after swimming back to return home, rolfe reveals to his father krok and his brother orm that he did indeed hear the bell pealing on the night his ship was wrecked in africa. however, rolfe's father has been made destitute after spending a fortune building a funeral ship for the danish king, harald bluetooth, who then refuses to reimburse him by citing an outstanding debt. rationalising that the ship does not yet belong to harald (since he is still living), rolfe and orm steal not only the ship, but hire a number of inebriated vikings to serve as its crew. in order to prevent harald from killing his father in revenge for the theft, he also takes the king's daughter as a hostage. harald declares that he will summon every longship he can find and rescue her.