Then we were within ten paces of them, and I gripped shield and axe and gave the word to charge, and Odda answered it.
Then was such a terrible roar from the Saxons as I had never heard--the roar of desperate men who have their foes before them, more awful than any war shout.

And at that even the vikings shrank a little, closing their ranks, and then, with all the weight of the close-ranked wedge behind me, we were among them, and our axes were at work where men were driven on one another before us; and the press thinned and scattered at last, while the Danes howled, and for a moment we three and a few lines behind us stood with no foemen before us, while all down the sides of the wedge the fight raged.

Then we halted, and the Danes lapped round us.

I do not know that we lost more than two men in this first onset, so heavy was it; but the Danes fell everywhere.
Now began fighting such as I had heard of, but had never seen before.

The scalds sing of men who fought as fights a boar at bay in a ring of hounds, unfearing and silent; and so fought we.