he came back.

Now in the evening we had news from the Jarl, and strange enough it was.
My father came back two days afterwards and told us all, and so I may as
well make a short story of it. The ways of Gunnar Kirkeban had been his
end, for a certain Viking chief, a Norseman, had wintered in Wales
during the past winter, and there he had heard from the Welsh of the
wrongs that they had suffered at his hands. Also he had heard of the
great booty of Welsh gold that Gunnar had taken thence in the last
summer; and so, when these Welsh asked that he would bide with them and
help fight the next Danes who came, he had offered to do more than that
---he would lead them to Gunnar's place if they would find men to man
three ships that he had taken, and would be content to share the booty
with them.

The Welsh king was of the line of Arthur, and one who yet hoped to win
back the land of his fathers from the Saxons and English; and so he
listened to this Hodulf, thinking to gain a powerful ally in him for
attack on the eastern coast of England after this. So, favoured by the
wind that had kept us from the sea, Hodulf, with twenty ships in all,
had fallen on Gunnar unawares, and had had an easy victory, besetting
the town in such wise that only in the confusion while the wild Welsh
were burning and plundering on every side had the messenger to the jarl
been able to slip away.

But when the jarl and our men reached the town there was naught to be
done but to make terms with Hodulf as best he might, that the whole
country might not be overrun. For Gunnar had been slain in his own hall,
with his two young daughters and with the queen also, as was supposed.
Havelok the prince was in his hands, and for his sake therefore Sigurd
had been the more ready to come to terms.

Then Hodulf sent messengers to the overlord of all Denmark, saying that
he would hold this kingdom as for him, and backed up that promise with a
great present from Gunnar's treasure, so that he was listened to.
Therefore our jarl was helpless; and there being no other king strong
enough to aid him if he rose, in the end he had to take Hodulf for lord
altogether, though it went sorely against the grain.

I have heard it said by the Welsh folk that Hodulf held the kingdom for
their lord; and it is likely that he humoured them by saying that he
would do so, which was a safe promise to make, as even King Arthur
himself could never have reached him to make him pay scatt