With the aetheling and the northern lords safe across the Tees, Ivar, Saeward, Osgod and Harding head back to Jorunn's inn near the Derwent. They see smoke and learn of burnings to the north, where the king's men lay waste to crops and hamlets and run off or kill livestock with the threat of death to those who stay.
New friendships are made, the first with Beardulf the woodsman and Hringolf returns with more bowmen. A thegn's wife is rescued from drowning herself and her child, taken to the safety of Jorunn's inn after seeing off William's bailiffs.


Ivar joins half-brother Jarl Osbeorn, Jarl Thorkill and Bishop Christian with the Danes to take on Norman cavalry on the Isle of Axholm, whose armour and heavy horses fall foul of the soft marshland earth.


Riding north Ivar and friends cross paths with Hereward of Bourne and his retinue, and begin raiding the Normans' timber strongholds around the Moors. The dying Harding is brought back to life by Braenda's sister Jorunn. Other uncanny encounters follow, with Ivar's woman Braenda and weaponsmith friend Andvari unnerving the Normans and their superstitious Breton allies... And the prospect of men seeking one another out to fill their cooking pots rears its ugly head in the Hunger Winter brought on by William's Harrying of the North.