Ragnall spared forty warriors to guard the fleet of longships moored in the Derwent. He reckoned that three hundred men were sufficient for the early stages of his plan. The sentinels watching over the ship would use the longphort as a base that the Norsemen had constructed after the expulsion from Dublin years before. Óttar was perplexed, unable to understand why the chieftain preferred to tramp into Cumbria rather than sail north around Alban and down the east coast straight into Jorvik.
The morning after spending the night camped in the longphort, Ragnall spoke to the jarl and Sitric to explain. “A couple of hours’ march north will bring us to the estates of my bondsmen Knud Troelsson and Skarde, son of Harald. They, better than anyone, will know the situation in Northumbria. We can us
