Harold, Godwin’s son, was hardly seated on the throne when he heard that his brother Tosti was come to the South of England and was gathering great multitudes of men in the Isle of Wight. Harold had been collecting an army, fearing an invasion by William of Normandy, for he knew well enough that William would never forgive him for having broken his oath to him, or for forgetting his promise to come back from England to marry his young daughter, to whom he had been betrothed in Normandy. He immediately prepared to lead his army south toward the place where he heard that Tosti was; but the earl took ship again and slipped away north to his own old earldom of Northumbria, where, in spite of his cruelties during his rule, he hoped to find some men to help him. Harald Hardrada had crossed over with his fleet to Orkney, where the Earls of Orkney, Paul and Erlend, joined him with a great force; and there he left his wife and daughters, taking his son Olaf with him, and sailing south to meet Tosti in Northumbria. When Tosti arrived he found the Norwegian King already plundering the country, and subduing the people all along the coast. At Scarborough, which lies beneath a high cliff, the King had fought his way inland, and on mounting the hill behind the town he had caused a great pile of brushwood to be made and set on fire; then his men with pitchforks threw the burning wood down upon the town, so that one house after another caught the flame, and the people surrendered. Then he passed on to the Humber, where Tosti joined him, and together they sailed up the river, awaiting the coming of Earl Morcar, whom Harold, Godwin’s son, had made earl when Tosti fled abroad, and who was advancing from York with a large army. The King of Norway drew up his men near Fulford, south-east of York. They stood with one end of their line toward the River Ouse, and the other ran along a ditch on the land side. A deep morass, full of water, lay beside them. The earl’s army came down along the ditch, advancing bravely, for at first it seemed that the Northmen at the end of the ditch would give ground before them. But King Harald Hardrada heard that the enemy were approaching; he ordered his war-charge to be sounded, and with his banner, the Land-ravager, borne before him, he urged on his men. Very vigorous was the charge, and the earl’s army broke before it; they turned and fled, some up and some down the river, while many leaped into the ditch. So thick lay the bodies that it is said the Norsemen could go dry-foot over the morass, walking on the slain. The song called “Harald Hardrada’s Stave” says about this: “Earl Morcar’s men Lay in the fen, By sword down-hewn, So thickly strewn That Norsemen say They paved a way Across the fen For brave Norsemen.” Earl Morcar is said by the Northern chronicles to have been slain, and the rest of his men shut themselves up in York.