"Now, I have to ask if you will go ashore and meet my father.

He would also see my two comrades, and, if it may be so, Queen Gerda." But Thoralf would not hear of the king going ashore, nor would Earl Osric.

Gerda, too, shrank from facing the wild crowd of warriors and the sights of the field which she needs must see more or less of.

Nor did Dalfin press the matter, for he knew that any little spark might be enough to rouse the wild Irish against the Norsemen.
It was but a chance that Hakon had played the part of an ally.

So in the end Bertric and I went ashore with Dalfin and the two hermits, as an embassy, so to speak, to represent Hakon.
We had a good welcome at all events, I suppose because men had heard the tale of our voyage and wreck, and maybe of how Hakon saved the hermits at last.