So it came about. Sometimes his longships prowled around the shores, their crews striking as if out of nowhere, to kill, sack, burn, and bear away captives to thralldom. Sometimes a host ferried across the water and went deeply inland, bearing the same havoc. King Uffi fought back as best he could, and many of those fights were hard, but he never had enough forewarning and the Danes always went up against mere shire-levies. These they could either overwhelm or beat to a draw.

When each warfaring season was past, Hadding returned to Denmark and spent months faring through the land. He gave judgments that folk deemed were wise and often kindly; he gave freely not only to the well-born and the yeomen he met but also to the poor; as a go between, he brought deadly feuds to an end; he started the clearing of wildernesses, the building of thorps and marts and shipyards; he found openings for lowly youths who wanted to better themselves; by his gifts, words, and smiles he brought a flowering in skaldcraft and handicraft; by his dealings with the Jutish, Anglian, and Saxon kings, he safeguarded and heartened trade. It was often said that he seemed to be two different men, one ruthlessly warlike, one a forethoughtful landfather.

With all this, he found no time for seeking a wife.

Thus it went for five years, until his doom overtook him anew.

XV

Too long have we fought with that wolf where and when and how he chooses,” said King Uffi in Uppsala.

“What else can we do?” asked his younger brother, Hunding. “If we brought together a great host, that would leave helpless the shires from which so many men were drawn. He would go reave unhindered. Ever oftener I wonder if we might not best make peace with him. If he got sureties that Denmark would be safe from us, he might well give up his thin claim to kingship here.”

Uffi’s fist thudded on the arm of his high seat. “Peace between him and me? Never while we are both alive!” He was a big man like their father, Asmund, with much the same face, though his locks were brown and as yet had no gray in them. Folk reckoned him wilier; he thought ahead. Today he narrowed his eyes and spoke softly. “A wolf leaps into a sheepfold, takes a lamb in its jaws, and is off before the hounds can give chase. If one of them does catch up with him, he slashes it bloody and lopes onward into the wilds where the rest soon lose his spoor. Shall the shepherd therefore yield and let him have the flock? No, a wise man lures the wolf into a trap.”