The women were trying to reach her also, with words of joy and praise.

So I took her through them all to the high place, and set her there in Thorwald's chair, and Gorm the Steward passed round some word, and came himself with a silver cup full of mead, and set it in her hand, and whispered to her.
Whereon she smiled and rose up, and held the cup high, and cried to her folk: "Skoal, friends, and thanks!" And all down the hall, from her own folk and from Hakon's, and even from those strangers, Eric's men, came the answer: "Skoal to Gerda the Queen, and welcome!" And then one lifted his voice and cried: "Skoal to Jarl Malcolm!" Men took that up, and it was good to hear them.
Gerda gave me the cup her lips had just touched, and I drank "skoal" to them in turn, and so Gerda the Queen had come home.
Gerda passed to the bower presently, and left us in the hall.

The men still made merry with shout and song, and Gorm was preparing the guest hall for us.

Asbiorn had come in with the rest of his men, grim and silent, and I asked him if he had Arnkel safe.

He nodded and reached for a horn of ale, and sat down at the end of the high place, for at the time Bertric and I were talking with Eric's men, and trying to settle matters with them, for we could not let them go back to their master.
One was a jarl from the south, and the others men of less note, and they had looked to gather men to Eric hence.