Once we met a ship passing swiftly northward under oars, and were
not so sure that we might not have to fight or fly. But her crew
were flying from the south, and hailed us to know if it were true
that Hakon had come from England to claim his own. And when we
hailed in answer that so it was, and that we were of his force, the
men roared and cheered while we might hear them. Eric's day was
done.
I think that it was on the fifth day that we came at last to the
break in the line of fringing islands which marks the opening of
the Stavanger Fjord. There we met the long heave and swell of the
open sea, and it was good to feel the lift and quiver of the
staunch ship as she swung over the rollers again.
Across the open stretch of sea we sailed, and the land along which
we coasted was flat and sandy, all unlike that which we had passed
for so many days. But beyond that the mountains were not far,
though in no wise so high as those farther north. And at last Gerda
showed us the place where she had thought to lay Thorwald, her
grandfather, to rest in his ship. We could see the timber slipway,
which still had been left where it was made for that last beaching,
and we could see, too, that here and there the land was turned up
into heaps, where the place for the mound had been prepared.
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