Ragnar's sons attack England but Ivar does not want to fight as the English army is too large; he fears they will lose and will have to go home again. Ivar, however, stays in England and asks Ælla for weregild, claiming that he can not go home without some compensation to show his brothers. Ivar only asks for as much land as he can cover with an ox's hide. He cuts it into such a fine long string of hide that he can encircle an area so large that he is able to capture the already existing fortress of York which was the capital of Northumbria, When this is done, he allies himself with all of England and finally all the chieftains in the region become loyal to Ivar and his brothers.
