Now when Adils turned back from pursuing Alfgeir and his men, he came to where Thorolf was making his stand against Earl Hring’s detachment, and joined his forces to theirs. When Thorolf saw that the enemy had received reinforcements he said to Egil: “Let us move over to the wood, so that we may have it at our backs, that we be not attacked on all sides at once.” They did so, drawing up under cover of the trees. A furious onset was made upon them there, and furiously they repelled it; so that though the odds of numbers were great, more of Adils’ men fell than of Egil’s. [Illustration: _Thorolf slays Earl Hring at Brunanburh_] Then his “berserking fury”[18] came upon Thorolf, and he became so furious that he bit the iron rim of his shield for rage; then he flung his shield on his back, and, grasping his halberd in both hands, he bounded forward, cutting and thrusting on every side. He shouted like a wild animal, and men sprang away from him, so terrified were they; but he cleaved his path to Earl Hring’s standard, slaying many on his way, for nothing could stop him. He slew the man who bore the earl’s standard and hewed down the standard-pole. Then he lunged at the breast of the earl with his halberd, driving it right through his body, so that it came out at his shoulders; and he raised the halberd with the earl empaled upon its end over his head, and planted the butt-end in the ground. There, in sight of friends and foes, the earl breathed out his life, expiring in agony. Then, drawing his sword, Thorolf charged at the head of his men, scattering the Scots and Welsh in all directions. Thorolf and Egil pursued the flying foe till nightfall; and Earl Adils, seeing his brother fall, took shelter in the wood with his company; he lowered his standard that none might recognize his men from others. The night was falling when Athelstan on the one side and Olaf on the other came up with the fighting contingent; but as it was too dark to give battle, both armies encamped for the night; and it was told to Olaf that both his earls Hring and Adils were fallen, for no one knew what had become of Adils and his men. At break of day King Athelstan called a conference, and he thanked Thorolf and Egil for their brave fight on the day before, and placed Egil as leader of his own division in the van with the foremost men in the host around him. “Thorolf,” he said, “shall be opposed to the Scots, who ever fight in loose order; they dash forward here and there with bravery, and prove dangerous if men are not wary, but they are unsteady in the fight if boldly faced.” Egil liked not to be separated from his brother, and said that he thought ill-luck would come of it, and that in time to come he often would rue the separation, but Thorolf said: “Leave it with the King to place us as he likes best; we will serve him wherever he desires us to be.”