So they looked at one another.
Then Erpwald slipped the golden ring from his arm and held it up.
There may have been some thought in his mind that my father was hesitating yet.
"By the holy ring I adjure you, Aldred, for the last time, to return to the Asir," he said loudly.
My father shook his head only, but Stuf the house-carle, who had stood beside him at the font this morning, had another answer which was strange enough.
"This for the ring!" he said.
And with that he hurled a throwing spear at it as it shone in the firelight, with a true aim.

The spear went through the ring itself without harming the hand of the holder, and coming a little slantwise, twitched it away from him and stuck in the timber of the stockade whence the gatepost had been riven.

The ring hung spinning on the shaft safely enough, but to Erpwald it seemed that his treasure had gone altogether, and he yelled with rage and sprang forward.

After him came his men, and in a moment the two parties were hand to hand.
Then was fighting such as the gleemen sing of, with the light of the red fire waxing and waning across the courtyard the while.

The strange lights and shadows it cast were to the advantage of our men for a little while, but the numbers were too great against them for that to be of much avail.