18 Fifteenth Battle
After this appearance to him he turned about, and came to Poitou, where he plundered and burnt a merchant town called Varrande. Of this Ottar speaks:—
“Our young king, blythe and gay,
Is foremost in the fray:
Poitou he plunders, Tuskland burns,—
He fights and wins where’er he turns.”
And also Sigvat says:—
“The Norsemen’s king is on his cruise,
His blue steel staining,
Rich booty gaining,
And all men trembling at the news.
The Norsemen’s kings up on the Loire:
Rich Partheney
In ashes lay;
Far inland reached the Norsemen’s spear.”