Above the King of Denmark and to the left, in the sea off the coast of Norway, a man is being attacked.

This scene is described in the Historia in a chapter titled "On the ferocity of some fish, and the friendliness of others" as follows: "Here you have, swimming in the salt seas, a man who is being treacherously and voraciously attacked by a shoal of fish from the shark family. . . . They plunge him down to the depths, not so much with their teeth as by their weight, and devour his tenderer parts. . . . Then the ray appears on the scene, the avenger of their crimes, racing about through the waters, armed by Nature with its fins. In a rushing movement it drives off the waylayers who are dragging the man down, and urges him as best it can to swim away" (Magnus 1998, III:1119). It guards the man from the attackers and will help him to shore, as dolphins are said to do.