Quote from Who's Afraid of Beowulf? `Will they be all right?' Hildy asked doubtfully. `They don't seem very practical to me.'  The King nodded. `I should think so,' he said. `Take Angantyr Asmundarson, for instance. To join the muster at Melvich, he marched all night from Brough Head to Burwick - that's right across two msin islands of Orkney - and since there was no boat available he swam over from Burwick to the mainland, in the middle of a storm. Then he ran all the way from Duncansby Head to Melvich, on the morning before the battle, and still fought in the front rank against the stone-rolls of Finnmark. Complaining bitterly about his wet clothes and how he was going to catch his death pneumonia, of course, but that's just his way.' He paused, and contemplated his fingernails for a moment.  `Put like that, I suppose, it rather proves your point. Only a complete idiot would have gone to so much trouble to get involved in a battle.  Come on,' he said briskly, `it's time we were going.'   (Tom Holt, "Who's Afraid of Beowulf?") You can order this book online from Amazon.co.uk: Who's Afraid of Beowulf?