When King Harald saw that the English array had come to the ditch
against him, he ordered the charge to be sounded, and urged on his men.
He ordered the banner which was called the Land-ravager to be carried
before him, and made so severe an assault that all had to give way
before it; and there was a great loss among the men of the earls, and
they soon broke into flight, some running up the river, some down, and
the most leaping into the ditch, which was so filled with dead that the
Norsemen could go dry-foot over the fen. There Earl Morukare fell. So
says Stein Herdison:--
"The gallant Harald drove along,
Flying but fighting, the whole throng.
At last, confused, they could not fight,
And the whole body took to flight.
Up from the river's silent stream
At once rose desperate splash and scream;
But they who stood like men this fray
Round Morukare's body lay."
This song was composed by Stein Herdison about Olaf, son of King Harald;
and he speaks of Olaf being in this battle with King Harald, his father.
These things are also spoken of in the song called "Harald's Stave":--
"Earl Valthiof's men
Lay in the fen,
By sword down hewed,
So thickly strewed,
That Norsemen say
They paved a way
Across the fen
For the brave Norsemen."
Earl Valthiof, and the people who escaped, fled up to the castle of
York; and there the greatest loss of men had been. This battle took
place upon the Wednesday next Mathias' day (A.D. 1066).