(in peril is now the host);
In vain hath Harald brought us
This journey from the east.
The chieftain shrewd’s life-passage
So hath ended that we now
(the King bepraised his life lost)
Row in peril of our lives.’
¶ But ere the combatants again joined issue offered Harald Godwinson his brother Tosti grace, and he likewise offered grace to the other men surviving from the Norwegian host; but the Norwegians shouted out that they would rather fall one above the other, than accept quarter from the English. And thereon shouted they their war-cry, & then the battle began for the second time. ¤ Thus saith Arnor Earl’s-skald:
‘In an hour of misfortune
The King austere gat death;