Behind the hall rose a sheer cliff, sheltering it and the other houses from the north and east.
All this I was to see plainly hereafter.

Before me now in the dusk, which was almost darkness, as the ship slid from the narrows into the open, was the wide ring of mountains and the still lake, and across that the twinkling lights of the town, doubled in the water below them, and above them all the long row of high-set openings under the eaves of the hall itself, glowing red with the flame of fire and torches, and flickering as the smoke curled across and through them.
I wondered what welcome was waiting for us from those who were gathered there, as I stood with Gerda on my arm beside our comrades, who watched the pilots as they steered.

Bertric was there, and Phelim, who by this time spoke the Norse well enough, besides Asbiorn.
There was some spur of hill between us and part of the town, for the light seemed to glide from behind it as we held on, but its mass was lost in the shadows.

I was watching the lights as they came, one by one, to view, and then of a sudden, on the blackness of the cliff above the hall, shone out a cross of light, tall and bright and clear, as it were a portent, or as set there to guard the place.

So suddenly did it come that I started, and I heard Father Phelim draw in his breath with some words which I could not catch.
"What is that ?" I asked Gerda, under my breath and pointing.
She laughed gently, and her hand tightened on my arm.
"We were wont to call it Thor's hammer," she said.