"I sent a messenger before I gave sentence.

But I should not have blamed them had they fought, knowing all." Then a rough man who tended the boat called out: "Ho, Lord Earl, are these murderers to go forth with gold on arm and hand ?" for we had been stripped of naught but our arms, and I suppose the man coveted these things.
But the earl answered: "Which is the murderer?
I know not.

When his time comes stripped he will be of life itself.

Let the men be," and then in a moment he asked one by him; "what weapons had Lodbrok when he came ?" "Only a dagger," answered the thane to whom he spoke.

"Or so men say." "That is true," I said plainly.
"Give the men their daggers," then said the earl; and when one told him that we should use them on each other, he answered: "I think they will not; do my bidding!" So they threw my hunting knife to me, and I girded it on.