CHAPTER X.WHAT BEFELL AT THE GREAT SACRIFICE.
Very early in the gray morning Halfden woke me, and he was fully armed, while at the lower end of the hall the courtmen were rising and arming themselves also, for Vikings must greet Odin as warriors ready to do battle for him when Ragnaroek {xvi} and the last great fight shall come.
"Rise and arm yourself," he said; "here are the arms in which you fought well in your first fight, and axe and sword beside.

Now you shall stand with our crew, and so none of them will heed you, for they love you, and know your ways are not as ours.

So will all be well." Then I thanked him, for I surely thought it would be so; and I armed myself, and that man who had been my own shield man when I led the midship gang helped me.

One thing only I wished, and that was that I had the axe which Lodbrok made for me, for then, I told the man, I should feel as a Viking again, and that pleased him.
"However," he said, "I think I have found an axe that is as near like your own as may be." And he had done so, having had that kindly thought for me.

Then we went out, for the horns were blowing outside the town in the ash grove where the Ve, as they call the temple of Odin and Thor and the other gods, was.