THE SCENE: Trapped in by a superior enemy navy, the cunning Viking king Frothi devised a secret plan to gain advantage over his enemy that would have done Wile-E-Coyote proud.
THE TEXT: Journeying from there he came upon Trann, a prince of the Rutenians; preparatory to spying out his navy, Frothi made a large number of spikes out of sticks and loaded them into a coracle. He rowed up to the enemy fleet at night, bored the bottoms of their ships with an auger, and to prevent a sudden in-rush of the sea plugged the gaping holes with the pins he had provided, temporarily repairing the damage. When, however, he believed there were enough perforations to sink the fleet, the bungs were removed to give quick access to the waters, after which he speedily crowded his own vessels round the enemy’s.
Harassed be a double danger, the Rutenians did not know whether to combat weapons or water. Their ships were foundering as they battled to defend them, yet the crisis from within was more desperate, for the waves were entering while they were actually unsheathing their blades. The wretches were assailed on two fronts at once, so that they were doubtful whether swifter salvation lay in swimming or fighting. This new and fateful emergency interrupted them in the midst of the engagement. The single attack carried two related ways of destruction, since it was impossible to tell whether sword or sea offered greater hazard; the waves lapped up quietly and overtook them as they beat off the weapons, and, conversely, they were enfolded by the oncoming blades as they withstood the waters. The ocean wash was polluted with the spraying of blood.
– Gesta Danorum, Saxo Grammaticus, 12th Century AD
