Bishop York was one of Edgar's entourage on the expedition, and it was planned that after the landing, he would protect Edgar's family and travel to Mercia, where he would join Edgar in Northumbria. However, the voyage quickly turned into a disaster, as Edgar's ship was caught in a storm and began to drift away from the coast of England. The Normans also suffered heavy losses, many horses and soldiers were killed in the storm, and when William Mallett finally approached the coast, he was tearful to find that his army was half as weak, and more importantly, Edgar's ships were gone.

Fortunately for the English, the large ship they were on was very strong, and although it had lost its course, the damage on board was not serious, and the loss of precious property was not much. After this nightmare, the morale of the ships was not high, until a few days later, the English finally discovered the coast, but due to the deviation from course, their position was already close to the north. The Bishop of York seemed pleased, for the road to the north was in sight, and Edgar's sister Margaret held a delicate pocket gospel and also constantly thanked God for guiding her out of danger. The rest of the day was very calm, and though the wind and mist were still troublesome, the English did not lose their way again until they saw the strong fortress in the Channel. When the Bishop of York saw this, he immediately went to Edgar and said to him: "My lord, we have reached Bebanburg. ”

The people were very excited to set foot on England after a year's absence, with some in England vowing to drink bitterly, while others wept as they remembered their days in Normandy. Seeing this, the Bishop of York cried out: "This is the land of St. Cuthbert, the kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles, and though we have lost Wessex and East Anglia, England has not yet been lost, and as long as you maintain courage and piety, God will surely bless us over our enemies, just as David conquered the Philistines." The English finally began to cheer together, as if the lost courage had returned in an instant. Amid this cheer, Edgar entered Bebanburg, where the Northumbrians welcomed him, and Count of Benicia, Gespartrick, led the northern nobles to salute Prince Edgar at once.

After welcoming the prince and his party, the northern nobles present began to drink bitterly, and in the midst of each other's thoughts, Edgar also learned from the Earl of Guspatrick that the Earl of Morka and the Earl of Edwin had gone south, and they intended to march on York. The Count also hinted that many of the northern nobles present did not approve of this reckless action, and that the Normans, although they did not have many troops in the north, had a very concentrated defense, and that after the pacification of East Anglia, the army in the north also increased. Edgar knew that a large number of Norman reinforcements had arrived, and that information from William Mallett was that the king's main force was about to be launched, that neither the Welsh nor the English in the west had been able to break through the Hereford line, and that the Bishop of Otto of East Anglia would almost certainly reinforce York, as the eastern Saxon coast was not threatened at this time. Edgar remembered that the Danes would probably invade after some time, when the East Anglia region would be attacked, and the Northumbrians, who were now taking the initiative to go south, would be met with a head-on attack from the Normans, and William the Conqueror would force the northern nobles to submit, and then break the Scots and Danes who had invaded one after another, and completely destroy the stubbornly resisting northern lands. However, although he knew this, Edgar did not feel that the nobles left behind were all out of strategic stability, and many of them would definitely choose to compromise with the Normans in the end, and they would just be able to wait and see if they did not participate in the early attack, and even the Earl of Mercia and the Earl of Northumbria, who went south, Edgar also knew that if they got King William's promise, they were likely to defect and quit. The more fierce the Norman attack, the more likely many of the northern nobles were to only ask the king for a promise to keep their own territory, so Edgar took advantage of the uncertain situation to go south at this time, but might call on more Northumbrian nobles with his status and fame, in case the army of the two counts went south failed, perhaps Edgar would have to choose exile at that time.

Life in Normandy gave Edgar a glimpse of the military power of the Normans, who had a better organized army, a large number of elite knights, both on and under the horse, who could fight to the death in armor and enter the battle repeatedly. The English, despite their high morale, lost too many of their best warriors, while the peasants, though numerous, were mostly incapable of fighting and lacked good training and discipline. Edgar understood what a regular army could do to a rabble of civilians, and he decided to train and reorganize the militia of the counties, which were no longer a small number, and were the most valuable asset of the English. As for their lords and nobles, Edgar also decided to absorb some of them to train cavalry to fight, in this kingdom where the number of horses was even greater than that of Normandy, the nobles and some of the elite militia were not bad at equestrianism, although their martial arts on horseback were not comparable to those of the Normans, but they could use the time of the Normans to train before they went north. Remembering the excellent results of the Prussians in strengthening the cavalry with the peaceful training of Austria, and the great achievements of Cedritz after switching from infantry to cavalry, Edgar secretly cheered himself up.

The Earl of Benicia had also followed William the Conqueror, and when he saw the Normans fighting and plundering, he also agreed with Edgar's plan, although it was spring, and as long as the peasants were not recruited, these training would not affect much. For the northern nobles, they had little hope of making peace with the Normans since the killing of Kopsi, and the news from the southern counties that the infamy of the conquerors' rampant raids and plundering had also discouraged everyone. As long as there was hope, it remained the desire of most people to follow Prince Edgar in his resistance, although many of them once believed in King William's moderate gestures and expressed their submissions, including the northern nobles who had returned with Edgar, such as Volsiov and Ulf. The Bishop of York was not optimistic about the lords of the north when he was in London, but during his days in Normandy, he began to pin all his hopes on Edgar, who would actively cooperate with King William and continue to support William during the days of rebellion in the north, hoping to restore a stable government in England. Here, however, Bishop York and Bishop Woolstein of Warchester were on the side of the Wessex family, who had grown increasingly disillusioned with the old family, and who were now feverishly hoping that this noble young man would carry on Alfred's legacy and protect the homes of all the children of Hengist and Hosa.

After several days of deliberation, the Council of the Magi, composed of nobles, made several important decisions, sent envoys to the kings of Denmark and Alba for help, conscripted all armed militia for spring camp training, and declared that in the north all the property of the expeditionary militia would be protected according to the traditional law, whether in Thane or Ker, and that no one would invade the land where they lived or harm their families. From north and south of the Tyne River, the militias of the counties of Northumbria, led by their respective lords, began to gather at Bebanburg, and the Englishmen from Benicia, Lothien and Deira once again decided to fight under the same banner.