Viking Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page A

the halls, houses and storage dwellings of all that they had.  I stopped when I saw the walls of Lundenburgh just four hundred paces from us. King Egbert had cleared the land after the attack by King Coenwulf.  I had no desire to lose warriors attacking its walls. Women, children and a few men ran from back lanes and narrow alleyways to run towards the fort which was now in uproar.
    "Shields!"
    The Ulfheonar locked shields and we formed one line across the road from the fort. Other warriors formed a second line. I saw a glow from the fort as the huge gates opened to admit the refugees and to allow some of the garrison to come out. They had no idea how many men they faced and I guessed that the Eorledman, Thegn or Gesith who commanded  would bring men to see if he could chase us off. He was in for a shock.
    Most Viking raiders use spears.  We sometimes did but my Ulfheonar preferred their own weapons of choice.  Haaken and I favoured swords while Olaf Leather Neck liked his axe.  The Saxons who approached all had spears. I saw the first glow of dawn behind the walls of Lundenburgh and I saw that there were forty men approaching us. We were evenly matched in numbers but I doubted that they had the quality of warriors who stood with me. The leader had a fine full face helmet with small wings at the side. The rising sun glinted from it.  The overlapping scales told me he had good mail as did the five hearthweru behind him.
    When they were sixty paces from us they halted and the Saxon shouted, "Wedge!"
    Had I chosen we could have charged them and attacked them when they were in the process of forming a wedge but I waited. I shouted, "Lock shields!" My men all moved a little closer so that each shield overlapped the next by a third of its width and I felt the shields behind us push into our backs. If these had been the Welsh, with their fine archers, I might have had the second rank of shields held over us.  Saxons made poor archers. We just braced ourselves for the attack. We all stepped forward on our left legs so that we were braced for the moment of impact.
    The wedge complete, the leader led his men towards us. The warriors who approached us moved slowly.  I guessed they were more used to watching from the walls.  We waited patiently.  When they were twenty paces from us the Saxon shouted, "Charge!" The sun suddenly flared brightly above the walls and bathed us all in light.
    As one we raised our shields so that they covered half of our heads. It left the Saxons with two targets, our eyes or our thighs.  Our thighs were covered by long byrnies.  Our eyes were a small target. I held my sword above my shield and that of Haaken.  I watched as the Saxon leader deliberately aimed his spear at me.  He was relying on the weight of the wall to ram their weapons into us.  We waited patiently.  We knew how to deal with Saxon spears. Our mail, even if they managed to penetrate our shields, would block any blows.
    I used the blade of my sword to flick the spear head harmlessly up into the air.  It slid between my head and Haaken's. Then they struck us. The wedge became a line as I held the leader and those behind him flowed around. Once we were beard to beard then the spear became a useless weapons.  The second rank tried to stab over the heads of the front rank. The Saxons had made the mistake of putting taller men in the front rank and the spears were ineffective. Our line had held.
    The Saxon leader's face was slightly below mine but he was close enough to hiss at me, "Viking dogs, we shall gut you like fish and put your heads on the walls! I am Eorledman Brynoth and I have slain many Vikings!"
    I smiled, "But not, I think, an Ulfheonar! Push!" The Saxons had lost all cohesion now and were a swirling mass of warriors.  They had not locked their shields and when I pushed, along with all of my men, with our shields the Saxons were forced back.  As soon as there was space I stabbed forward with Ragnar's Spirit. The