They learned that Haffa, a Danish jarl, with about 600 followers, was plundering and ravaging the country about twelve miles away.

The force was a formidable one, but after consultation with Egbert, Edmund determined to advance, deeming that he might find the Danes scattered and cut off some of their parties.
As they neared the country of which the Danes were in possession the smoke of burning villages and homesteads was seen rising heavily in the air.

Edmund halted for the night in a wood about a mile distant from a blazing farm, and the band lay down for some hours.
Before daybreak three or four of the swiftest-footed of the men were sent out to reconnoitre.

They learned, from badly wounded men whom they found lying near the burning farms, that the Danes had been plundering in parties of twenty or thirty, but that the main body under Haffa lay five miles away at the village of Bristowe.
A consultation was held, and it was agreed that the party should remain hidden in the wood during the day, and that upon the following night they should fall upon the Danes, trusting to the surprise to inflict much damage upon them, and to be able to draw off before the enemy could recover sufficiently to rally and attack them.
Accordingly about nine o'clock in the evening they started, and marching rapidly approached Bristowe an hour and a half later.

They could see great fires blazing, and round them the Danes were carousing after their forays of the day.