands of pagans had been slain, and all the others had been put to flight, the English and Welsh Christians were masters of the battlefield.
However, this was not to be a day of sudden surprises and the rout, with its consequent loss of Danish lives, duly occurre
