" A hall-burning,” Rorik said bitterly.
“Hall-burning?”
“It happens at home,” Rorik explained. “You go to an enemy’s hall and burn it to the ground. But there’s one thing about a hall-burning. You have to make sure everyone dies. If there are any survivors then they’ll take revenge, so you attack at night, surround the hall, and kill everyone who tries to escape the flames. "

― Bernard Cornwell , The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Stories, #1)