The battle was fought upon the fateful Friday, and Brian refused to take part in it because the day was holy. He remained in the rear protected by a ring of soldiers with their shields locked together. It was observed that the successive bearers of the raven banner all fell, and Hrafn the red, who was called by Sigurd to the dangerous duty, refused, saying, 'Bear thine own devil thyself.' ''Tis fittest that the beggar should bear the bag,' answered the Earl, and put the banner under his cloak. Sigurd fell, and Sitric had to retire before Ospak. Hrafn the red flew to a river into which the devils wished to drag him, but a spoken spell dispersed them. 'Thy dog,' he cried, 'Apostle Peter, hath run twice to Rome, and he would run the third time if thou gavest him leave.' Of Thorstein we are told that he interrupted his flight to tie his shoe. Kerthialfad, Brian's foster son, asked him why he lingered at such a critical moment, and the Northman returned an answer worthy of Sparta's best days--'Because I can't get home to-night, since I am at home out in Iceland.'[23] [Sidenote: Death of Brian.] In the moment of victory Brian was left behind, and Brodir, who had lingered for a time in a thicket, broke through the line of shields and hewed off the king's head. The Viking was taken and disembowelled alive, according to the Norse account, but the Irish writers say that he fell by Brian's hands. Sigurd being already dead, Gormflaith lost all chance of a royal husband, and it is only further recorded of her that she died sixteen years later. Many other chiefs fell, including Maelmordha, and Murrough, Brian's favourite son, and the fight was followed, as it had been heralded, by many signs and wonders both in the Celtic and in the Scandinavian world. [Sidenote: The Danes were not expelled.] The popular delusion that the battle of Clontarf caused the expulsion of the Danes from Ireland must be pretty well dissipated by this time. Sitric remained with reserves within the fortress, and thus saved his kingdom; nor do the annalists cease to make frequent mention of the foreigners. But the defeat was great, and may have had considerable influence in deciding those who were already hovering between Woden and Jesus. Fourteen years after Clontarf we find Sitric going to Rome, and his son Olaf was killed in England when attempting the same pilgrimage. These facts lend some countenance to the legend that Sitric founded Christ Church in 1038; for the Roman court well knew how to impress the rude northern warriors, and to profit in various ways by their simple faith. We are told that Flosi the Icelander went to Rome to cleanse himself from the stain of blood-guiltiness, 'where,' says the Njal-Saga, 'he gat so great honour that he took absolution from the Pope himself, and for that he gave a great sum of money.' [Sidenote: But they soon accepted Christianity.]