He himself was stern and moody, for he was thinking of his lost ship and of the Northland and of Hilda.
"If she knoweth where I am," he thought, "surely she would give me a token. I doubt if she can follow me unto this place. How could she find me in Carmel?"
He stood erect soon, and there was a strong impulse upon him, for he lifted his war horn and blew three blasts, toward the sea, and toward the forest, and toward the great crag that standeth on the promontory of the mountain. The sea replied not, nor did the forest, but from the great wall of rock there came back an answer such as will come in the winter time from out the deep throats of the fiords when the gods are conversing. Once and again it spoke, and Knud the Bear exclaimed:
"Odin is here, or Thor, for that is a war horn of the North answering thine, O son of Brander. It is a good omen. I like to feel that the old gods are with us."
"We will follow thee!" added Wulf the Skater. "Go where thou wilt. I will not again forget that thou art of Odin."
So Ulric took up his spear and shield and Ben Ezra led the way; but the forest was dense before them and it was a long walk eastward before they came out into an open place.
From every lip burst a sudden shout as the Saxons halted to gaze upon that which was before them.
"The valley of the gods!" said Ulric.
"The valley of the slain!" responded Ben Ezra. "The plain of Esdraelon. The valley which is before Jezreel. The valley of Decision. O jarl of the Saxons, it is the place of the meeting of the hosts of kings. Since the world was made here hath been the place of battles. Thereon have fallen more dead than on any other piece of ground. The chariots and the horsemen have there gone down together."