Sihtric Quotes

I could hardly see him in the darkness, but knew he wore a leather jerkin and had a sword at his side. The rest of us were in leather and mail, had helmets, and carried shields, axes, swords, or spears. Tonight we would kill. Sihtric,

He drew his seax instead and nodded to Sihtric who still guarded Brida. ‘Let her stand.’ Sihtric stepped away. Brida hesitated, then suddenly scrambled to her feet and lunged at Sigtryggr as if trying to snatch the seax from his hand, but he held her at arm’s length with contemptuous ease. ‘You would have blinded my daughter,’ he said bitterly. ‘I would have given her wisdom!’ Sigtryggr held her with his left hand and raised the seax with his right, but Stiorra intervened. She touched his right arm. ‘She’s mine,’ she said. Sigtryggr hesitated, then nodded. ‘She’s yours,’ he agreed. ‘Give her the sword,’ Stiorra said. She still held Wasp-Sting. ‘Give her the sword?’ Sigtryggr asked, frowning. ‘Give it to her,’ Stiorra commanded. ‘Let’s discover who the gods love. Uhtredsdottir or her.’ Sigtryggr held the seax hilt first to Brida. ‘Let’s see who the gods love,’ he agreed.

She says she loves me,” he told me. “Of course she says that,” I said. He paused, and when he spoke again his voice had brightened, as though he had been encouraged by my words. “And I must be nineteen by now, lord! Maybe even twenty?” “Eighteen?” I suggested. “I could have been married four years ago, lord!” “But why marry a whore?” I asked him harshly. “She’s . . .” Sihtric began. “She’s old,” I snarled, “maybe thirty? And she’s addled. Ealhswith only has to see a man and her thighs fly apart! If you lined up every man who’d tupped that whore you’d have an army big enough to conquer all Britain.” Beside me Ralla sniggered. “You’d be in that army, Ralla?” I asked. “Twenty times over, lord,” the shipmaster said. “She loves me,” Sihtric spoke sullenly. “She loves your silver,” I said, “and besides, why put a new sword in an old scabbard?

And not just any mail. My coat was of Frankish make and would cost a man more than the price of a warship. Sihtric had polished the metal with sand so that it shone like silver. The hem of the coat was at my knees and was hung with thirty-eight hammers of Thor; some made of bone, some of ivory, some of silver, but all had once hung about the necks of brave enemies I had killed in battle, and I wore the amulets so that when I came to the corpse-hall the former owners would know me, greet me, and drink ale with me.