asked:

"What name have you?"

"Egbert," the lad replied.

"And how came it," inquired Thorgils, "that you were brought into
Esthonia?"

Egbert then told his story. He was born, he said, in Northumberland.
His father, a wealthy armourer and silversmith, had been slain by
one of the Northmen who had made a great settlement in that part of
the country, and his mother, whose name was Edith, had then wedded
the man who had made her a widow. The man was named Grim, and he
was a warrior in the service of Erik Bloodaxe, the ruler in those
parts. On the death of King Erik, Grim and many of the Norsemen
went back to Norway in the train of Queen Gunnhild and Erik's sons,
and with him he took his wife and young Egbert. Edith did not live
to reach Norway, and Grim, unwilling to be burdened with her son,
had sold Egbert into slavery. For ten years the boy had suffered
in bondage under different masters, the last of whom--Klerkon
Flatface--had brought him into Esthonia.

"My one wish during all these years," said Egbert, has been
to return to England, where the people are Christian, and do not
worship your heathen gods. Many times I have tried to escape, but
always without success; for I have had no companions, and it is
not easy for one so young as I am to make his way alone through
foreign lands."