ABSTRACT
1 ON the occasion described earlier in Ch. 18, Alvild, a nobly-born girl, began to engage in savage piracy and enrolled in her fighting company many young women of the same inclination. She happened to arrive at a place where a band of sea-robbers were lamenting the death of their leader, who had been lost in war. Because of her beauty and spirit she was elected as pirate chief by these fellows and performed feats beyond a normal woman’s courage. Alf undertook many voyages in her pursuit until, during winter, he came upon a fleet of the Blakmanni; in that season the waters solidify with the frost, and a mass of ice generally grips vessels so that, however strongly and skilfully they are rowed, they can make no progress. As the prolonged cold guaranteed a fairly safe footing to the trapped men, Alf ordered his followers to dispense with their slippery shoes, and to walk upon the icy surface only in their stocking-feet; this way they would have an easy encounter and exhaust the enemy, whose greasy shoes would make them unsteady in their balance. Once he had subdued them in this fashion, and the ice had melted, he set his course for the Finns, or Finlanders, as he had intended.
Alvild Alf
Ships are fettered by ice Cold
Way of walking on the ice
