Leaving behind the security of the Free Wood, travelers gradually passed into a darker forest of pines, hemlocks, and other evergreens. The ground beneath their feet was thickly carpeted with dead brown needles. The path from the Free Wood became completed choked with brush, but after struggling through it for a weary while, they came upon a barren clearing in the midst of which were three tall wooden posts, roughly carved with grim bearded faces and mighty arms bearing weapons --that on the left, a sword, that on the right an ax, and that in the middle a spear. Below the poles lay shattered human bones; skulls beneath the idol with the sword, ribs beneath the idol with the ax, and entire skeletons at the foot of the idol with the spear. Beyond the clearing rose a high palisade of sturdy logs set on end, with a massive gate in the middle. Peering over the gate from the parapet of the wall were the heads of guards with ruddy beards and conical helmets. One hailed the travelers speaking the common tongue with a harsh accent, "Who dares to come to the gate of the great gods of the north?"