250 Norivay and the Norivegians 



each ship perched a bird of prey, a raven or an eagle, 

 as though the crew of each ship was destined to de- 

 struction. Another man in the Norse fleet saw in a 

 dream the arrival of their army in England, and the 

 army which they were going to fight ; and before the 

 latter rode a demon-woman upon a wolf ; it held a 

 human carcase in its mouth, and blood was streaming 

 from its jaws, and as it devoured one man from the 

 Norwegian army, the troll-woman gave it another. 

 Under these gloomy auspices did Harald's fleet set sail 

 in the autumn of a.d. 1066. 



The fleet came first to the Orkneys. It was joined 

 there by the two Earls of Orkney, Paul and Erling, the 

 sons of that Earl Thorfinn of whom we have spoken. 

 How it sailed next to Scotland, and then in conjunction 

 with Tostig's fleet down to the English coast, fighting 

 with the men of Scarborough and burning that town, 

 with the men of Holderness, till it reached the mouth of 

 the Humber, readers of English history remember. It 

 sailed up the Humber to the mouth of the Wharf, in 

 which lay the fleet of the Earls of Northumbria and 

 Mercia, the famous-infamous Earls Morcar and Edwine. 

 On Wednesday, September 20, the army of Harald and 

 Tostig met the army of the earls at Gate Fulford. 

 Harald and Tostig gained a signal victory. They then 

 marched to besiege York, which capitulated on Sunday, 

 September 24. Harald took hostages from the city, and 

 appointed Stamford Bridge as the place where the chief 

 men of Northumbria were to come to him and make 

 submission. 



But that very evening another English army, under 

 our King Harold Godwin's son, had reached the neigh- 



