The jarl’s supposition that nobody had seen them arrive on the island proved correct. Since their vessels, drawn up in the inlet, could not be seen from either bank, Óttar assumed that the Saxons believed his ships had left the Kingdom of Wessex. To lend credence to this belief, he decided to lie low for three days, but he had reckoned without his dwindling food supplies. Sitric came to him early on the fourth day, “Jarl, even our most loyal men begin to grumble. They say they would rather die fighting than starve to death on this windswept rock.”
“Perhaps we should put them to the test, then, Sitric. We’ll conduct a lightning raid on the Yrcenefeld Plain, where nobody will expect us to attack again, and then, it’ll be away to the Isle of Man before King Edward can react.”
The Norsemen d
