THE DANISH HISTORY, BOOKS I-IX

by

Saxo Grammaticus

("Saxo the Learned") fl. Late 12th - Early 13th Century A. D. 

 PREPARER'S NOTE:

 Originally written in Latin in the early years of the 13th Century A. D. By the Danish historian Saxo, of whom little is known except his name. 

 The text of this edition is based on that published as "The Nine Books of the Danish History of Saxo Grammaticus", translated by Oliver Elton (Norroena Society, New York, 1905). This edition is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN in the United States. 

 This electronic edition was edited, proofed, and prepared by Douglas B. Killings. 

 The preparer would like to thank Mr. James W. Marchand and Mr. Jessie D. Hurlbut for their invaluable assistance in the production of this electronic text. Thank you. I am indebted to you both. 

 Although Saxo wrote 16 books of his "Danish History", only the first nine were ever translated by Mr. Oliver Elton; it is these nine books that are here included. As far as the preparer knows, there is (unfortunately) no public domain English translation of Books X-XVI. Those interested in the latter books should search for the translation mentioned below. 

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY:

ORIGINAL TEXT--

Olrik, J and Raeder (Ed. ): "Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum"(Copenhagen, 1931). 

Dansk Nationallitteraert Arkiv: "Saxo Grammaticus: Gesta Danorum" (DNA, Copenhagen, 1996). Web-based Latin edition of Saxo, substantiallly basedon the above edition; currently at the

OTHER TRANSLATIONS--

Fisher, Peter (Trans. ) and Hilda Ellis Davidson (Ed. ): "SaxoGrammaticus: History of the Danes" (Brewer, Cambridge, 1979). 

RECOMMENDED READING--

Jones, Gwyn: "History of the Vikings" (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1968, 1973, 1984). 

Sturlson, Snorri: "The Heimskringla" (Translation: Samual Laing, London, 1844; released as Online Medieval and Classical Library E-text#15, 1996). Web version at the following URL:http://sunsite. Berkeley. Edu/OMACL/Heimskringla/

INTRODUCTION. 

SAXO'S POSITION. 

Saxo Grammaticus, or "The Lettered", one of the notable historians ofthe Middle Ages, may fairly be called not only the earliest chroniclerof Denmark, but her earliest writer. In the latter half of the twelfthcentury, when Iceland was in the flush of literary production, Denmarklingered behind. No literature in her vernacular, save a few Runicinscriptions, has survived. Monkish annals, devotional works, and liveswere written in Latin; but the chronicle of Roskild, the necrology ofLund, the register of gifts to the cloister of Sora, are not literature. Neither are the half-mythological genealogies of kings; and besides, themass of these, though doubtless based on older verses that are lost, are not proved to be, as they stand, prior to Saxo. One man only, Saxo'selder contemporary, Sueno Aggonis, or Sweyn (Svend) Aageson, who wroteabout 1185, shares or anticipates the credit of attempting a connectedrecord. His brief draft of annals is written in rough mediocre Latin. It names but a few of the kings recorded by Saxo, and tells little thatSaxo does not. Yet there is a certain link between the two writers. Sweyn speaks of Saxo with respect; he not obscurely leaves him the taskof filling up his omissions. Both writers, servants of the brilliantBishop Absalon, and probably set by him upon their task, proceed, likeGeoffrey of Monmouth, by gathering and editing mythical matter. Thisthey more or less embroider, and arrive in due course insensibly atactual history. Both, again, thread their stories upon a genealogy ofkings in part legendary. Both write at the spur of patriotism, both tolet Denmark linger in the race for light and learning, and desirous tosave her glories, as other nations have saved theirs, by a record. Butwhile Sweyn only made a skeleton chronicle, Saxo leaves a memorial inwhich historian and philologist find their account. His seven laterbooks are the chief Danish authority for the times which they relate;his first nine, here translated, are a treasure of myth and folk-lore. Of the songs and stories which Denmark possessed from the commonScandinavian stock, often her only native record is in Saxo's Latin. Thus, as a chronicler both of truth and fiction, he had in his ownland no predecessor, nor had he any literary tradition behind him. Single-handed, therefore, he may be said to have lifted the dead-weightagainst him, and given Denmark a writer. The nature of his work will bediscussed presently. 

LIFE OF SAXO. 

Of Saxo little is known but what he himself indicates, though muchdoubtful supposition has gathered round his name. 

That he was born a Dane his whole language implies; it is full of a glowof aggressive patriotism. He also often praises the Zealanders at theexpense of other Danes, and Zealand as the centre of Denmark; but thatis the whole contemporary evidence for the statement that he was aZealander. This statement is freely taken for granted three centuriesafterwards by Urne in the first edition of the book (1514), but is nottraced further back than an epitomator, who wrote more than 200 yearsafter Saxo's death. Saxo tells us that his father and grandfather foughtfor Waldemar the First of Denmark, who reigned from 1157 to 1182. Ofthese men we know nothing further, unless the Saxo whom he names as oneof Waldemar's admirals be his grandfather, in which case his family wasone of some distinction and his father and grandfather probably "King'smen". But Saxo was a very common name, and we shall see the licence ofhypothesis to which this fact has given rise. The notice, however, helps us approximately towards Saxo's birth-year. His grandfather, ifhe fought for Waldemar, who began to reign in 1157, can hardly have beenborn before 1100, nor can Saxo himself have been born before 1145 or1150. But he was undoubtedly born before 1158, since he speaks of thedeath of Bishop Asker, which took place in that year, as occurring "inour time". His life therefore covers and overlaps the last half of thetwelfth century. 

His calling and station in life are debated. Except by the anonymousZealand chronicler, who calls him Saxo "the Long", thus giving us theone personal detail we have, he has been universally known as Saxo"Grammaticus" ever since the epitomator of 1431 headed his compilationwith the words, "A certain notable man of letters ("grammaticus"), aZealander by birth, named Saxo, wrote, " etc. It is almost certain thatthis general term, given only to men of signal gifts and learning, became thus for the first time, and for good, attached to Saxo's name. Such a title, in the Middle Ages, usually implied that its owner wasa churchman, and Saxo's whole tone is devout, though not conspicuouslyprofessional. 

But a number of Saxos present themselves in the same surroundings withwhom he has been from time to time identified. All he tells us himselfis, that Absalon, Archbishop of Lund from 1179 to 1201, pressed him, whowas "the least of his companions, since all the rest refused the task", to write the history of Denmark, so that it might record its glorieslike other nations. Absalon was previously, and also after hispromotion, Bishop of Roskild, and this is the first circumstance givingcolour to the theory--which lacks real evidence--that Saxo the historianwas the same as a certain Saxo, Provost of the Chapter of Roskild, whose death is chronicled in a contemporary hand without any mark ofdistinction. It is unlikely that so eminent a man would be thus barelynamed; and the appended eulogy and verses identifying the Provost andthe historian are of later date. Moreover, the Provost Saxo went ona mission to Paris in 1165, and was thus much too old for the theory. Nevertheless, the good Bishop of Roskild, Lave Urne, took this identityfor granted in the first edition, and fostered the assumption. Saxo wasa cleric; and could such a man be of less than canonical rank? He was(it was assumed) a Zealander; he was known to be a friend of Absalon, Bishop of Roskild. What more natural than that he should have been theProvost Saxo? Accordingly this latter worthy had an inscription in goldletters, written by Lave Urne himself, affixed to the wall opposite histomb. 

Even less evidence exists for identifying our Saxo with the scribe ofthat name--a comparative menial--who is named in the will of BishopAbsalon; and hardly more warranted is the theory that he was a member, perhaps a subdeacon, of the monastery of St. Laurence, whose secularcanons formed part of the Chapter of Lund. It is true that SweynAageson, Saxo's senior by about twenty years, speaks (writing about1185) of Saxo as his "contubernalis". Sweyn Aageson is known to have hadstrong family connections with the monastery of St. Laurence; but thereis only a tolerably strong probability that he, and therefore that Saxo, was actually a member of it. ("Contubernalis" may only imply comradeshipin military service. ) Equally doubtful is the consequence thatsince Saxo calls himself "one of the least" of Absalon's "followers"("comitum"), he was probably, if not the inferior officer, who is calledan "acolitus", at most a sub-deacon, who also did the work of a superior"acolitus". This is too poor a place for the chief writer of Denmark, high in Absalon's favor, nor is there any direct testimony that Saxoheld it. 

His education is unknown, but must have been careful. Of his trainingand culture we only know what his book betrays. Possibly, like otherlearned Danes, then and afterwards, he acquired his training andknowledge at some foreign University. Perhaps, like his contemporaryAnders Suneson, he went to Paris; but we cannot tell. It is not evencertain that he had a degree; for there is really little to identify himwith the "M(agister) Saxo" who witnessed the deed of Absalon foundingthe monastery at Sora. 

THE HISTORY. 

How he was induced to write his book has been mentioned. The expressionsof modesty Saxo uses, saying that he was "the least" of Absalon's"followers", and that "all the rest refused the task", are not to betaken to the letter. A man of his parts would hardly be either the leastin rank, or the last to be solicited. The words, however, enable us toguess an upward limit for the date of the inception of the work. Absalonbecame Archbishop in 1179, and the language of the Preface (written, as we shall see, last) implies that he was already Archbishop when hesuggested the History to Saxo. But about 1185 we find Sweyn Aagesoncomplimenting Saxo, and saying that Saxo "had `determined' to set forthall the deeds" of Sweyn Estridson, in his eleventh book, "at greaterlength in a more elegant style". The exact bearing of this notice onthe date of Saxo's History is doubtful. It certainly need not imply thatSaxo had already written ten books, or indeed that he had writtenany, of his History. All we call say is, that by 1185 a portion of thehistory was planned. The order in which its several parts were composed, and the date of its completion, are not certainly known, as Absalon diedin 1201. But the work was not then finished; for, at the end of Bk. XI, one Birger, who died in 1202, is mentioned as still alive. 

We have, however, a yet later notice. In the Preface, which, as itswhole language implies, was written last, Saxo speaks of Waldemar IIhaving "encompassed (`complexus') the ebbing and flowing waves of Elbe. "This language, though a little vague, can hardly refer to anything butan expedition of Waldemar to Bremen in 1208. The whole History was inthat case probably finished by about 1208. As to the order in which itsparts were composed, it is likely that Absalon's original instructionwas to write a history of Absalon's own doings. The fourteenth andsucceeding books deal with these at disproportionate length, andAbsalon, at the expense even of Waldemar, is the protagonist. Now Saxostates in his Preface that he "has taken care to follow the statements("asserta") of Absalon, and with obedient mind and pen to include bothhis own doings and other men's doings of which he learnt. "

The latter books are, therefore, to a great extent, Absalon's personallycommunicated memoirs. But we have seen that Absalon died in 1201, and that Bk. Xi, at any rate, was not written after 1202. It almostcertainly follows that the latter books were written in Absalon'slife; but the Preface, written after them, refers to events in 1208. Therefore, unless we suppose that the issue was for some reasondelayed, or that Saxo spent seven years in polishing--which is notimpossible--there is some reason to surmise that he began with thatportion of his work which was nearest to his own time, and addedthe previous (especially the first nine, or mythical) books, as acompletion, and possibly as an afterthought. But this is a point whichthere is no real means of settling. We do not know how late the Prefacewas written, except that it must have been some time between 1208 and1223, when Anders Suneson ceased to be Archbishop; nor do we know whenSaxo died. 

HISTORY OF THE WORK. 

Nothing is stranger than that a work of such force and genius, unique inDanish letters, should have been forgotten for three hundred years, andhave survived only in an epitome and in exceedingly few manuscripts. Thehistory of the book is worth recording. Doubtless its very merits, its"marvellous vocabulary, thickly-studded maxims, and excellent variety ofimages, " which Erasmus admired long afterwards, sealed it to the vulgar. A man needed some Latin to appreciate it, and Erasmus' natural wonder"how a Dane at that day could have such a force of eloquence" is ameasure of the rarity both of the gift and of a public that couldappraise it. The epitome (made about 1430) shows that Saxo was felt tobe difficult, its author saying: "Since Saxo's work is in many placesdiffuse, and many things are said more for ornament than for historicaltruth, and moreover his style is too obscure on account of the numberof terms ("plurima vocabula") and sundry poems, which are unfamiliar tomodern times, this opuscle puts in clear words the more notable ofthe deeds there related, with the addition of some that happened afterSaxo's death. " A Low-German version of this epitome, which appeared in1485, had a considerable vogue, and the two together "helped to drivethe history out of our libraries, and explains why the annalists andgeographers of the Middle Ages so seldom quoted it. " This neglectappears to have been greatest of all in Denmark, and to have lasteduntil the appearance of the "First Edition" in 1511. 

The first impulse towards this work by which Saxo was saved, is foundin a letter from the Bishop of Roskild, Lave Urne, dated May 1512, toChristian Pederson, Canon of Lund, whom he compliments as a lover ofletters, antiquary, and patriot, and urges to edit and publish "tamdivinum latinae eruditionis culmen et splendorem Saxonem nostrum". Nearly two years afterwards Christian Pederson sent Lave Urne a copy ofthe first edition, now all printed, with an account of its history. "Ido not think that any mortal was more inclined and ready for" the task. "When living at Paris, and paying heed to good literature, I twice senta messenger at my own charges to buy a faithful copy at any cost, andbring it back to me. Effecting nothing thus, I went back to my countryfor this purpose; I visited and turned over all the libraries, but stillcould not pull out a Saxo, even covered with beetles, bookworms, mould, and dust. So stubbornly had all the owners locked it away. " A worthyprior, in compassion offered to get a copy and transcribe it with hisown hand, but Christian, in respect for the prior's rank, absurdlydeclined. At last Birger, the Archbishop of Lund, by some strategy, gota copy, which King Christian the Second allowed to be taken to Paris oncondition of its being wrought at "by an instructed and skilled graver(printer). " Such a person was found in Jodocus Badius Ascenshls, whoadds a third letter written by himself to Bishop Urne, vindicating hisapplication to Saxo of the title Grammaticus, which he well definesas "one who knows how to speak or write with diligence, acuteness, orknowledge. " The beautiful book he produced was worthy of the zeal, andunsparing, unweariable pains, which had been spent on it by the bandof enthusiasts, and it was truly a little triumph of humanism. Furthereditions were reprinted during the sixteenth century at Basic and atFrankfort-on-Main, but they did not improve in any way upon the first;and the next epoch in the study of Saxo was made by the edition andnotes of Stephanus Johansen Stephanius, published at Copenhagen inthe middle of the seventeenth century (1644). Stephanius, the firstcommentator on Saxo, still remains the best upon his language. Immenseknowledge of Latin, both good and bad (especially of the authors Saxoimitated), infinite and prolix industry, a sharp eye for the text, andcontinence in emendation, are not his only virtues. His very bulkinessand leisureliness are charming; he writes like a man who had eternity towrite in, and who knew enough to fill it, and who expected readers of anequal leisure. He also prints some valuable notes signed with the famousname of Bishop Bryniolf of Skalholt, a man of force and talent, andothers by Casper Barth, "corculum Musarum", as Stephanius calls him, whose textual and other comments are sometimes of use, and who workedwith a MS. Of Saxo. The edition of Klotz, 1771, based on that ofStephanius, I have but seen; however, the first standard commentary isthat begun by P. E. Muller, Bishop of Zealand, and finished after hisdeath by Johan Velschow, Professor of History at Copenhagen, where thefirst part of the work, containing text and notes, was published in1839; the second, with prolegomena and fuller notes, appearing in 1858. The standard edition, containing bibliography, critical apparatus basedon all the editions and MS. Fragments, text, and index, is the admirableone of that indefatigable veteran, Alfred Holder, Strasburg, 1886. 

Hitherto the translations of Saxo have been into Danish. The first thatsurvives, by Anders Soffrinson Vedel, dates from 1575, some sixty yearsafter the first edition. In such passages as I have examined it isvigorous, but very free, and more like a paraphrase than a translation, Saxo's verses being put into loose prose. Yet it has had a long life, having been modified by Vedel's grandson, John Laverentzen, in 1715, and reissued in 1851. The present version has been much helped by thetranslation of Seier Schousbolle, published at Copenhagen in 1752. It istrue that the verses, often the hardest part, are put into periphrasticverse (by Laurentius Thura, c. 1721), and Schousbolle often does notface a difficulty; but he gives the sense of Saxo simply and concisely. The lusty paraphrase by the enthusiastic Nik. Fred. Sev. Grundtvig, ofwhich there have been several editions, has also been of occasional use. No other translations, save of a scrap here and there into German, seemto be extant. 

THE MSS. 

It will be understood, from what has been said, that no complete MS. OfSaxo's History is known. The epitomator in the fourteenth century, andKrantz in the seventeenth, had MSS. Before them; and there was that onewhich Christian Pedersen found and made the basis of the first edition, but which has disappeared. Barth had two manuscripts, which are said tohave been burnt in 1636. Another, possessed by a Swedish parishpriest, Aschaneus, in 1630, which Stephenhis unluckily did not know of, disappeared in the Royal Archives of Stockholm after his death. Theseare practically the only MSS. Of which we have sure information, excepting the four fragments that are now preserved. Of these by far themost interesting is the "Angers Fragment. "

This was first noticed in 1863, in the Angers Library, where it wasfound degraded into the binding of a number of devotional works and atreatise on metric, dated 1459, and once the property of a priest atAlencon. In 1877 M. Gaston Paris called the attention of the learned toit, and the result was that the Danish Government received it next yearin exchange for a valuable French manuscript which was in the RoyalLibrary at Copenhagen. This little national treasure, the only piece ofcontemporary writing of the History, has been carefully photographed andedited by that enthusiastic and urbane scholar, Christian Bruun. In theopinion both of Dr. Vigfusson and M. Paris, the writing dates from about1200; and this date, though difficult to determine, owing to the paucityof Danish MSS. Of the 12th and early lath centuries, is confirmed by thecharacter of the contents. For there is little doubt that the Fragmentshows us Saxo in the labour of composition. The MSS. Looks as ifexpressly written for interlineation. Besides a marginal gloss by alater, fourteenth century hand, there are two distinct sets of variants, in different writings, interlined and running over into the margin. These variants are much more numerous in the prose than in the verse. The first set are in the same hand as the text, the second in anotherhand: but both of them have the character, not of variants from someother MSS. , but of alternative expressions put down tentatively. Ifeither hand is Saxo's it is probably the second. He may conceivablyhave dictated both at different times to different scribes. No other manwould tinker the style in this fashion. A complete translation of allthese changes has been deemed unnecessary in these volumes; there isa full collation in Holder's "Apparatus Criticus". The verdict of theAngers-Fragment, which, for the very reason mentioned, must not be takenas the final form of the text, nor therefore, despite its antiquity, as conclusive against the First Edition where the two differ, is toconfirm, so far as it goes, the editing of Ascensius and Pederson. Thereare no vital differences, and the care of the first editors, as well asthe authority of their source, is thus far amply vindicated. 

A sufficient account of the other fragments will be found in Holder'slist. In 1855 M. Kall-Rasmussen found in the private archives atKronborg a scrap of fourteenth century MS. , containing a short passagefrom Bk. Vii. Five years later G. F. Lassen found, at Copenhagen, afragment of Bk. Vi believed to be written in North Zealand, and inthe opinion of Bruun belonging to the same codex as Kall-Rasmussen'sfragment. Of another longish piece, found in Copenhagen at the end ofthe seventeenth century by Johannes Laverentzen, and belonging to acodex burnt in the fire of 1728, a copy still extant in the CopenhagenMuseum, was made by Otto Sperling. For fragments, either extant oralluded to, of the later books, the student should consult the carefullycollated text of Holder. The whole MS. Material, therefore, covers buta little of Saxo's work, which was practically saved for Europe by theperseverance and fervour for culture of a single man, Bishop Urne. 

SAXO AS A WRITER. 

Saxo's countrymen have praised without stint his remarkable style, forhe has a style. It is often very bad; but he writes, he is not invain called Grammaticus, the man of letters. His style is not merelyremarkable considering its author's difficulties; it is capable at needof pungency and of high expressiveness. His Latin is not that of theGolden Age, but neither is it the common Latin of the Middle Ages. Thereare traces of his having read Virgil and Cicero. But two writers inparticular left their mark on him. The first and most influential isValerius Maximus, the mannered author of the "Memorabilia", who lived inthe first half of the first century, and was much relished in the MiddleAges. From him Saxo borrowed a multitude of phrases, sometimes apt butoften crabbed and deformed, as well as an exemplary and homiletic turnof narrative. Other idioms, and perhaps the practice of interspersingverses amid prose (though this also was a twelfth century Icelandicpractice), Saxo found in a fifth-century writer, Martianus Capella, thepedantic author of the "De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii" Such modelsmay have saved him from a base mediaeval vocabulary; but they were notworthy of him, and they must answer for some of his falsities of style. These are apparent. His accumulation of empty and motley phrase, like agarish bunch of coloured bladders; his joy in platitude and pomposity, his proneness to say a little thing in great words, are only too easyto translate. We shall be well content if our version also gives someinkling of his qualities; not only of what Erasmus called his "wonderfulvocabulary, his many pithy sayings, and the excellent variety of hisimages"; but also of his feeling for grouping, his barbaric sense ofcolour, and his stateliness. For he moves with resource and strengthboth in prose and verse, and is often only hindered by his own wealth. With no kind of critical tradition to chasten him, his force is oftenmisguided and his work shapeless; but he stumbles into many splendours. 

FOLK LORE INDEX. 

The mass of archaic incidents, beliefs, and practices recorded by the12th-century writer seemed to need some other classification than a barealphabetic index. The present plan, a subject-index practically, has been adopted with a view to the needs of the anthropologist andfolk-lorist. Its details have been largely determined by the bulk andcharacter of the entries themselves. No attempt has been made tosupply full parallels from any save the more striking and obvious oldScandinavian sources, the end being to classify material rather than topoint out its significance of geographic distribution. With regard tothe first three heads, the reader who wishes to see how Saxo compareswith the Old Northern poems may be referred to the Grimm Centenarypapers, Oxford, 1886, and the Corpus Poeticurn Boreale, Oxford, 1883. 

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 

King--As portrayed by Saxo, the ideal king should be (as in "Beowulf'sLay") generous, brave and just. He should be a man of accomplishments, of unblemished body, presumably of royal kin (peasant-birth isconsidered a bar to the kingship), usually a son or a nephew, or brotherof his foregoer (though no strict rule of succession seems to appear inSaxo), and duly chosen and acknowledged at the proper place of election. In Denmark this was at a stone circle, and the stability of thesestones was taken as an omen for the king's reign. There are exceptionalinstances noted, as the serf-king Eormenric (cf. Guthred-Canuteof Northumberland), whose noble birth washed out this blot of hiscaptivity, and there is a curious tradition of a conqueror setting hishound as king over a conquered province in mockery. 

The king was of age at twelve. A king of seven years of age has twelveRegents chosen in the Moot, in one case by lot, to bring him up and rulefor him till his majority. Regents are all appointed in Denmark, inone case for lack of royal blood, one to Scania, one to Zealand, one toFunen, two to Jutland. Underkings and Earls are appointed by kings, andthough the Earl's office is distinctly official, succession is sometimesgiven to the sons of faithful fathers. The absence of a settledsuccession law leads (as in Muslim States) to rebellions and plots. 

Kings sometimes abdicated, giving up the crown perforce to a rival, orin high age to a kinsman. In heathen times, kings, as Thiodwulf tells usin the case of Domwald and Yngwere, were sometimes sacrificed forbetter seasons (African fashion), and Wicar of Norway perishes, likeIphigeneia, to procure fair winds. Kings having to lead in war, andsometimes being willing to fight wagers of battle, are short-lived as arule, and assassination is a continual peril, whether by fire at a timeof feast, of which there are numerous examples, besides the classic oneon which Biarea-mal is founded and the not less famous one of Hamlet'svengeance, or whether by steel, as with Hiartuar, or by trick, as inWicar's case above cited. The reward for slaying a king is in one case120 gold lbs. ; 19 "talents" of gold from each ringleader, 1 oz. Of goldfrom each commoner, in the story of Godfred, known as Ref's gild, "i. E. , Fox tax". In the case of a great king, Frode, his death is concealed forthree years to avoid disturbance within and danger from without. Captivekings were not as a rule well treated. A Slavonic king, Daxo, offersRagnar's son Whitesark his daughter and half his realm, or death, andthe captive strangely desires death by fire. A captive king is exposed, chained to wild beasts, thrown into a serpent-pit, wherein Ragnar isgiven the fate of the elder Gunnar in the Eddic Lays, Atlakvida. Theking is treated with great respect by his people, he is finely clad, andhis commands are carried out, however abhorrent or absurd, as long asthey do not upset customary or statute law. The king has slaves inhis household, men and women, besides his guard of housecarles and hisbearsark champions. A king's daughter has thirty slaves with her, andthe footmaiden existed exactly as in the stories of the Wicked WaitingMaid. He is not to be awakened in his slumbers (cf. St. Olaf's Life, where the naming of King Magnus is the result of adherence to thisetiquette). A champion weds the king's leman. 

His thanes are created by the delivery of a sword, which the kingbolds by the blade and the thane takes by the hilt. (English earls werecreated by the girding with a sword. "Taking treasure, and weaponsand horses, and feasting in a hall with the king" is synonymous withthane-hood or gesith-ship in "Beowulf's Lay"). A king's thanes mustavenge him if he falls, and owe him allegiance. (This was paid in theold English monarchies by kneeling and laying the head down at thelord's knee. )

The trick by which the Mock-king, or King of the Beggars (parallel toour Boy-bishop, and perhaps to that enigmatic churls' King of the "O. E. Chronicle", s. A. 1017, Eadwiceorla-kyning) gets allegiance paid tohim, and so secures himself in his attack on the real king, is cleverlydevised. The king, besides being a counsel giver himself, and speakingthe law, has "counsellors", old and wise men, "sapientes" (like the0. E. Thyle). The aged warrior counsellor, as Starcad here and MasterHildebrand in the "Nibelungenlied", is one type of these persons, another is the false counsellor, as Woden in guise of Bruni, anotherthe braggart, as Hunferth in "Beowulf's Lay". At "moots" where lawsare made, kings and regents chosen, cases judged, resolutions taken ofnational importance, there are discussions, as in that armed most thehost. 

The king has, beside his estates up and down the country, sometimes(like Hrothgar with his palace Heorot in "Beowulf's Lay") a great fortand treasure house, as Eormenric, whose palace may well have reallyexisted. There is often a primitive and negroid character aboutdwellings of formidable personages, heads placed on stakes adorn theirexterior, or shields are ranged round the walls. 

The provinces are ruled by removable earls appointed by the king, often his own kinsmen, sometimes the heads of old ruling families. The"hundreds" make up the province or subkingdom. They may be granted toking's thanes, who became "hundred-elders". Twelve hundreds are in onecase bestowed upon a man. 

The "yeoman's" estate is not only honourable but useful, as Starcadgenerously and truly acknowledges. Agriculture should be fostered andprotected by the king, even at the cost of his life. 

But gentle birth and birth royal place certain families above the commonbody of freemen (landed or not); and for a commoner to pretend to aking's daughter is an act of presumption, and generally rigorouslyresented. 

The "smith" was the object of a curious prejudice, probably akin to thatexpressed in St. Patrick's "Lorica", and derived from the smith's havinginherited the functions of the savage weapon-maker with his poisons andcharms. The curious attempt to distinguish smiths into good anduseful swordsmiths and base and bad goldsmiths seems a merely modernexplanation: Weland could both forge swords and make ornaments ofmetal. Starcad's loathing for a smith recalls the mockery with which theHomeric gods treat Hephaistos. 

Slavery. --As noble birth is manifest by fine eyes and personal beauty, courage and endurance, and delicate behaviour, so the slave natureis manifested by cowardice, treachery, unbridled lust, bad manners, falsehood, and low physical traits. Slaves had, of course, no righteither of honour, or life, or limb. Captive ladies are sent to abrothel; captive kings cruelly put to death. Born slaves were naturallystill less considered, they were flogged; it was disgraceful tokill them with honourable steel; to accept a slight service from aslave-woman was beneath old Starcad's dignity. A man who loved anotherman's slave-woman, and did base service to her master to obtain her ashis consort, was looked down on. Slaves frequently ran away to escapepunishment for carelessness, or fault, or to gain liberty. 

CUSTOMARY LAW. 

The evidence of Saxo to archaic law and customary institutions is prettymuch (as we should expect) that to be drawn from the Icelandic Sagas, and even from the later Icelandic rimur and Scandinavian kaempe-viser. But it helps to complete the picture of the older stage of NorthTeutonic Law, which we are able to piece together out of our varioussources, English, Icelandic, and Scandinavian. In the twilight of Yoreevery glowworm is a helper to the searcher. 

There are a few MAXIMS of various times, but all seemingly drawn fromcustom cited or implied by Saxo as authoritative:--

"It is disgraceful to be ruled by a woman. "--The great men of Teutonicnations held to this maxim. There is no Boudicea or Maidhbh in our ownannals till after the accession of the Tudors, when Great Eliza rivalsher elder kins-women's glories. Though Tacitus expressly notices onetribe or confederacy, the Sitones, within the compass of his Germania, ruled by a woman, as an exceptional case, it was contrary to the feelingof mediaeval Christendom for a woman to be emperor; it was not till latein the Middle Ages that Spain saw a queen regnant, and France has neveryet allowed such rule. It was not till long after Saxo that the greatqueen of the North, Margaret, wielded a wider sway than that rejected byGustavus' wayward daughter. 

"The suitor ought to urge his own suit. "--This, an axiom of the mostarchaic law, gets evaded bit by bit till the professional advocate takesthe place of the plaintiff. "Njal's Saga", in its legal scenes, showsthe transition period, when, as at Rome, a great and skilled chiefwas sought by his client as the supporter of his cause at the Moot. InEngland, the idea of representation at law is, as is well known, lateand largely derived from canon law practice. 

"To exact the blood-fine was as honourable as to take vengeance. "--Thismaxim, begotten by Interest upon Legality, established itself both inScandinavia and Arabia. It marks the first stage in a progress which, if carried out wholly, substitutes law for feud. In the society of theheathen Danes the maxim was a novelty; even in Christian Denmark mensometimes preferred blood to fees. 

MARRIAGE. --There are many reminiscences of "archaic marriage customsin Saxo. " The capture marriage has left traces in the guarded king'sdaughters, the challenging of kings to fight or hand over theirdaughters, in the promises to give a daughter or sister as a reward toa hero who shall accomplish some feat. The existence of polygamy isattested, and it went on till the days of Charles the Great and HaroldFairhair in singular instances, in the case of great kings, and finallydisappeared before the strict ecclesiastic regulations. 

But there are evidences also of later customs, such as "marriage bypurchase", already looked on as archaic in Saxo's day; and the freewomen in Denmark had clearly long had a veto or refusal of a husband forsome time back, and sometimes even free choice. "Go-betweens" negotiatemarriages. 

Betrothal was of course the usage. For the groom to defile an espousedwoman is a foul reproach. Gifts made to father-in-law after bridal bybridegroom seem to denote the old bride-price. Taking the bride home inher car was an important ceremony, and a bride is taken to her futurehusband's by her father. The wedding-feast, as in France in Rabelais'time, was a noisy and drunken and tumultuous rejoicing, whenbone-throwing was in favor, with other rough sports and jokes. The threedays after the bridal and their observance in "sword-bed" are noticedbelow. 

A commoner or one of slave-blood could not pretend to wed a high-bornlady. A woman would sometimes require some proof of power or courage ather suitor's hands; thus Gywritha, like the famous lady who weds HaroldFairhair, required her husband Siwar to be over-king of the whole land. But in most instances the father or brother betrothed the girl, and sheconsented to their choice. Unwelcome suitors perish. 

The prohibited degrees were, of course, different from those establishedby the mediaeval church, and brother weds brother's widow in goodarchaic fashion. Foster-sister and foster-brother may marry, as Saxonotices carefully. The Wolsung incest is not noticed by Saxo. He onlyknew, apparently, the North-German form of the Niflung story. But thereproachfulness of incest is apparent. 

Birth and beauty were looked for in a bride by Saxo's heroes, andchastity was required. The modesty of maidens in old days is eulogisedby Saxo, and the penalty for its infraction was severe: sale abroad intoslavery to grind the quern in the mud of the yard. One of the tests ofvirtue is noticed, "lac in ubere". 

That favourite "motif", the "Patient Grizzle", occurs, rather, however, in the Border ballad than the Petrarcan form. 

"Good wives" die with their husbands as they have vowed, or of grief fortheir loss, and are wholly devoted to their interests. Among "bad wives"are those that wed their husband's slayer, run away from their husbands, plot against their husbands' lives. The penalty for adultery is death toboth, at husband's option--disfigurement by cutting off the nose ofthe guilty woman, an archaic practice widely spread. In one case theadulterous lady is left the choice of her own death. Married women'sHomeric duties are shown. 

There is a curious story, which may rest upon fact, and not be merelytypical, where a mother who had suffered wrong forced her daughter tosuffer the same wrong. 

Captive women are reduced to degrading slavery as "harlots" in one case, according to the eleventh century English practice of Gytha. 

THE FAMILY AND BLOOD REVENGE. --This duty, one of the strongest links ofthe family in archaic Teutonic society, has left deep traces in Saxo. 

To slay those most close in blood, even by accident, is to incur theguilt of parricide, or kin-killing, a bootless crime, which can only bepurged by religious ceremonies; and which involves exile, lest the gods'wrath fall on the land, and brings the curse of childlessness on theoffender until he is forgiven. 

BOOTLESS CRIMES. --As among the ancient Teutons, botes and were-gildssatisfy the injured who seek redress at law rather than by the steel. But there are certain bootless crimes, or rather sins, that imply"sacratio", devotion to the gods, for the clearing of the community. Such are treason, which is punishable by hanging; by drowning in sea. 

Rebellion is still more harshly treated by death and forfeiture; therebels' heels are bored and thonged under the sinew, as Hector's feetwere, and they are then fastened by the thongs to wild bulls, huntedby hounds, till they are dashed to pieces (for which there are classicparallels), or their feet are fastened with thongs to horses drivenapart, so that they are torn asunder. 

For "parricide", i. E. , killing within near degrees, the criminal is hungup, apparently by the heels, with a live wolf (he having acted as a wolfwhich will slay its fellows). Cunning avoidance of the guilt by trick isshown. 

For "arson" the appropriate punishment is the fire. 

For "incestuous adultery" of stepson with his stepmother, hanging isawarded to the man. In the same case Swanwhite, the woman, is punished, by treading to death with horses. A woman accomplice in adultery istreated to what Homer calls a "stone coat. " Incestuous adultery is afoul slur. 

For "witchcraft", the horror of heathens, hanging was the penalty. 

"Private revenge" sometimes deliberately inflicts a cruel death foratrocious wrong or insult, as when a king, enraged at the slaying of hisson and seduction of his daughter, has the offender hanged, an instancefamous in Nathan's story, so that Hagbard's hanging and hempen necklacewere proverbial. 

For the slayer by a cruel death of their captive father, Ragnar's sonsact the blood-eagle on Ella, and salt his flesh. There is an undoubtedinstance of this act of vengeance (the symbolic meaning of which is notclear as yet) in the "Orkney Saga". 

But the story of Daxo and of Ref's gild show that for such wrongswere-gilds were sometimes exacted, and that they were considered highlyhonourable to the exactor. 

Among OFFENCES NOT BOOTLESS, and left to individual pursuit, are:--

"Highway robbery". --There are several stories of a type such as that ofIngemund and Ioknl (see "Landnamaboc") told by Saxo of highwaymen; andan incident of the kind that occurs in the Theseus story (the Bent-tree, which sprung back and slew the wretch bound to it) is given. Theromantic trick of the mechanic bed, by which a steel-shod beam islet fall on the sleeping traveller, also occurs. Slain highwaymen aregibbeted as in Christian days. 

"Assassination", as distinct from manslaughter in vengeance for a wrong, is not very common. A hidden mail-coat foils a treacherous javelin-cast(cf. The Story of Olaf the Stout and the Blind King, Hrorec); murdererslurk spear-armed at the threshold, sides, as in the Icelandic Sagas; aqueen hides a spear-head in her gown, and murders her husband (cf. Olaf Tryggvason's Life). Godfred was murdered by his servant (andYnglingatal). 

"Burglary". --The crafty discovery of the robber of the treasury byHadding is a variant of the world-old Rhampsinitos tale, but lesselaborate, possibly abridged and cut down by Saxo, and reduced to a meremoral example in favour of the goldenness of silence and the danger ofletting the tongue feed the gallows. 

Among other disgraceful acts, that make the offender infamous, but donot necessarily involve public action:--

"Manslaughter in Breach of Hospitality". --Probably any gross breach ofhospitality was disreputable and highly abhorred, but "guest-slaughter"is especially mentioned. The ethical question as to whether a man shouldslay his guest or forego his just vengeance was often a "probleme dujour" in the archaic times to which these traditions witness. Ingeldprefers his vengeance, but Thuriswend, in the Lay cited by Paul theDeacon, chooses to protect his guest. Heremod slew his messmates in hiswrath, and went forth alone into exile. ("Beowulf's Lay". )

"Suicide". --This was more honourable than what Earl Siward ofNorthumberland called a "cow-death. " Hadding resolves to commit suicideat his friend's death. Wermund resolves to commit suicide if his son beslain (in hopelessness of being able to avenge him, cf. "Njal's Saga", where the hero, a Christian, prefers to perish in his burning house thanlive dishonoured, "for I am an old man and little fitted to avenge mysons, but I will not live in shame"). Persons commit suicide by slayingeach other in time of famine; while in England (so Baeda tells) they"decliffed" themselves in companies, and, as in the comic littleIcelandic tale Gautrec's birth, a Tarpeian death is noted as thecustomary method of relieving folks from the hateful starvationdeath. It is probable that the violent death relieved the ghost orthe survivors of some inconveniences which a "straw death" would havebrought about. 

"Procedure by Wager of Battle". --This archaic process pervades Saxo'swhole narrative. It is the main incident of many of the sagas fromwhich he drew. It is one of the chief characteristics of early Teutoniccustom-law, and along with "Cormac's Saga", "Landnamaboc", and theWalter Saga, our author has furnished us with most of the information wehave upon its principles and practice. 

Steps in the process are the Challenge, the Acceptance and Settlement ofConditions, the Engagement, the Treatment of the vanquished, the Rewardof the conqueror, and there are rules touching each of these, enoughalmost to furnish a kind of "Galway code". 

A challenge could not, either to war or wager of battle, be refused withhonor, though a superior was not bound to fight an inferior in rank. Anally might accept for his principal, or a father for a son, but it wasnot honourable for a man unless helpless to send a champion instead ofhimself. 

Men were bound to fight one to one, and one man might decline to fighttwo at once. Great champions sometimes fought against odds. 

The challenged man chose the place of battle, and possibly fixed thetime. This was usually an island in the river. 

The regular weapons were swords and shields for men of gentle blood. They fought by alternate separate strokes; the senior had the firstblow. The fight must go on face to face without change of place; for theground was marked out for the combatants, as in our prize ring, thoughone can hardly help fancying that the fighting ground so carefullydescribed in "Cormac's Saga", ch. 10, may have been Saxo's authority. The combatants change places accidentally in the struggle in one story. 

The combat might last, like Cuchullin's with Ferdia, several days; anine days' fight occurs; but usually a few blows settled the matter. Endurance was important, and we are told of a hero keeping himself inconstant training by walking in a mail coat. 

The conqueror ought not to slay his man if he were a stripling, ormaimed, and had better take his were-gild for his life, the holmslausnor ransom of "Cormac's Saga" (three marks in Iceland); but this wasa mere concession to natural pity, and he might without loss of honorfinish his man, and cut off his head, though it was proper, if the slainadversary has been a man of honor, to bury him afterward. 

The stakes are sometimes a kingdom or a kingdom's tribute, often a lady, or the combatants fought for "love" or the point of honor. Giantsand noted champions challenge kings for their daughters (as in thefictitious parts of the Icelandic family sagas) in true archaicfashion, and in true archaic fashion the prince rescues the lady from adisgusting and evil fate by his prowess. 

The champion's fee or reward when he was fighting for his principal andcame off successful was heavy--many lands and sixty slaves. Braceletsare given him; a wound is compensated for at ten gold pieces; a fee forkilling a king is 120 of the same. 

Of the incidents of the combat, beside fair sleight of fence, there isthe continual occurrence of the sword-blunting spell, often cast by theeye of the sinister champion, and foiled by the good hero, sometimesby covering his blade with thin skin, sometimes by changing the blade, sometimes by using a mace or club. 

The strength of this tradition sufficiently explains the necessity ofthe great oath against magic taken by both parties in a wager of battlein Christian England. 

The chief combats mentioned by Saxo are:--

Sciold v. Attila. Sciold v. Scate, for the hand of Alfhild. Gram v. Swarin and eight more, for the crown of the Swedes. Hadding v. Toste, bychallenge. Frode v. Hunding, on challenge. Frode v. Hacon, on challenge. Helge v. Hunding, by challenge at Stad. Agnar v. Bearce, by challenge. Wizard v. Danish champions, for truage of the Slavs. Wizard v. Ubbe, for truage of the Slavs. Coll v. Horwendill, on challenge. Athisl v. Frowine, meeting in battle. Athisl v. Ket and Wig, on challenge. Uffev. Prince of Saxony and Champion, by challenge. Frode v. Froger, onchallenge. Eric v. Grep's brethren, on challenge, twelve a side. Ericv. Alrec, by challenge. Hedin v. Hogni, the mythic everlasting battle. Arngrim v. Scalc, by challenge. Arngrim v. Egtheow, for truage ofPermland. Arrow-Odd and Hialmar v. Twelve sons of Arngrim Samsey fight. Ane Bow-swayer v. Beorn, by challenge. Starkad v. Wisin, by challenge. Starkad v. Tanlie, by challenge. Starkad v. Wasce--Wilzce, by challenge. Starkad v. Hame, by challenge. Starkad v. Angantheow and eight ofhis brethren, on challenge. Halfdan v. Hardbone and six champions, on challenge. Halfdan v. Egtheow, by challenge. Halfdan v. Grim, onchallenge. Halfdan v. Ebbe, on challenge, by moonlight. Halfdan v. Twelve champions, on challenge. Halfdan v. Hildeger, on challenge. Olev. Skate and Hiale, on challenge. Homod and Thole v. Beorn and Thore, bychallenge. Ref. V. Gaut, on challenge. Ragnar and three sons v. Starcadof Sweden and seven sons, on challenge. 

CIVIL PROCEDURE. --"Oaths" are an important art of early procedure, andnoticed by Saxo; one calling the gods to witness and therefor, it isunderstood, to avenge perjury if he spake not truth. 

"Testification", or calling witnesses to prove the steps of a legalaction, was known, "Glum's Saga" and "Landnamaboc", and when a manslayerproceeded (in order to clear himself of murder) to announce themanslaughter as his act, he brings the dead man's head as his proof, exactly as the hero in the folk-tales brings the dragon's head or tongueas his voucher. 

A "will" is spoken of. This seems to be the solemn declaration ofa childless man to his kinsfolk, recommending some person as hissuccessor. Nothing more was possible before written wills wereintroduced by the Christian clergy after the Roman fashion. 

STATUTE LAWS. 

"Lawgivers". --The realm of Custom had already long been curtailed by theconquests of Law when Saxo wrote, and some epochs of the invasion werewell remembered, such as Canute's laws. But the beginnings were dim, andthere were simply traditions of good and bad lawyers of the past; suchwere "Sciold" first of all the arch-king, "Frode" the model lawgiver, "Helge" the tyrant, "Ragnar" the shrewd conqueror. 

"Sciold", the patriarch, is made by tradition to fulfil, by abolishingevil customs and making good laws, the ideal of the Saxon and FrankishCoronation oath formula (which may well go back with its two firstclauses to heathen days). His fame is as widely spread. However, theonly law Saxo gives to him has a story to it that he does not plainlytell. Sciold had a freedman who repaid his master's manumission of himby the ingratitude of attempting his life. Sciold thereupon decreesthe unlawfulness of manumissions, or (as Saxo puts it), revoked allmanumissions, thus ordaining perpetual slavery on all that were or mightbecome slaves. The heathen lack of pity noticed in Alfred's prefaceto "Gregory's Handbook" is illustrated here by contrast with thephilosophic humanity of the Civil Law, and the sympathy of the mediaevalChurch. 

But FRODE (known also to the compiler of "Beowulf's Lay", 2025) had, inthe Dane's eyes, almost eclipsed Sciold as conqueror and lawgiver. Hisname Frode almost looks as if his epithet Sapiens had become his popularappellation, and it befits him well. Of him were told many stories, andnotably the one related of our Edwin by Bede (and as it has been told bymany men of many rulers since Bede wrote, and before). Frode was able tohang up an arm-ring of gold in three parts of his kingdom that no thieffor many years dared touch. How this incident (according to our versionpreserved by Saxo), brought the just king to his end is an archaic andinteresting story. Was this ring the Brosinga men?

Saxo has even recorded the Laws of Frode in four separate bits, which wegive as A, B, C, D. 

A. Is mainly a civil and military code of archaic kind:

(a) The division of spoil shall be--gold to captains, silver toprivates, arms to champions, ships to be shared by all. Cf. JomswickingaS. On the division of spoil by the law of the pirate community of Jom. 

(b) No house stuff to be locked; if a man used a lock he must pay a goldmark. 

(c) He who spares a thief must bear his punishment. 

(d) The coward in battle is to forfeit all rights (cf. "Beowulf", 2885). 

(e) Women to have free choice (or, at least, veto) in taking husbands. 

(f) A free woman that weds a slave loses rank and freedom (cf. RomanLaw). 

(g) A man must marry a girl he has seduced. 

(h) An adulterer to be mutilated at pleasure of injured husband. 

(i) Where Dane robbed Dane, the thief to pay double and peace-breach. 

(k) Receivers of stolen goods suffer forfeiture and flogging at most. 

(l) Deserter bearing shield against his countrymen to lose life andproperty. 

(m) Contempt of fyrd-summons or call to military service involvesoutlawry and exile. 

(n) Bravery in battle to bring about increase in rank (cf. The oldEnglish "Ranks of Men"). 

(o) No suit to lie on promise and pledge; fine of a gold lb. For askingpledge. 

(p) Wager of battle is to be the universal mode of proof. 

(q) If an alien kill a Dane two aliens must suffer. (This is practicallythe same principle as appears in the half weregild of the Welsh in WestSaxon Law. )

B. An illustration of the more capricious of the old enactments and thejealousy of antique kings. 

(a) Loss of gifts sent to the king involves the official responsible; heshall be hanged. (This is introduced as illustration of the clevernessof Eric and the folly of Coll. )

C. Saxo associates another set of enactments with the completion of asuccessful campaign of conquest over the Ruthenians, and shows Frodechiefly as a wise and civilising statesman, making conquest meanprogress. 

(a) Every free householder that fell in war was to be set in his barrowwith horse and arms (cf. "Vatzdaela Saga", ch. 2). 

The body-snatcher was to be punished by death and the lack of sepulture. 

Earl or king to be burned in his own ship. 

Ten sailors may be burnt on one ship. 

(b) Ruthenians to have the same law of war as Danes. 

(c) Ruthenians must adopt Danish sale-marriage. (This involvesthe abolition of the Baltic custom of capture-marriage. Thatcapture-marriage was a bar to social progress appears in the legislationof Richard II, directed against the custom as carried out on the bordersof the Palatine county of Chester, while cases such as the famous one ofRob Roy's sons speak to its late continuance in Scotland. In Ireland itsurvived in a stray instance or two into this century, and songs like"William Riley" attest the sympathy of the peasant with the elopingcouple. )

(d) A veteran, one of the Doughty, must be such a man as will attack onefoe, will stand two, face three without withdrawing more than a little, and be content to retire only before four. (One of the traditionalfolk-sayings respecting the picked men, the Doughty or Old Guard, asdistinguished from the Youth or Young Guard, the new-comers in theking's Company of House-carles. In Harald Hardrede's Life the Norwegiansdread those English house-carles, "each of whom is a match for four, "who formed the famous guard that won Stamford Bridge and fell abouttheir lord, a sadly shrunken band, at Senlake. )

(f) The house-carles to have winter-pay. The house-carle three piecesof silver, a hired soldier two pieces, a soldier who had finished hisservice one piece. 

(The treatment of the house-carles gave Harald Harefoot a reputationlong remembered for generosity, and several old Northern kings havewon their nicknames by their good or ill feeding and rewarding theircomitatus. )

D. Again a civil code, dealing chiefly with the rights of travellers. 

(a) Seafarers may use what gear they find (the "remis" of the text mayinclude boat or tackle). 

(b) No house is to be locked, nor coffer, but all thefts to becompensated threefold. (This, like A, b, which it resembles, seems apopular tradition intended to show the absolute security of Frode'sreign of seven or three hundred years. It is probably a gloss wronglyrepeated. )

(c) A traveller may claim a single supper; if he take more he is athief (the mark of a prae-tabernal era when hospitality was waxing coldthrough misuse). 

(d) Thief and accomplices are to be punished alike, being hung up bya line through the sinews and a wolf fastened beside. (This, whichcontradicts A, i, k, and allots to theft the punishment proper forparricide, seems a mere distorted tradition. )

But beside just Frode, tradition spoke of the unjust Kinge HELGE, whoselaws represent ill-judged harshness. They were made for conquered races, (a) the Saxons and (b) the Swedes. 

(a) Noble and freedmen to have the same were-gild (the lower, of course, the intent being to degrade all the conquered to one level, and to allowonly the lowest were-gild of a freedman, fifty pieces, probably, in thetradition). 

(b) No remedy for wrong done to a Swede by a Dane to be legallyrecoverable. (This is the traditional interpretation of the conqueror'shaughty dealing; we may compare it with the Middle-English legends ofthe pride of the Dane towards the conquered English. The Tradition sumsup the position in such concrete forms as this Law of Helge's. )

Two statutes of RAGNAR are mentioned:--

(a) That any householder should give up to his service in war the worstof his children, or the laziest of his slaves (a curious tradition, andused by Saxo as an opportunity for patriotic exaltation). 

(b) That all suits shall be absolutely referred to the judgment oftwelve chosen elders (Lodbroc here appearing in the strange character oforiginator of trial by jury). 

"Tributes". --Akin to laws are the tributes decreed and imposed by kingsand conquerors of old. Tribute infers subjection in archaic law. Thepoll-tax in the fourteenth century in England was unpopular, because ofits seeming to degrade Englishmen to the level of Frenchmen, who paidtribute like vanquished men to their absolute lord, as well as for otherreasons connected with the collection of the tax. 

The old fur tax (mentioned in "Egil's Saga") is here ascribed to FRODE, who makes the Finns pay him, every three years, a car full or sledgefull of skins for every ten heads; and extorts one skin per head fromthe Perms. It is Frode, too (though Saxo has carved a number of Frodesout of one or two kings of gigantic personality), that made the Saxonspay a poll-tax, a piece of money per head, using, like William theConqueror, his extraordinary revenue to reward his soldiers, whom hefirst regaled with double pay. But on the conquered folks rebelling, he marked their reduction by a tax of a piece of money on every limb acubit long, a "limb-geld" still more hateful than the "neb-geld. "

HOTHERUS (Hodr) had set a tribute on the Kurlanders and Swedes, andHROLF laid a tribute on the conquered Swedes. 

GODEFRIDUS-GOTRIC is credited with a third Saxon tribute, a heriot of100 snow-white horses payable to each Danish king at his succession, andby each Saxon chief on his accession: a statement that, recalling sacredsnow-white horses kept in North Germany of yore makes one wish forfuller information. But Godefridus also exacted from the Swedes the"Ref-gild", or Fox-money; for the slaying of his henchman Ref, twelvepieces of gold from each man of rank, one from every commoner. And hisFriesland tribute is stranger still, nor is it easy to understand fromSaxo's account. There was a long hall built, 240 feet, and divided upinto twelve "chases" of 20 feet each (probably square). There was ashield set up at one end, and the taxpayers hurled their money at it; ifit struck so as to sound, it was good; if not, it was forfeit, but notreckoned in the receipt. This (a popular version, it may be, of someearly system of treasury test) was abolished, so the story goes, byCharles the Great. 

RAGNAR'S exaction from Daxo, his son's slayer, was a yearly tributebrought by himself and twelve of his elders barefoot, resembling in partsuch submissions as occur in the Angevin family history, the case of theCalais burgesses, and of such criminals as the Corporation of Oxford, whose penance was only finally renounced by the local patriots in ourown day. 

WAR. 

"Weapons". --The sword is the weapon par excellence in Saxo's narrative, and he names several by name, famous old blades like our royal Curtana, which some believed was once Tristrem's, and that sword of Carlus, whosefortunes are recorded in Irish annals. Such are "Snyrtir", Bearce'ssword; "Hothing", Agnar's blade; "Lauf", or "Leaf", Bearce's sword;"Screp", Wermund's sword, long buried and much rust-eaten, but sharp andtrusty, and known by its whistle; Miming's sword ("Mistletoe"), whichslew Balder. Wainhead's curved blade seems to be a halbert; "Lyusing"and "Hwiting", Ragnald of Norway's swords; "Logthe", the sword of OleSiward's son. 

The "war-club" occurs pretty frequently. But it is usually introduced asa special weapon of a special hero, who fashions a gold-headed clubto slay one that steel cannot touch, or who tears up a tree, like theSpanish knight in the ballad, or who uses a club to counteract spellsthat blunt steel. The bat-shapen archaic rudder of a ship is used as aclub in the story of the Sons of Arngrim. 

The "spear" plays no particular part in Saxo: even Woden's spear Gungneis not prominent. 

"Bows and arrows" are not often spoken of, but archer heroes, such asToki, Ane Bow-swayer, and Orwar-Odd, are known. Slings and stones areused. 

The shield, of all defensive armour, is far the most prominent. Theywere often painted with devices, such as Hamlet's shield, Hildiger'sSwedish shield. Dr. Vigfusson has shown the importance of these paintedshields in the poetic history of the Scandinavians. 

A red shield is a signal of peace. Shields are set round ramparts onland as round ships at sea. 

"Mail-coats" are worn. Frode has one charmed against steel. Hother hasanother; a mail-coat of proof is mentioned and their iron meshes arespoken of. 

"Helmets" are used, but not so carefully described as in "Beowulf'sLay"; crested helmets and a gilded helmet occur in Bearca-mal and inanother poem. 

"Banners" serve as rallying points in the battle and on the march. TheHuns' banners are spoken of in the classic passage for the descriptionof a huge host invading a country. Bearcamal talks of golden banners. 

"Horns" (1) were blown pp at the beginning of the engagement and forsignalling. The gathering of the host was made by delivery of a woodenarrow painted to look like iron. 

"Tactics". --The hand-to-hand fight of the wager of battle with swordand shield, and the fighting in ranks and the wedge-column at closequarters, show that the close infantry combat was the main event of thebattle. The preliminary hurling of stones, and shooting of arrows, and slinging of pebbles, were harassing and annoying, but seldomsufficiently important to affect the result of the main engagement. 

Men ride to battle, but fight on foot; occasionally an aged king iscar-borne to the fray, and once the car, whether by Saxo's adorninghand, or by tradition, is scythe-armed. 

The gathered host is numbered, once, where, as with Xerxes, counting wastoo difficult, by making each man as he passed put a pebble in a pile(which piles survive to mark the huge size of Frode's army). This is, of course, a folktale, explaining the pebble-hills and illustrating thebelief in Frode's power; but armies were mustered by such expedients ofold. Burton tells of an African army each man of whom presented an egg, as a token of his presence and a means of taking the number of the host. 

We hear of men marching in light order without even scabbards, andgetting over the ice in socks. 

The war equipment and habits of the Irish, light armoured, clipped atback of head, hurling the javelin backwards in their feigned flight; ofthe Slavs, small blue targets and long swords; of the Finns, with theirdarts and skees, are given. 

Watches are kept, and it is noted that "uht", the early watchafter midnight, is the worst to be attacked in (the duke'stwo-o'clock-in-the-morning courage being needed, and the darkness andcold helping the enemy). 

Spies were, of course, slain if discovered. But we have instances ofkings and heroes getting into foeman's camps in disguise (cf. Stories ofAlfred and Anlaf). 

The order of battle of Bravalla fight is given, and the ideal array of ahost. To Woden is ascribed the device of the boar's head, hamalt fylking(the swine-head array of Manu's Indian kings), the terrible column withwedge head which could cleave the stoutest line. 

The host of Ring has men from Wener, Wermland, Gotaelf, Thotn, Wick, Thelemark, Throndham, Sogn, Firths, Fialer, Iceland; Sweden, Gislamark, Sigtun, Upsala, Pannonia. 

The host of Harold had men from Iceland, the Danish provinces, Frisia, Lifland; Slavs, and men from Jom, Aland, and Sleswick. 

The battle of Bravalla is said to have been won by the Gotland archersand the men of Throndham, and the Dales. The death of Harald bytreachery completed the defeat, which began when Ubbe fell (after he hadbroken the enemy's van) riddled with arrows. 

The defeated, unless they could fly, got little quarter. One-fifth onlyof the population of a province are said to have survived an invasion. After sea-battles (always necessarily more deadly) the corpses choke theharbours. Seventy sea-kings are swept away in one sea-fight. Heads seemto have been taken in some cases, but not as a regular Teutonic usage, and the practice, from its being attributed to ghosts and aliens, must have already been considered savage by Saxo, and probably by hisinformants and authorities. 

Prisoners were slaves; they might be killed, put to cruel death, outraged, used as slaves, but the feeling in favour of mercy wasgrowing, and the cruelty of Eormenric, who used tortures to hisprisoners, of Rothe, who stripped his captives, and of Fro, who sentcaptive ladies to a brothel in insult, is regarded with dislike. 

Wounds were looked on as honourable, but they must be in front orhonourably got. A man who was shot through the buttocks, or wounded inthe back, was laughed at and disgraced. We hear of a mother helping herwounded son out of battle. 

That much of human interest centered round war is evident by the massof tradition that surrounds the subject in Saxo, both in its public andprivate aspects. Quaint is the analysis of the four kinds of warriors:(a) The Veterans, or Doughty, who kill foes and spare flyers; (b) theYoung men who kill foes and flyers too; (c) the well-to-do, landed, andpropertied men of the main levy, who neither fight for fear nor fly forshame; (d) the worthless, last to fight and first to fly; and curiousare the remarks about married and unmarried troops, a matter which Chakapondered over in later days. Homeric speeches precede the fight. 

"Stratagems of War" greatly interested Saxo (probably because ValeriusMaximus, one of his most esteemed models, was much occupied with suchmatters), so that he diligently records the military traditions of thenotably skillful expedients of famous commanders of old. 

There is the device for taking a town by means of the "pretended death"of the besieging general, a device ascribed to Hastings and many morecommanders (see Steenstrup Normannerne); the plan of "firing" a besiegedtown by fire-bearing birds, ascribed here to Fridlev, in the case ofDublin to Hadding against Duna (where it was foiled by all tame birdsbeing chased out of the place). 

There is the "Birnam Wood" stratagem, by which men advanced behind ascreen of boughs, which is even used for the concealment of ships, andthe curious legend (occurring in Irish tradition also, and recallingCapt. B. Hall's "quaker gun" story) by which a commander bluffs off hisenemy by binding his dead to stakes in rows, as if they were living men. 

Less easy to understand are the "brazen horses" or "machines" driveninto the close lines of the enemy to crush and open them, an inventionof Gewar. The use of hooked weapons to pull down the foes' shields andhelmets was also taught to Hother by Gewar. 

The use of black tents to conceal encampment; the defence of a pass byhurling rocks from the heights; the bridge of boats across the Elbe;and the employment of spies, and the bold venture, ascribed in ourchronicles to Alfred and Anlaf, of visiting in disguise the enemy'scamp, is here attributed to Frode, who even assumed women's clothes forthe purpose. 

Frode is throughout the typical general, as he is the typical statesmanand law-giver of archaic Denmark. 

There are certain heathen usages connected with war, as the hurling ofa javelin or shooting of an arrow over the enemy's ranks as a "sacratio"to Woden of the foe at the beginning of a battle. This is recorded inthe older vernacular authorities also, in exact accordance with theHomeric usage, "Odyssey" xxiv, 516-595. 

The dedication of part of the spoils to the god who gave good omens forthe war is told of the heathen Baltic peoples; but though, as Sidoniusrecords, it had once prevailed among the Saxons, and, as other witnessesadd, among the Scandinavian people, the tradition is not clearlypreserved by Saxo. 

"Sea and Sea Warfare. "--As might be expected, there is much mention ofWicking adventure and of maritime warfare in Saxo. 

Saxo tells of Asmund's huge ship (Gnod), built high that he might shootdown on the enemy's craft; he speaks of a ship (such as Godwin gave asa gift to the king his master), and the monk of St. Bertin and thecourt-poets have lovingly described a ship with gold-broidered sails, gilt masts, and red-dyed rigging. One of his ships has, like the shipsin the Chansons de Geste, a carbuncle for a lantern at the masthead. Hedin signals to Frode by a shield at the masthead. A red shield was apeace signal, as noted above. The practice of "strand-hewing", a greatfeature in Wicking-life (which, so far as the victualling of raw meatby the fishing fleets, and its use raw, as Mr. P. H. Emerson informsme, still survives), is spoken of. There was great fear of monstersattacking them, a fear probably justified by such occasional attacks ofangry whales as Melville (founding his narrative on repeated facts) hasimmortalised. The whales, like Moby Dick, were uncanny, and inspired bytroll-women or witches (cf. "Frithiof Saga" and the older "Lay ofAtle and Rimegerd"). The clever sailing of Hadding, by which he eludespursuit, is tantalising, for one gathers that, Saxo knows the detailsthat he for some reason omits. Big fleets of 150 and a monster armada of3, 000 vessels are recorded. 

The ships were moved by oars and sails; they had rudders, no doubt suchas the Gokstad ship, for the hero Arrow-Odd used a rudder as a weapon. 

"Champions". --Professed fighting men were often kept by kings andearls about their court as useful in feud and fray. Harald Fairhair'schampions are admirably described in the contemporary Raven Song byHornclofe--

 "Wolf-coats they call them that in battle Bellow into bloody shields. They wear wolves' hides when they come into the fight, And clash their weapons together. "

and Saxo's sources adhere closely to this pattern. 

These "bear-sarks", or wolf-coats of Harald give rise to an O. N. Term, "bear-sarks' way", to describe the frenzy of fight and fury which suchchampions indulged in, barking and howling, and biting their shield-rims(like the ferocious "rook" in the narwhale ivory chessmen in the BritishMuseum) till a kind of state was produced akin to that of the Malay whenhe has worked himself up to "run-a-muck. " There seems to have been inthe 10th century a number of such fellows about unemployed, whobecame nuisances to their neighbours by reason of their bullying andhighhandedness. Stories are told in the Icelandic sagas of the way suchpersons were entrapped and put to death by the chiefs they served whenthey became too troublesome. A favourite (and fictitious) episode inan "edited" Icelandic saga is for the hero to rescue a lady promised tosuch a champion (who has bullied her father into consent) by slaying theruffian. It is the same "motif" as Guy of Warwick and the Saracen lady, and one of the regular Giant and Knight stories. 

Beside men-warriors there were "women-warriors" in the North, as Saxoexplains. He describes shield-maidens, as Alfhild, Sela, Rusila(the Ingean Ruadh, or Red Maid of the Irish Annals, as Steenstrup soingeniously conjectures); and the three she-captains, Wigbiorg, who fellon the field, Hetha, who was made queen of Zealand, and Wisna, whosehand Starcad cut off, all three fighting manfully at Bravalla fight. 

SOCIAL LIFE AND MANNERS. 

"Feasts". --The hall-dinner was an important feature in the old Teutoniccourt-life. Many a fine scene in a saga takes place in the hall whilethe king and his men are sitting over their ale. The hall decked withhangings, with its fires, lights, plate and provisions, appears in Saxojust as in the Eddic Lays, especially Rigsmal, and the Lives of theNorwegian Kings and Orkney Earls. 

The order of seats is a great point of archaic manners. Behaviour attable was a matter of careful observance. The service, especially thatof the cup-bearer, was minutely regulated by etiquette. An honouredguest was welcomed by the host rising to receive him and giving him aseat near himself, but less distinguished visitors were often victims tothe rough horseplay of the baser sort, and of the wanton young gentlemanat court. The food was simple, boiled beef and pork, and mutton withoutsauce, ale served in horns from the butt. Roast meat, game, sauces, mead, and flagons set on the table, are looked on by Starcad as foreignluxuries, and Germany was credited with luxurious cookery. 

"Mimes and jugglers", who went through the country or were attached tothe lord's court to amuse the company, were a despised race because oftheir ribaldry, obscenity, cowardice, and unabashed self-debasement;and their newfangled dances and piping were loathsome to the oldcourt-poets, who accepted the harp alone as an instrument of music. 

The story that once a king went to war with his jugglers and they ranaway, would represent the point of view of the old house-carle, whowas neglected, though "a first-class fighting man", for these debauchedforeign buffoons. 

SUPERNATURAL BEINGS. 

GODS AND GODDESSES. --The gods spring, according to Saxo's belief, froma race of sorcerers, some of whom rose to pre-eminence and expelled andcrushed the rest, ending the "wizard-age", as the wizards had ended themonster or "giant-age". That they were identic with the classic gods heis inclined to believe, but his difficulty is that in the week-days wehave Jove : Thor; Mercury : Woden; whereas it is perfectly well knownthat Mercury is Jove's son, and also that Woden is the father of Thor--acomic "embarras". That the persians the heathens worshipped as godsexisted, and that they were men and women false and powerful, Saxoplainly believes. He has not Snorre's appreciation of the humorous sideof the mythology. He is ironic and scornful, but without the kindly, naive fun of the Icelander. 

The most active god, the Dane's chief god (as Frey is the Swede's god, and patriarch), is "Woden". He appears in heroic life as patron of greatheroes and kings. Cf. "Hyndla-Lay", where it is said of Woden:--

 "Let us pray the Father of Hosts to be gracious to us! He granteth and giveth gold to his servants, He gave Heremod a helm and mail-coat, And Sigmund a sword to take. He giveth victory to his sons, to his followers wealth, Ready speech to his children and wisdom to men. Fair wind to captains, and song to poets; He giveth luck in love to many a hero. "

He appears under various disguises and names, but usually as a one-eyedold man, cowled and hooded; sometimes with another, bald and ragged, asbefore the battle Hadding won; once as "Hroptr", a huge man skilled inleechcraft, to Ragnar's son Sigfrid. 

Often he is a helper in battle or doomer of feymen. As "Lysir", a roverof the sea, he helps Hadding. As veteran slinger and archer he helps hisfavourite Hadding; as charioteer, "Brune", he drives Harald to his deathin battle. He teaches Hadding how to array his troops. As "Yggr" theprophet he advises the hero and the gods. As "Wecha" (Waer) the leech hewoos Wrinda. He invented the wedge array. He can grant charmed lives tohis favourites against steel. He prophesies their victories and death. He snatches up one of his disciples, sets him on his magic horse thatrides over seas in the air, as in Skida-runa the god takes the beggarover the North Sea. His image (like that of Frey in the Swedish storyof Ogmund dytt and Gunnar helming, "Flatey book", i, 335) could speak bymagic power. 

Of his life and career Saxo gives several episodes. 

Woden himself dwelt at Upsala and Byzantium (Asgard); and the northernkings sent him a golden image ring-bedecked, which he made to speakoracles. His wife Frigga stole the bracelets and played him false with aservant, who advised her to destroy and rob the image. 

When Woden was away (hiding the disgrace brought on him by Frigga hiswife), an imposter, Mid Odin, possibly Loke in disguise, usurped hisplace at Upsala, instituted special drink-offerings, fled to Finland onWoden's return, and was slain by the Fins and laid in barrow. Butthe barrow smote all that approached it with death, till the body wasunearthed, beheaded, and impaled, a well-known process for stopping thehaunting of an obnoxious or dangerous ghost. 

Woden had a son Balder, rival of Hother for the love of Nanna, daughterof King Gewar. Woden and Thor his son fought for him against Hother, but in vain, for Hother won the laity and put Balder to shameful flight;however, Balder, half-frenzied by his dreams of Nanna, in turn drove himinto exile (winning the lady); finally Hother, befriended hy luck andthe Wood Maidens, to whom he owed his early successes and his magiccoat, belt, and girdle (there is obvious confusion here in the text), atlast met Balder and stabbed him in the side. Of this wound Balder diedin three days, as was foretold by the awful dream in which Proserpina(Hela) appeared to him. Balder's grand burial, his barrow, and the magicflood which burst from it when one Harald tried to break into it, andterrified the robbers, are described. 

The death of Balder led Woden to seek revenge. Hrossthiof the wizard, whom he consulted, told him he must beget a son by "Wrinda" (Rinda, daughter of the King of the Ruthenians), who should avenge hishalf-brother. 

Woden's wooing is the best part of this story, half spoilt, however, by euhemeristic tone and lack of epic dignity. He woos as a victoriouswarrior, and receives a cuff; as a generous goldsmith, and gets abuffet; as a handsome soldier, earning a heavy knock-down blow; but inthe garb of a women as Wecha (Wakr), skilled in leechcraft, he won hisway by trickery; and ("Wale") "Bous" was born, who, after some years, slew Hother in battle, and died himself of his wounds. Bous' barrowin Bohusland, Balder's haven, Balder's well, are named as localattestations of the legend, which is in a late form, as it seems. 

The story of Woden's being banished for misbehaviour, and especiallyfor sorcery and for having worn woman's attire to trick Wrinda, hisreplacement by "Wuldor" ("Oller"), a high priest who assumed Woden'sname and flourished for ten years, but was ultimately expelled by thereturning Woden, and killed by the Danes in Sweden, is in the samestyle. But Wuldor's bone vessel is an old bit of genuine traditionmangled. It would cross the sea as well as a ship could, by virtue ofcertain spells marked on it. 

Of "Frey", who appears as "satrapa" of the gods at Upsala, and as theoriginator of human sacrifice, and as appeased by black victims, at asacrifice called Froblod (Freys-blot) instituted by Hadding, who beganit as an atonement for having slain a sea-monster, a deed for which hehad incurred a curse. The priapic and generative influences of Frey areonly indicated by a curious tradition mentioned. It almost looks asif there had once been such an institution at Upsala as adorned thePhoenician temples, under Frey's patronage and for a symbolic means ofworship. 

"Thunder", or "Thor", is Woden's son, strongest of gods or men, patronof Starcad, whom he turned, by pulling off four arms, from a monster toa man. 

He fights by Woden's side and Balder's against Hother, by whose magicwand his club (hammer) was lopped off part of its shaft, a whollydifferent and, a much later version than the one Snorre gives in theprose Edda. Saxo knows of Thor's journey to the haunt of giant Garfred(Geirrod) and his three daughters, and of the hurling of the iron"bloom", and of the crushing of the giantesses, though he does not seemto have known of the river-feats of either the ladies or Thor, if we mayjudge (never a safe thing wholly) by his silence. 

Whether "Tew" is meant by the Mars of the Song of the Voice is notevident. Saxo may only be imitating the repeated catch-word "war" of theoriginal. 

"Loke" appears as Utgard-Loke, Loke of the skirts of the World, asit were; is treated as a venomous giant bound in agony under aserpent-haunted cavern (no mention is made of "Sigyn" or her piousministry). 

"Hela" seems to be meant by Saxo's Proserpina. 

"Nanna" is the daughter of Gewar, and Balder sees her bathing and fallsin love with her, as madly as Frey with Gertha in Skirnismal. 

"Freya", the mistress of Od, the patroness of Othere the homely, thesister of Frey-Frode, and daughter of Niord-Fridlaf, appears as GunwaraEric's love and Syritha Ottar's love and the hair-clogged maiden, as Dr. Rydberg has shown. 

The gods can disguise their form, change their shape, are often met ina mist, which shrouds them save from the right person; they appearand disappear at will. For the rest they have the mental and physicalcharacteristics of the kings and queens they protect or persecuteso capriciously. They can be seen by making a magic sign and lookingthrough a witch's arm held akimbo. They are no good comates for men orwomen, and to meddle with a goddess or nymph or giantess was to ensureevil or death for a man. The god's loves were apparently not always sofatal, though there seems to be some tradition to that effect. Most ofthe god-sprung heroes are motherless or unborn (i. E. , born like Macduffby the Caesarean operation)--Sigfred, in the Eddic Lays for instance. 

Besides the gods, possibly older than they are, and presumably mightier, are the "Fates" (Norns), three Ladies who are met with together, whofulfil the parts of the gift-fairies of our Sleeping Beauty tales, andbestow endowments on the new-born child, as in the beautiful "HelgeLay", a point of the story which survives in Ogier of the Chansons deGeste, wherein Eadgar (Otkerus or Otgerus) gets what belonged to Holger(Holge), the Helga of "Beowulf's Lay". The caprices of the Fates, whereone corrects or spoils the others' endowments, are seen in Saxo, whenbeauty, bounty, and meanness are given together. They sometimes meetheroes, as they met Helgi in the Eddic Lay (Helgi and Sigrun Lay), and help or begift them; they prepare the magic broth for Balder, arecharmed with Hother's lute-playing, and bestow on him a belt of victoryand a girdle of splendour, and prophesy things to come. 

The verse in Biarca-mal, where "Pluto weaves the dooms of the mighty andfills Phlegethon with noble shapes, " recalls Darrada-liod, and points toWoden as death-doomer of the warrior. 

"Giants". --These are stupid, mischievous, evil and cunning in Saxo'seyes. Oldest of beings, with chaotic force and exuberance, monstrous inextravagant vitality. 

The giant nature of the older troll-kind is abhorrent to man and woman. But a giantess is enamoured of a youth she had fostered, and giantscarry off king's daughters, and a three-bodied giant captures youngchildren. 

Giants live in caves by the sea, where they keep their treasure. Onegiant, Unfoot (Ofoti), is a shepherd, like Polyphemus, and has a famousdog which passed into the charge of Biorn, and won a battle; a giantessis keeping goats in the wilds. A giant's fury is so great that it takestwelve champions to control him, when the rage is on him. The troll(like our Puss-in-Boots Ogre) can take any shape. 

Monstrous apparitions are mentioned, a giant hand (like that in onestory of Finn) searching for its prey among the inmates of a boothin the wilds. But this Grendel-like arm is torn off by a giantess, Hardgrip, daughter of Wainhead and niece possibly of Hafle. 

The voice heard at night prophesying is that of some god or monster, possibly Woden himself. 

"Dwarves". --These Saxo calls Satyrs, and but rarely mentions. The dwarfMiming, who lives in the desert, has a precious sword of sharpness(Mistletoe?) that could even pierce skin-hard Balder, and a ring(Draupnir) that multiplied itself for its possessor. He is trapped bythe hero and robbed of his treasures. 

FUNERAL RITES AND MAN'S FUTURE STATE. 

"Barrow-burials". --The obsequies of great men (such as the classicfuneral of "Beowulf's Lay", 3138-80) are much noticed by Saxo, and wemight expect that he knew such a poem (one similar to Ynglingatal, butnot it) which, like the Books of the Kings of Israel and Judah, recordedthe deaths and burials, as well as the pedigrees and deeds, of theDanish kings. 

The various stages of the "obsequy by fire" are noted; the byresometimes formed out of a ship; the "sati"; the devoted bower-maidenschoosing to die with their mistress, the dead man's beloved (cf. TheEddic funerals of Balder, Sigfred, and Brunhild, in the Long "Brunhild'sLay", Tregrof Gudrumar and the lost poem of Balder's death paraphrasedin the prose Edda); the last message given to the corpse on the pyre(Woden's last words to Balder are famous); the riding round the pyre;the eulogium; the piling of the barrow, which sometimes took whole days, as the size of many existing grass mounds assure us; the funeral feast, where an immense vat of ale or mead is drunk in honor of the dead; theepitaph, like an ogham, set up on a stone over the barrow. 

The inclusion of a live man with the dead in a barrow, with the live orfresh-slain beasts (horse and bound) of the dead man, seems to point toa time or district when burning was not used. Apparently, at one time, judging from Frode's law, only chiefs and warriors were burnt. 

Not to bury was, as in Hellas, an insult to the dead, reserved for thebodies of hated foes. Conquerors sometimes show their magnanimity (likeHarald Godwineson) by offering to bury their dead foes. 

The buried "barrow-ghost" was formidable; he could rise and slay andeat, vampire-like, as in the tale of Asmund and Aswit. He must in suchcase be mastered and prevented doing further harm by decapitation andthigh-forking, or by staking and burning. So criminals' bodies wereoften burnt to stop possible haunting. 

Witches and wizards could raise corpses by spells to make them prophesy. The dead also appeared in visions, usually foretelling death to theperson they visited. 

OTHER WORLDS. --The "Land of Undeath" is spoken of as a place reached byan exiled hero in his wanderings. We know it from Eric the traveller'sS. , Helge Thoreson's S. , Herrand and Bose S. , Herwon S. , ThorstanBaearmagn S. , and other Icelandic sources. But the voyage to the OtherWorlds are some of the most remarkable of the narratives Saxo haspreserved for us. 

"Hadding's Voyage Underground". --(a) A woman bearing in her lap angelicafresh and green, though it was deep winter, appears to the hero atsupper, raising her head beside the brazier. Hadding wishes to knowwhere such plants grow. 

(b) She takes him with her, under cover of her mantle, underground. 

(c) They pierce a mist, get on a road worn by long use, pass nobly-cladmen, and reach the sunny fields that bear the angelica:--

 "Through griesly shadowes by a beaten path, Into a garden goodly garnished. " --F. Q. Ii. 7, 51. 

(d) Next they cross, by a bridge, the "River of Blades", and see "twoarmies fighting", ghosts of slain soldiers. 

(e) Last they came to a high wall, which surrounds the land of Life, fora cock the woman brought with her, whose neck she wrung and tossed overthis wall, came to life and crowed merrily. 

Here the story breaks off. It is unfinished, we are only told thatHadfling got back. Why he was taken to this under-world? Who took him?What followed therefrom? Saxo does not tell. It is left to us to makeout. 

That it is an archaic story of the kind in the Thomas of Ercildouneand so many more fairy-tales, e. G. , Kate Crack-a-Nuts, is certain. The"River of Blades" and "The Fighting Warriors" are known from the EddicPoems. The angelica is like the green birk of that superb fragment, theballad of the Wife of Usher's Well--a little more frankly heathen, ofcourse--

 "It fell about the Martinmas, when nights are long and mirk, The carline wife's three sons cam hame, and their hats were o' the birk. It neither grew in syke nor dyke, nor yet in ony sheugh, But at the gates o' Paradise that birk grew fair eneuch. "

The mantel is that of Woden when he bears the hero over seas; the cockis a bird of sorcery the world over; the black fowl is the proper giftto the Underground powers--a heriot really, for did not the Culture godsteal all the useful beasts out of the underground world for men's use?

Dr. Rydberg has shown that the "Seven Sleepers" story is an old Northernmyth, alluded to here in its early pre-Christian form, and that withthis is mixed other incidents from voyages of Swipdag, the TeutonicOdusseus. 

"Thorkill's Second Voyage to Outgarth-Loke to get Knowledge". --(a)Guthrum is troubled as to the immortality and fate of the soul, and thereward of piety after death. To spite Thorkill, his enviers advised theking to send him to consult Outgarth-Loke. He required of the king thathis enemies should be sent with him. 

(b) In one well-stored and hide-defended ship they set out, reacheda sunless, starless land, without fuel; ate raw food and suffered. Atlast, after many days, a fire was seen ashore. Thorkill, setting a jewelat the mast-head to be able to regain his vessel easily, rows ashore toget fire. 

(c) In a filthy, snake-paved, stinking cavern he sees two horny-nebbedgiants, (2) making a fire. One of the giants offers to direct him toLoke if he will say three true things in three phrases, and this done, tells him to row four days and then he would reach a Dark and GrasslessLand. For three more true sayings he obtains fire, and gets back to hisvessel. 

(d) With good wind they make Grassless Land, go ashore, find a huge, rocky cavern, strike a flint to kindle a fire at the entrance as asafeguard against demons, and a torch to light them as they explored thecavern. 

(e) First appears iron seats set amid crawling snakes. 

(f) Next is sluggish water flowing over sand. 

(g) Last a steep, sloping cavern is reached, in a chamber of which layOutgarth-Loke chained, huge and foul. 

(h) Thorkill plucks a hair of his beard "as big as a cornel-wood spear. "The stench that arose was fearful; the demens and snakes fell upon theinvaders at once; only Thorkill and five of the crew, who had shelteredthemselves with hides against the virulent poison the demons and snakescast, which would take a head off at the neck if it fell upon it, gotback to their ship. 

(i) By vow to the "God that made the world", and offerings, a goodvoyage was made back, and Germany reached, where Thorkill became aChristian. Only two of his men survived the effects of the poison andstench, and he himself was scarred and spoilt in the face. 

(k) When he reached the king, Guthrum would not listen to his tale, because it was prophesied to him that he would die suddenly if he heardit; nay, he even sent men to smite him as he lay in bed, but, by thedevice of laying a log in his place, he escaped, and going to the kingas he sat at meat, reproached him for his treachery. 

(l) Guthrum bade him tell his story, but died of horror at hearing hisgod Loke foully spoken of, while the stench of the hair that Thorkillproduced, as Othere did his horn for a voucher of his speech, slew manybystanders. 

This is the regular myth of Loke, punished by the gods, lying bound withhis own soils' entrails on three sharp stones and a sword-blade, (thislatter an addition, when the myth was made stones were the only blades), with snakes' venom dripping on to him, so that when it falls on him heshakes with pain and makes earthquakes--a Titan myth in answer to thequestion, "Why does the earth quake?" The vitriolic power of the poisonis excellently expressed in the story. The plucking of the hair as atoken is like the plucking of a horn off the giant or devil that occursin some folk-tale. 

MAGIC AND FOLK-SCIENCE. 

There is a belief in magic throughout Saxo's work, showing how freshheathendom still was in men's minds and memories. His explanations, whenhe euhemerizes, are those of his day. 

By means of spells all kinds of wonders could be effected, and thepowers of nature forced to work for the magician or his favourite. 

"Skin-changing" (so common in "Landnamaboc") was as well known as in theclassic world of Lucian and Apuleius; and, where Frode perishes of theattacks of a witch metamorphosed into a walrus. 

"Mist" is induced by spells to cover and hide persons, as in Homer, and "glamour" is produced by spells to dazzle foemen's sight. To castglamour and put confusion into a besieged place a witch is employed bythe beleaguerer, just as William the Conqueror used the witch in theFens against Hereward's fortalice. A soothsayer warns Charles the Greatof the coming of a Danish fleet to the Seine's mouth. 

"Rain and bad weather" may be brought on, as in a battle againstthe enemy, but in this, as in other instances, the spell may becounteracted. 

"Panic Terror" may be induced by the spell worked with a dead horse'shead set up on a pole facing the antagonist, but the spell may be metand combatted by silence and a counter-curse. 

"Magic help" may be got by calling on the friendly magician's name. The magician has also the power of summoning to him anyone, howeverunwilling, to appear. 

Of spells and magic power to blunt steel there are several instances;they may be counteracted (as in the Icelandic Sagas) by using the hilt, or a club, or covering the blade with fine skin. In another case thechampion can only be overcome by one that will take up some of the dustfrom under his feet. This is effected by the combatants shifting theirground and exchanging places. In another case the foeman can onlybe slain by gold, whereupon the hero has a gold-headed mace made andbatters the life out of him therewith. The brothers of Swanhild cannotbe cut by steel, for their mail was charmed by the witch Gudrun, butWoden taught Eormenric, the Gothic king, how to overcome them withstones (which apparently cannot, as archaic weapons, be charmed againstat all, resisting magic like wood and water and fire). Jordanis tellsthe true history of Ermanaric, that great Gothic emperor whose rulefrom the Dnieper to the Baltic and Rhine and Danube, and long reign ofprosperity, were broken by the coming of the Huns. With him vanished thefirst great Teutonic empire. 

Magic was powerful enough even to raise the dead, as was practisedby the Perms, who thus renewed their forces after a battle. In theEverlasting battle the combatants were by some strange trick of fateobliged to fulfil a perennial weird (like the unhappy Vanderdecken). Spells to wake the dead were written on wood and put under the corpses'tongue. Spells (written on bark) induce frenzy. 

"Charms" would secure a man against claw or tooth. 

"Love philtres" (as in the long "Lay of Gudrun) appear as everywhere insavage and archaic society. 

"Food", porridge mixed with the slaver of tortured snakes, gives magicstrength or endues the eater with eloquence and knowledge of beast andbird speech (as Finn's broiled fish and Sigfred's broiled dragon-heartdo). 

"Poison" like these hell-broths are part of the Witch or Obistock-in-trade, and Frode uses powdered gold as an antidote. 

"Omens" are observed; tripping as one lands is lucky (as with ourWilliam the Norman). Portents, such as a sudden reddening of the seawhere the hero is drowned, are noticed and interpreted. 

"Dreams" (cf. Eddic Lays of Attila, and the Border ballads) areprophetic (as nine-tenths of Europeans firmly believe still); thus thevisionary flame-spouting dragon is interpreted exactly as Hogne's andAttila's dreams. The dreams of the three first bridals nights (whichwere kept hallowed by a curious superstition, either because the dreamswould then bold good, or as is more likely, for fear of some Asmodeus)were fateful. Animals and birds in dreams are read as persons, asnowadays. 

A "curse" is powerful unless it can be turned back, when it will harmits utterer, for harm someone it must. The "curse" of a dying man on hisslayer, and its lack of effect, is noted. 

Sometimes "magic messengers" are sent, like the swans that bore a tokenand uttered warning songs to the hero. 

"Witches and wizards" (as belonging to the older layer of archaicbeliefs) are hateful to the gods, and Woden casts them out as accursed, though he himself was the mightiest of wizards. Heathen Teutonic lifewas a long terror by reason of witchcraft, as is the heathen Africanlife to-day, continual precautions being needful to escape the magic ofenemies. The Icelandic Sagas, such as Gretter's, are full of magic andwitchcraft. It is by witchcraft that Gretter is first lamed and finallyslain; one can see that Glam's curse, the Beowulf motif, was not reallyin the original Gretter story. 

"Folk-medicine" is really a branch of magic in old days, even to suchpioneers of science as Paracelsus. 

Saxo's traditions note drinking of a lion's blood that eats men as ameans of gaining might and strength; the drinking of bear's blood isalso declared to give great bodily power. 

The tests for "madness" are of a primitive character, such as thoseapplied to Odusseus, who, however, was not able, like Hamlet, to evadethem. 

The test for death is the red-hot iron or hot brand (used by theAbyssinians of to-day, as it was supposed in the thirteenth century tohave been used by Grimhild. "And now Grimhild goes and takes a greatbrand, where the house had burnt, and goes to Gernot her brother, andthrusts the burning brand in his mouth, and will know whether he is deador living. But Gernot was clearly dead. And now she goes to Gislher andthrusts the firebrand in his mouth. He was not dead before, but Gislherdied of that. Now King Thidrec of Bern saw what Grimhild is doing, and speaks to King Attila. `See how that devil Grimhild, thy wife, iskilling her brothers, the good warriors, and how many men have losttheir lives for her sake, and how many good men she has destroyed, Hunsand Amalungs and Niflungs; and in the same way would she bring thee andme to hell, if she could do it?' Then spake King Attila, `Surely she isa devil, and slay thou her, and that were a good work if thou had doneit seven nights ago! Then many a gallant fellow were whole that is nowdead. ' Now King Thidrec springs at Grimhild and swings up his swordEckisax, and hews her asunder at the middle"). 

It was believed (as in Polynesia, where "Captain Cook's path" was shownin the grass) that the heat of the hero's body might blast the grass; soStarcad's entrails withered the grass. 

It was believed that a severed head might bite the ground in rage, andthere were certainly plenty of opportunities for observation of suchcases. 

It was believed that a "dumb man" might be so wrought on by passion thathe would speak, and wholly acquire speech-power. 

Little is told of "surgery", but in one case of intestines protrudingowing to wounds, withies were employed to bind round the trunk and keepthe bowels from risk till the patient could be taken to a house and hiswounds examined and dressed. It was considered heroic to pay little heedto wounds that were not dangerous, but just to leave them to nature. 

Personal "cleanliness" was not higher than among savages now. A lover isloused by his lady after the mediaeval fashion. 

CHRISTIANITY--In the first nine books of Saxo, which are devoted toheathendom, there is not much save the author's own Christian pointof view that smacks of the New Faith. The apostleships of Ansgarius inDenmark, the conversion of King Eric, the Christianity of several laterDanish Kings, one of whom was (like Olaf Tryggwason) baptised in Britainare also noticed. 

Of "Christian legends" and beliefs, besides the euhemerist theory, widely held, of the heathen gods there are few hints, save the ideathat Christ was born in the reign of Frode, Frode having been somehowsynchronised with Augustus, in whose reign also there was a world-peace. 

Of course the christening of Scandinavia is history, and the mythicbooks are little concerned with it. The episode in Adam of Bremen, wherethe king offers the people, if they want a new god, to deify Eric, oneof their hero-kings, is eminently characteristic and true. 

FOLK-TALES. 

There might be a classification of Saxo's stories akin to that of theIrish poets, Battles, Sieges, Voyages, Rapes, Cattle Forays, etc. ; andquite apart from the historic element, however faint and legendary, there are a set of stories ascribed by him, or rather his authorities, to definite persons, which had, even in his day, probably long been theproperty of Tis, their original owners not being known owing to lapseof time and the wear of memory, and the natural and accidentalcatastrophies that impair the human record. Such are the "Dragon-Slayer"stories. In one type of these the hero (Frithlaf) is cast on a desolateisland, and warned by a dream to attack and slay a dragon guardingtreasure. He wakes, sees the dragon arise out of the waves, apparently, to come ashore and go back to the cavern or mound wherein the treasurelay. His scales are too hard to pierce; he is terribly strong, lashingtrees down with his tail, and wearing a deep path through the wood andover the stones with his huge and perpetual bulk; but the hero, coveredwith hide-wrapped shield against the poison, gets down into thehollow path, and pierces the monster from below, afterward rifling itsunderground store and carrying off its treasure. 

Again the story is repeated; the hero (Frode Haddingsson) is warned bya countryman of the island-dragon and its hoard, is told to cover hisshield and body with bulls' hides against the poison, and smite themonster's belly. The dragon goes to drink, and, as it is coming back, it is attacked, slain, and its treasure lifted precisely as before. Theanalogies with the Beowulf and Sigfred stories are evident; but no greatpoet has arisen to weave the dragon-slaying intimately into the lives ofFrode and Frithlaf as they have been woven into the tragedy of Sigfredthe wooer of Brunhild and, if Dr. Vigffisson be right the conqueror ofVarus, or into the story of Beowulf, whose real engagements were withsea-monsters, not fiery dragons. 

Another type is that of the "Loathly Worm". A king out hunting (Herodor Herraud, King of Sweden), for some unexplained reason brings home twosmall snakes as presents for his daughter. They wax wonderfully, haveto be fed a whole ox a day, and proceed to poison and waste thecountryside. The wretched king is forced to offer his daughter (Thora)to anyone who will slay them. The hero (Ragnar) devises a dress of apeculiar kind (by help of his nurse, apparently), in this case, woollymantle and hairy breeches all frozen and ice-covered to resist thevenom, then strapping his spear to his hand, he encounters them boldlyalone. The courtiers hide "like frightened little girls", and the kingbetakes him to a "narrow shelter", an euphemism evidently of Saxo's, forthe scene is comic. The king comes forth when the hero is victorious, and laughing at his hairy legs, nick-names him Shaggy-breech, and bidshim to the feast. Ragnar fetches up his comrades, and apparently seeksout the frightened courtiers (no doubt with appropriate quip, omitted bySaxo, who hurries on), feasts, marries the king's daughter, and begetson her two fine sons. 

Of somewhat similar type is the proud "Maiden guarded" by Beasts. Herethe scene is laid in Gaulardale in Norway. The lady is Ladgerda, thehero Ragnar. Enamoured of the maiden by seeing her prowess in war, heaccepts no rebuffs, but leaving his followers, enters the house, slaysthe guardian Bear and Dog, thrusting one through with a spear andthrottling the other with his hand. The lady is won and wed, and twodaughters and a son (Frithlaf) duly begotten. The story of Alf andAlfhild combines several types. There are the tame snakes, the baffledsuitors' heads staked to terrify other suitors, and the hero usingred-hot iron and spear to slay the two reptiles. 

The "Proud Lady", (cf. Kudrun and the Niebelungen, and Are's storyof the queen that burnt her suitors) appears in Hermintrude, Queen ofScotland, who battles and slays her lovers, but is out-witted by thehero (Hamlet), and, abating her arrogance, agrees to wed him. This seemsan obvious accretion in the original Hamlet story, and probably owingnot to Saxo, but to his authority. 

The "Beggar that stole the Lady" (told of Snio Siwaldson and thedaughter of the King of the Goths), with its brisk dialogue, must havebeen one of the most artful of the folk-tales worked on by Saxo or hisinformants; but it is only half told, unfortunately. 

The "Crafty Soaker" is another excellent comic folk-tale. A terriblefamine made the king (Snio) forbid brewing to save the barley forbread, and abolished all needless toping. The Soaker baffled the king bysipping, never taking a full draught. Rebuked, he declared that he neverdrank, but only sucked a drop. This was forbidden him for the future, sohe sopped his bread in ale, and in that inconvenient manner continued toget drunk, excusing himself with the plea that though it was forbiddento drink or sip beer, it was not forbidden to eat it. When this was inturn prohibited, the Soaker gave up any pretence, and brewed anddrank unabashed, telling the angry king that he was celebrating hisapproaching funeral with due respect, which excuse led to the repeal ofthe obnoxious decree. A good Rabelaisian tale, that must not havebeen wide-spread among the Danish topers, whose powers both Saxo andShakespeare have celebrated, from actual experience no doubt. 

The "Magician's tricks to elude pursuit", so common an incident inour fairy tales, e. G. , Michael Scot's flight, is ascribed here to thewonder-working and uncanny Finns, who, when pursued, cast behindthem successively three pebbles, which become to their enemies' eyesmountains, then snow, which appeared like a roaring torrent. But theycould not cast the glamour on Arngrim a third time, and were forced tosubmit. The glamour here and in the case of the breaking of Balder'sbarrow is akin to that which the Druid puts on the sons of Uisnach. 

The tale of the king who shuts up his daughter in an "earth-house" orunderground chamber with treasures (weapons and gold and silver), infear of invasion, looks like a bit of folk-tale, such as the "Hind inthe Wood", but it may have a traditional base of some kind here. 

A folk-tale, very imperfectly narrated, is the "Clever King's Daughter", who evidently in the original story had to choose her suitor by his feet(as the giantess in the prose Edda chooses her husband), and was able todo so by the device she had practised of sewing up her ring in his legsometime before, so that when she touched the flesh she could feel thehardness of the ring beneath the scar. 

Bits of folk-tales are the "Device for escaping threatened death byputting a log in one's bed" (as in our Jack the Giant-Killer). Thedevice, as old as David's wife, of dressing up a dummy (here a basketwith a dog inside, covered outside with clothes), while the heroescapes, is told of Eormenric, the mighty Gothic King of Kings, who, like Walter of Aquitaine, Theodoric of Varona, Ecgherht, and Arminius, was an exile in his youth. This traditional escape of the two lads fromthe Scyths should be compared with the true story in Paul the Deaconof his little ancestor's captivity and bold and successful stroke forfreedom. 

"Disguise" plays a great part in the folk-tales used by Saxo. Wodendisguises himself in a cowl on his earthly travels, and heroes do thesame; a king disguises himself as a slave at his rival's court, to tryand find occasion of slaying him; a hero wraps himself up in skins, likeAlleleirah. 

"Escaped recognition" is accordingly a feature in many of these simplebut artistic plots. A son is not known by his mother in the story ofHrolf. 

Other "Devices" are exemplified, such as the "booby-trap" loaded witha millstone, which slays a hateful and despised tyrant, imposed bya foreign conqueror; evasion by secret passages, and concealment inunderground vaults or earth-houses. The feigning of madness to escapedeath occurs, as well as in the better-known Hamlet story. Thesestratagems are universal in folk-history. 

To Eric, the clever and quick of speech, is ascribed an excellentsailor's smuggling trick to hide slaughtered cattle, by sinking themtill the search is over. 

The "Hero's Mighty Childhood" (like David's) of course occurs whenhe binds a bear with his girdle. Sciold is full grown at fifteen, andHadding is full grown in extreme youth. The hero in his boyhood slays afull-grown man and champion. The cinder-biting, lazy stage of a mightyyouth is exemplified. 

The "fierce eyes" of the hero or heroine, which can daunt an assassin ascould the piercing glance of Marius, are the "falcon eyes" of the EddicLays. 

The shining, effulgent, "illuminating hair" of the hero, which giveslight in the darkness, is noticed here, as it obtains in Cuaran'sthirteenth century English legend. 

The wide-spread tale of the "City founded on a site marked out by a hidecut into finest thongs", occurs, told of Hella and Iwarus exactly as ourKentishmen told it of Hengist, and as it is also told of Dido. 

The incidents of the "hero sleeping by a rill", of the guarded king'sdaughter, with her thirty attendants, the king's son keeping sheep, arepart of the regular stock incidents in European folk-tales. So are theNausicaa incident of the "king's daughter going a washing", the herodisguising himself as a woman and winding wool (like a second Heracles). 

There are a certain number of stories, which only occur in Saxo and inour other Northern sources with attributions, though they are of courselegendary; such are:

The "Everlasting Battle" between Hedhin and Hogne, a legend connectedwith the great Brisinga-men story, and paralleled by the Cordelia-taleamong the Britons. 

The story of the "Children preserved" is not very clearly told, andSaxo seems to have euhemerized. It is evidently of the same type as theLionel-Lancelot story in the Arthurian cycle. Two children, ordered tobe killed, are saved by the slaying of other children in their place;and afterwards by their being kept and named as dogs; they come to theirown and avenge their wrongs. 

The "Journey to Hell" story is told of Eric, who goes to a far land tofetch a princess back, and is successful. It is apparently an adventureof Swipdag, if everyone had their rights. It is also told of Thorkill, whose adventures are rather of the "True Thomas" type. 

The "Test of Endurance" by sitting between fires, and the relief of thetortured and patient hero by a kindly trick, is a variant of the famousEddic Lays concerning Agnar. 

The "Robbers of the Island", evidently comes from an Icelandic source(cf. The historic "Holmveria Saga" and Icelandic folk-tales of laterdate), the incident of the hero slaying his slave, that the body mightbe mistaken for his, is archaic in tone; the powerful horse recallsGrani, Bayard, and even Sleipner; the dog which had once belonged toUnfoot (Ofote), the giant shepherd (cf. Its analogues in old Welshtales), is not quite assimilated or properly used in this story. It seems (as Dr. Rydberg suspects) a mythical story coloured by theIcelandic relater with memory full of the robber-hands of his own land. 

The stratagem of "Starcad", who tried even in death to slay his slayer, seems an integral part of the Starcad story; as much as the doom ofthree crimes which are to be the price for the threefold life that atriple man or giant should enjoy. The noose story in Starcad (cf. Thattold of Bicce in the Eormenric story), is also integral. 

SAXO'S MYTHOLOGY. 

No one has commented upon Saxo's mythology with such brilliancy, suchminute consideration, and such success as the Swedish scholar, VictorRydberg. More than occasionally he is over-ingenious and over-anxious toreduce chaos to order; sometimes he almost loses his faithful reader inthe maze he treads so easily and confidently, and sometimes he stumblesbadly. But he has placed the whole subject on a fresh footing, and muchthat is to follow will be drawn from his "Teutonic Mythology" (citedhere from the English version by Rasmus B. Anderson, London, 1889, as"T. M. "). 

Let us take first some of the incontestable results of hisinvestigations that affect Saxo. 

SCIOLD is the father of Gram in Saxo, and the son of Sceaf in otherolder authorities. Dr. Rydberg (97-101) forms the following equationsfor the Sciolding patriarchs:--

 a. Scef--Heimdal--Rig. B. Sciold--Borgar--Jarl. C. Gram--Halfdan--Koming. 

Chief among the mythic tales that concern Saxo are the various portionsof the Swipdag-Myth, which Dr. Rydberg has been able to complete withmuch success. They may be resumed briefly as follows:--

Swipdag, helped by the incantations of his dead mother, whom he hadraised from the dead to teach him spells of protection, sets forth onhis quests. He is the Odusseus of the Teutonic mythology. He desires toavenge his father on Halfdan that slew him. To this end he must have aweapon of might against Halfdan's club. The Moon-god tells him of theblade Thiasse has forged. It has been stolen by Mimer, who has gone outinto the cold wilderness on the rim of the world. Swipdag achieves thesword, and defeats and slays Halfdan. He now buys a wife, Menglad, ofher kinsmen the gods by the gift of the sword, which thus passes intoFrey's hands. 

How he established a claim upon Frey, and who Menglad was, is explainedin Saxo's story of Eric, where the characters may be identified thus:--

 Swipdag--Eric Freya--Gunwara Frey--Frode III Niord--Fridlaf Wuldor--Roller Thor--Brac Giants--The Greps Giants--Coller. 

Frey and Freya had been carried off by the giants, and Swipdag and hisfaithful friend resolve to get them back for the Anses, who bewail theirabsence. They journey to Monster-land, win back the lady, who ultimatelyis to become the hero's wife, and return her to her kindred; but herbrother can only be rescued by his father Niord. It is by wit ratherthan by force that Swipdag is successful here. 

The third journey of Swipdag is undertaken on Frey's behalf; he goesunder the name of Scirner to woo giant Gymer's daughter Gerth for hisbrother-in-law, buying her with the sword that he himself had paid toFrey as his sister's bride-price. So the sword gets back to the giantsagain. 

Swipdag's dead foe Halfdan left two young "avengers", Hadding andGuthorm, whom he seeks to slay. But Thor-Brache gives them in chargeof two giant brothers. Wainhead took care of Hadding, Hafle of Guthorm. Swipdag made peace with Guthorm, in a way not fully explained to us, butHadding took up the blood-feud as soon as he was old enough. 

Hadding was befriended by a woman, who took him to the Underworld--thestory is only half told in Saxo, unluckily--and by Woden, who took himover-sea wrapt in his mantle as they rode Sleipner over the waves; buthere again Saxo either had not the whole story before him, or he wishedto abridge it for some reason or prejudice, and the only result of thisastonishing pilgrimage is that Woden gives the young hero some usefulcounsels. He falls into captivity, entrapped by Loke (for what reasonagain we are left to guess), and is exposed to wild beasts, but he slaysthe wolf that attacks him, and eating its heart as Woden had bidden him, he gains wisdom and foresight. 

Prepared by these adventures, he gets Guthorm to join him (how or whythe peace between him and Swipdag was broken, we know not), and theyattack their father's slayer, but are defeated, though Woden sunk AsmundSwipdag's son's ship, Grio, at Hlessey, and Wainhead and Hardgrip hisdaughter fought for Hadding. 

Hadding wanders off to the East with his foster-sister and mistress andHardgrip, who is slain protecting him against an angry ghost raised fromthe Underworld by her spells. However, helped by Heimdal and Woden (whoat this time was an exile), Hadding's ultimate success is assured. 

When Woden came back to power, Swipdag, whose violence and pride grewhorribly upon him, was exiled, possibly by some device of his foes, and took upon him, whether by will or doom, a sea-monster's shape. Hisfaithful wife follows him over land and sea, but is not able to savehim. He is met by Hadding and, after a fierce fight, slain. Swipdag'swife cursed the conqueror, and he was obliged to institute an annualsacrifice to Frey (her brother) at Upsale, who annuls the curse. Loke, in seal's guise, tried to steal the necklace of Freya at the Reef ofTreasures, where Swipdag was slain, but Haimdal, also in sealskin, fought him, and recovered it for the gods. 

Other myths having reference to the goddesses appear in Saxo. There isthe story of "Heimdall and Sol", which Dr. Rydberg has recognised in thetale of Alf and Alfhild. The same tale of how the god won the sun forhis wife appears in the mediaeval German King Ruther (in which title Dr. Ryuberg sees Hrutr, a name of the ram-headed god). 

The story of "Othar" (Od) and "Syritha" (Sigrid) is obviously that ofFreya and her lover. She has been stolen by the giants, owing to thewiles of her waiting-maid, Loke's helper, the evil witch Angrbode. Odseeks her, finds her, slays the evil giant who keeps her in the cave;but she is still bewitched, her hair knotted into a hard, horny mass, her eyes void of brightness. Unable to gain recognition he lets her go, and she is made by a giantess to herd her flocks. Again found by Od, andagain refusing to recognise him, she is let go again. But this timeshe flies to the world of men, and takes service with Od's mother andfather. Here, after a trial of her love, she and Od are reconciled. Sywald (Sigwald), her father, weds Od's sister. 

The tale of the vengeance of Balder is more clearly given by the Dane, and with a comic force that recalls the Aristophanic fun of Loka-senna. It appears that the story had a sequel which only Saxo gives. Wodenhad the giantess Angrbode, who stole Freya, punished. Frey, whosemother-in-law she was, took up her quarrel, and accusing Woden ofsorcery and dressing up like a woman to betray Wrind, got him banished. While in exile Wuldor takes Woden's place and name, and Woden lives onearth, part of the time at least, with Scathe Thiasse's daughter, whohad parted from Niord. 

The giants now resolved to attack Ansegard; and Woden, under the name ofYggr, warned the gods, who recall him after ten years' exile. 

But for Saxo this part of the story of the wars of the gods would bevery fragmentary. 

The "Hildiger story", where a father slays his son unwittingly, andthen falls at his brother's hand, a tale combining the Rustam andthe Balin-Balan types, is one of the Hilding tragedies, and curiouslypreserved in the late "Saga of Asmund the Champions' bane". It is anantithesis, as Dr. Rydberg remarks, to the Hildebrand and Hadubrandstory, where father and son must fight and are reconciled. 

The "story of Orwandel" (the analogue of Orion the Hunter) must begathered chiefly from the prose Edda. He was a huntsman, big enough andbrave enough to cope with giants. He was the friend of Thor, the husbandof Groa, the father of Swipdag, the enemy of giant Coller and themonster Sela. The story of his birth, and of his being blinded, arelost apparently in the Teutonic stories, unless we may suppose that thebleeding of Robin Hood till he could not see by the traitorous prioressis the last remains of the story of the great archer's death. 

Great part of the troubles which befell the gods arose from theantagonism of the sons of Iwalde and the brethren Sindre and Brokk(Cinder and Brank), rival artist families; and it was owing to theretirement of their artist foster-parents that Frey and Freya were leftamong the giants. The Hniflung hoard is also supposed to have consistedof the treasures of one band of primaeval artists, the Iwaldings. 

Whether we have here the phenomenon of mythological doublets belongingto different tribes, or whether we have already among these early namesthat descent of story which has led to an adventure of Moses beingattributed to Garibaldi, given to Theodoric the king the adventuresof Theodoric the god, taken Arthur to Rome, and Charles the Great toConstantinople, it is hard to say. 

The skeleton-key of identification, used even as ably as Dr. Rydberguses it, will not pick every mythologic lock, though it undoubtedly hasopened many hitherto closed. The truth is that man is a finite animal;that he has a limited number of types of legend; that these legends, aslong as they live and exist, are excessively prehensile; that, like theopossum, they can swing from tree to tree without falling; as one treedies out of memory they pass on to another. When they are scared awayby what is called exact intelligence from the tall forest of greatpersonalities, they contrive to live humbly clinging to such bare plainstocks and poles (Tis and Jack and Cinderella) as enable them to find aprecarious perch. 

To drop similitudes, we must be prepared, in unravelling our tangledmythology, to go through several processes. We must, of course, note theparallelisms and get back to the earliest attribution-names we can find. But all system is of late creation, it does not begin till a certainpolitical stage, a stage where the myths of coalescing clans come intocontact, and an official settlement is attempted by some school ofpoets or priests. Moreover, systematization is never so complete that iteffaces all the earlier state of things. Behind the official systems ofHomer and Hesiod lies the actual chaos of local faiths preserved for usby Pausanias and other mythographers. The common factors in the variouslocal faiths are much the majority among the factors they each possess;and many of these common factors are exceedingly primitive, and resolvethemselves into answers to the questions that children still ask, stillreceiving no answer but myth--that is, poetic and subjective hypothesis, containing as much truth as they can receive or their inventors cangrasp. 

Who were our forbears? How did day and night, sun and moon, earth andwater, and fire come? How did the animals come? Why has the bear notail? Why are fishes dumb, the swallow cleft-tail? How did evil come?Why did men begin to quarrel? How did death arise? What will the end be?Why do dead persons come back? What do the dead do? What is the earthshaped like? Who invented tools and weapons, and musical instruments, and how? When did kings and chiefs first come?

From accepted answers to such questions most of the huge mass ofmythology arises. Man makes his gods in his own image, and the doctrinesof omen, coincidence, and correspondence helped by incessant andimperfect observation and logic, bring about a system of religiousobservance, of magic and ritual, and all the masses of folly andcruelty, hope and faith, and even charity, that group about theirinventions, and seem to be the necessary steps in the onward path ofprogressive races. 

When to these we add the true and exaggerated memories of actual heroes, the material before the student is pretty completely comprised. Thoughhe must be prepared to meet the difficulties caused in the contact ofraces, of civilisations, by the conversion of persons holding one set ofmythical ideas to belief in another set of different, more attractive, and often more advanced stage. 

The task of arriving at the scientific, speculative ethic, and theactual practice of our remote ancestry (for to that end is the studentof mythology and folk-lore aiming) is not therefore easy. Nor is therecord perfect, though it is not so poor in most cases as was oncebelieved. The Brothers Grimm, patriarchs alike as mythologists andfolk-lorists, the Castor and Pollox of our studies, have proved this asregards the Teutonic nations, just as they showed us, by many a strikingexample, that in great part folk-lore was the mythology of to-day, andmythology the folk-lore of yesterday. 

In many cases we are helped by quite modern material to make out somepuzzle that an old tale presents, and there is little doubt but that thepresent activity in the field of folklore will not only result in freshmatter but in fresh methods freshly applied. 

The Scandinavian material, at all events, is particularly rich: there isthe extensive Icelandic written literature touching the ninth andtenth and eleventh centuries; the noble, if fragmentary remains of OldNorthern poetry of the Wickingtide; and lastly, the mass of traditionwhich, surviving in oral form, and changing in colour from generation togeneration, was first recorded in part in the seventeenth, and again inpart, in the present century; and all these yield a plentiful field forresearch. But their evidence gains immensely by the existence of Saxo'snine books of traditional and mythic lore, collected and written down inan age when much that was antique and heathen was passing away forever. The gratitude due to the Welshman of the twelfth century, whose garneredhoard has enriched so many poets and romances from his day to now, isno less due to the twelfth-century Dane, whose faithful and eloquententhusiasm has swept much dust from antique time, and saved us such astory as Shakespeare has not disdained to consecrate to highest use. Notonly Celtic and Teutonic lore are the richer for these two men, butthe whole Western world of thought and speech. In the history of modernliterature, it is but right that by the side of Geoffrey an honourableplace should be maintained for Saxo, and

"awake remembrance of these mighty dead. "

--Oliver Elton

 ENDNOTES: (1) A horn and a tusk of great size are described as things of price, and great uroch's horns are mentioned in Thorkill's Second Journey. Horns were used for feast as well as fray. (2) Such bird-beaked, bird-legged figures occur on the Cross at Papil, Burra Island, Shetland. Cf. Abbey Morne Cross, and an Onchan Cross, Isle of Man. 

THE DANISH HISTORY OF SAXO GRAMMATICUS. 

PREFACE. 

Forasmuch as all other nations are wont to vaunt the glory of theirachievements, and reap joy from the remembrance of their forefathers:Absalon, Chief Pontiff of the Danes, whose zeal ever burned high for theglorification of our land, and who would not suffer it to bedefrauded of like renown and record, cast upon me, the least of hisfollowers--since all the rest refused the task--the work of compilinginto a chronicle the history of Denmark, and by the authority of hisconstant admonition spurred my weak faculty to enter on a labour tooheavy for its strength. For who could write a record of the deeds ofDenmark? It had but lately been admitted to the common faith: it stilllanguished as strange to Latin as to religion. But now that the holyritual brought also the command of the Latin tongue, men were asslothful now as they were unskilled before, and their sluggishnessproved as faultful as that former neediness. Thus it came about that mylowliness, though perceiving itself too feeble for the aforesaid burden, yet chose rather to strain beyond its strength than to resist hisbidding; fearing that while our neighbours rejoiced and transmittedrecords of their deeds, the repute of our own people might appear notto possess any written chronicle, but rather to be sunk in oblivion andantiquity. Thus I, forced to put my shoulder, which was unused to thetask, to a burden unfamiliar to all authors of preceding time, and dreading to slight his command, have obeyed more boldly thaneffectually, borrowing from the greatness of my admonisher that goodheart which the weakness of my own wit denied me. 

And since, ere my enterprise reached its goal, his death outran it; Ientreat thee chiefly, Andrew, who wast chosen by a most wholesome andaccordant vote to be successor in the same office and to headship ofspiritual things, to direct and inspire my theme; that I may baulk bythe defence of so great an advocate that spiteful detraction whichever reviles what is most conspicuous. For thy breast, very fruitful inknowledge, and covered with great store of worshipful doctrines, is tobe deemed a kind of shrine of heavenly treasures. Thou who hast searchedthrough Gaul and Italy and Britain also in order to gather knowledge ofletters and amass them abundantly, didst after thy long wandering obtaina most illustrious post in a foreign school, and proved such a pillarthereof, that thou seemedst to confer more grace on thy degree than itdid on thee. Then being made, on account of the height of thy honoursand the desert of thy virtues, Secretary to the King, thou didst adornthat employment, in itself bounded and insignificant, with such works ofwisdom as to leave it a piece of promotion for men of greatest rank tocovet afterwards, when thou wert transferred to that office which nowthou holdest. Wherefore Skaane has been found to leap for joy that shehas borrowed a Pontiff from her neighbours rather than chosen one fromher own people; inasmuch as she both elected nobly and deserved joy ofher election. Being a shining light, therefore, in lineage, in letters, and in parts, and guiding the people with the most fruitful labours ofthy teaching, thou hast won the deepest love of thy flock, and by thyboldness in thy famous administration hast conducted the service thouhast undertaken unto the summit of renown. And lest thou shouldst seemto acquire ownership on the strength of prescription, thou hast, bya pious and bountiful will, made over a very rich inheritance to HolyChurch; choosing rather honourably to reject riches (which are coveredwith the rust of cares) than to be shackled with the greed of them andwith their burden. Likewise thou hast set about an amazing work uponthe reverend tenets of the faith; and in thy zeal to set the service ofpublic religion before thy private concerns, hast, by the lesson of thywholesome admonitions, driven those men who refused payment of the duesbelonging to religion to do to holy things the homage that they ought;and by thy pious gift of treasure hast atoned for the ancient neglect ofsacred buildings. Further, those who pursued a wanton life, and yieldedto the stress of incontinence above measure, thou hast redeemed fromnerveless sloth to a more upright state of mind, partly by continuinginstant in wholesome reproof, and partly by the noble example of simpleliving; leaving it in doubt whether thou hast edified them more by wordor deed. Thus thou, by mere counsels of wisdom, hast achieved what itwas not granted to any of thy forerunners to obtain. 

And I would not have it forgotten that the more ancient of the Danes, when any notable deeds of mettle had been done, were filled withemulation of glory, and imitated the Roman style; not only by relatingin a choice kind of composition, which might be called a poetical work, the roll of their lordly deeds; but also by having graven upon rocksand cliffs, in the characters of their own language, the works of theirforefathers, which were commonly known in poems in the mother tongue. In the footsteps of these poems, being as it were classic books ofantiquity, I have trod; and keeping true step with them as I translated, in the endeavour to preserve their drift, I have taken care to renderverses by verses; so that the chronicle of what I shall have towrite, being founded upon these, may thus be known, not for a modernfabrication, but for the utterance of antiquity; since this present workpromises not a trumpery dazzle of language, but faithful informationconcerning times past. 

Moreover, how many histories must we suppose that men of such geniuswould have written, could they have had skill in Latin and so slakedtheir thirst for writing! Men who though they lacked acquaintance with, the speech of Rome, were yet seized with such a passion for bequeathingsome record of their history, that they encompassed huge bouldersinstead of scrolls, borrowing rocks for the usage of books. 

Nor may the pains of the men of Thule be blotted in oblivion; for thoughthey lack all that can foster luxury (so naturally barren is thesoil), yet they make up for their neediness by their wit, by keepingcontinually every observance of soberness, and devoting every instantof their lives to perfecting our knowledge of the deeds of foreigners. Indeed, they account it a delight to learn and to consign to remembrancethe history of all nations, deeming it as great a glory to set forth theexcellences of others as to display their own. Their stores, which arestocked with attestations of historical events, I have examined somewhatclosely, and have woven together no small portion of the present work byfollowing their narrative, not despising the judgment of men whom I knowto be so well versed in the knowledge of antiquity. And I have takenequal care to follow the statements of Absalon, and with obedient mindand pen to include both his own doings and other men's doings of whichhe learnt; treasuring the witness of his August narrative as though itwere some teaching from the skies. 

Wherefore, Waldemar, (1) healthful Prince and Father of us all, shininglight of thy land, whose lineage, most glorious from times of old, I amto relate, I beseech thee let thy grace attend the faltering course ofthis work; for I am fettered under the weight of my purpose, and dreadthat I may rather expose my unskillfulness and the feebleness of myparts, than portray thy descent as I duly should. For, not to speak ofthy rich inheritance from thy fathers, thou hast nobly increased thyrealm by conquering thy neighbours, and in the toil of spreading thysovereignty hast encompassed the ebbing and flowing waves of Elbe, thusadding to thy crowded roll of honours no mean portion of fame. And afteroutstripping the renown and repute of thy forerunners by the greatnessof thy deeds, thou didst not forbear to make armed, assault even uponpart of the Roman empire. And though thou art deemed to be well endowedwith courage and generosity, thou hast left it in doubt whether thoudost more terrify to thy foes in warfare or melt thy people by thymildness. Also thy most illustrious grandsire, who was sanctioned withthe honours of public worship, and earned the glory of immortality byan unmerited death, now dazzles by the refulgence of his holiness thosewhom living he annexed in his conquests. And from his most holy woundsmore virtue than blood hath flowed. 

Moreover I, bound by an old and inherited duty of obedience, have setmy heart on fighting for thee, if it be only with all the forces ofmy mind; my father and grandfather being known to have served thyillustrious sire in camp with loyal endurance of the toils of war. Relying therefore on thy guidance and regard, I have resolved to beginwith the position and configuration of our own country; for I shallrelate all things as they come more vividly, if the course of thishistory first traverse the places to which the events belong, and taketheir situation as the starting-point for its narrative. 

The extremes, then, of this country are partly bounded by a frontier ofanother land, and partly enclosed by the waters of the adjacent sea. Theinterior is washed and encompassed by the ocean; and this, through thecircuitous winds of the interstices, now straitens into the narrows of afirth, now advances into ampler bays, forming a number of islands. HenceDenmark is cut in pieces by the intervening waves of ocean, and has butfew portions of firm and continuous territory; these being dividedby the mass of waters that break them up, in ways varying with thedifferent angle of the bend of the sea. Of all these, Jutland, being thelargest and first settled, holds the chief place in the Danish kingdom. It both lies fore-most and stretches furthest, reaching to the frontiersof Teutonland, from contact with which it is severed by the bed of theriver Eyder. Northwards it swells somewhat in breadth, and runs out tothe shore of the Noric Channel (Skagerrak). In this part is to be foundthe fjord called Liim, which is so full of fish that it seems to yieldthe natives as much food as the whole soil. 

Close by this fjord also lies Lesser (North) Friesland, which curves infrom the promontory of Jutland in a cove of sinking plains and shelvinglap, and by the favour of the flooding ocean yields immense crops ofgrain. But whether this violent inundation bring the inhabitants moreprofit or peril, remains a vexed question. For when the (dykes of the)estuaries, whereby the waves of the sea are commonly checked among thatpeople, are broken through by the greatness of the storm, such a massof waters is wont to overrun the fields that it sometimes overwhelms notonly the tilled lands, but people and their dwellings likewise. 

Eastwards, after Jutland, comes the Isle of Funen, cut off from themainland by a very narrow sound of sea. This faces Jutland on the west, and on the east Zealand, which is famed for its remarkable richnessin the necessaries of life. This latter island, being by far the mostdelightful of all the provinces of our country, is held to occupy theheart of Denmark, being divided by equal distances from the extremefrontier; on its eastern side the sea breaks through and cuts offthe western side of Skaane; and this sea commonly yields each year anabundant haul to the nets of the fishers. Indeed, the whole sound is aptto be so thronged with fish that any craft which strikes on them is withdifficulty got off by hard rowing, and the prize is captured no longerby tackle, but by simple use of the hands. 

Moreover, Halland and Bleking, shooting forth from the mass of theSkaane like two branches from a parent trunk, are linked to Gothland andto Norway, though with wide deviations of course, and with variousgaps consisting of fjords. Now in Bleking is to be seen a rock whichtravellers can visit, dotted with letters in a strange character. Forthere stretches from the southern sea into the desert of Vaarnsland aroad of rock, contained between two lines a little way apart and veryprolonged, between which is visible in the midst a level space, gravenall over with characters made to be read. And though this lies sounevenly as sometimes to break through the tops of the hills, sometimesto pass along the valley bottoms, yet it can be discerned to preservecontinuous traces of the characters. Now Waldemar, well-starred son ofholy Canute, marvelled at these, and desired to know their purport, andsent men to go along the rock and gather with close search the series ofthe characters that were to be seen there; they were then to denote themwith certain marks, using letters of similar shape. These men could notgather any sort of interpretation of them, because owing to the hollowspace of the graving being partly smeared up with mud and partly worn bythe feet of travellers in the trampling of the road, the long line thathad been drawn became blurred. Hence it is plain that crevices, even inthe solid rock, if long drenched with wet, become choked either by thesolid washings of dirt or the moistening drip of showers. 

But since this country, by its closeness of language as much as ofposition, includes Sweden and Norway, I will record their divisions andtheir climates also as I have those of Denmark. These territories, lyingunder the northern pole, and facing Bootes and the Great Bear, reachwith their utmost outlying parts the latitude of the freezing zone; andbeyond these the extraordinary sharpness of the cold suffers not humanhabitation. Of these two, Norway has been allotted by the choice ofnature a forbidding rocky site. Craggy and barren, it is beset allaround by cliffs, and the huge desolate boulders give it the aspect ofa rugged and a gloomy land; in its furthest part the day-star is nothidden even by night; so that the sun, scorning the vicissitudes of dayand night, ministers in unbroken presence an equal share of his radianceto either season. 

On the west of Norway comes the island called Iceland, with the mightyocean washing round it: a land very squalid to dwell in, but noteworthyfor marvels, both strange occurrences and objects that pass belief. Aspring is there which, by the malignant reek of its water, destroys theoriginal nature of anything whatsoever. Indeed, all that is sprinkledwith the breath of its vapour is changed into the hardness of stone. It remains a doubt whether it be more marvellous or more perilous, thatsoft and flowing water should be invested with such a stiffness, as by asudden change to transmute into the nature of stone whatsoever is put toit and drenched with its reeking fume, nought but the shape surviving. Here also are said to be other springs, which now are fed with floodsof rising water, and, overflowing in full channels, cast a mass of sprayupwards; and now again their bubbling flags, and they can scarce beseen below at the bottom, and are swallowed into deep hiding far underground. Hence, when they are gushing over, they bespatter everythingabout them with the white spume, but when they are spent the sharpesteye cannot discern them. In this island there is likewise a mountain, whose floods of incessant fire make it look like a glowing rock, andwhich, by belching out flames, keeps its crest in an everlasting blaze. This thing awakens our wonder as much as those aforesaid; namely, whena land lying close to the extreme of cold can have such abundance ofmatter to keep up the heat, as to furnish eternal fires with unseenfuel, and supply an endless provocative to feed the burning. To thisisle also, at fixed and appointed seasons, there drifts a boundless massof ice, and when it approaches and begins to dash upon the rugged reefs, then, just as if the cliffs rang reply, there is heard from the deep aroar of voices and a changing din of extraordinary clamour. Whence itis supposed that spirits, doomed to torture for the iniquity of theirguilty life, do here pay, by that bitter cold, the penalty of theirsins. And so any portion of this mass that is cut off when the aforesaidice breaks away from the land, soon slips its bonds and bars, though itbe made fast with ever so great joins and knots. The mind stands dazedin wonder, that a thing which is covered with bolts past picking, andshut in by manifold and intricate barriers, should so depart after thatmass whereof it was a portion, as by its enforced and inevitable flightto baffle the wariest watching. There also, set among the ridgesand crags of the mountains, is another kind of ice which is knownperiodically to change and in a way reverse its position, the upperparts sinking to the bottom, and the lower again returning to the top. For proof of this story it is told that certain men, while they chancedto be running over the level of ice, rolled into the abyss before them, and into the depths of the yawning crevasses, and were a little laterpicked up dead without the smallest chink of ice above them. Hence itis common for many to imagine that the urn of the sling of ice firstswallows them, and then a little after turns upside down and restoresthem. Here also, is reported to bubble up the water of a pestilentflood, which if a man taste, he falls struck as though by poison. Alsothere are other springs, whose gushing waters are said to resemble thequality of the bowl of Ceres. There are also fires, which, though theycannot consume linen, yet devour so fluent a thing as water. Alsothere is a rock, which flies over mountain-steeps, not from any outwardimpulse, but of its innate and proper motion. 

And now to unfold somewhat more thoroughly our delineation of Norway. It should be known that on the east it is conterminous with Sweden andGothland, and is bounded on both sides by the waters of the neighbouringocean. Also on the north it faces a region whose position and name areunknown, and which lacks all civilisation, but teems with peoples ofmonstrous strangeness; and a vast interspace of flowing sea severs itfrom the portion of Norway opposite. This sea is found hazardous fornavigation, and suffers few that venture thereon to return in peace. 

Moreover, the upper bend of the ocean, which cuts through Denmark andflows past it, washes the southern side of Gothland with a gulf of somewidth; while its lower channel, passing the northern sides of Gothlandand Norway, turns eastwards, widening much in breadth, and is boundedby a curve of firm land. This limit of the sea the elders of our racecalled Grandvik. Thus between Grandvik and the Southern Sea there liesa short span of mainland, facing the seas that wash on either shore;and but that nature had set this as a boundary where the billows almostmeet, the tides of the two seas would have flowed into one, and cut offSweden and Norway into an island. The regions on the east of theselands are inhabited by the Skric-Finns. This people is used to anextraordinary kind of carriage, and in its passion for the chase strivesto climb untrodden mountains, and attains the coveted ground at the costof a slippery circuit. For no crag juts out so high, but they can reachits crest by fetching a cunning compass. For when they first leave thedeep valleys, they glide twisting and circling among the bases of therocks, thus making the route very roundabout by dint of continuallyswerving aside, until, passing along the winding curves of the tracks, they conquer the appointed summit. This same people is wont to use theskins of certain beasts for merchandise with its neighbours. 

Now Sweden faces Denmark and Norway on the west, but on the south and onmuch of its eastern side it is skirted by the ocean. Past this eastwardis to be found a vast accumulation of motley barbarism. 

That the country of Denmark was once cultivated and worked by giants, isattested by the enormous stones attached to the barrows and caves ofthe ancients. Should any man question that this is accomplished bysuperhuman force, let him look up at the tops of certain mountains andsay, if he knows how, what man hath carried such immense boulders up totheir crests. For anyone considering this marvel will mark that it isinconceivable how a mass, hardly at all or but with difficulty movableupon a level, could have been raised to so mighty a peak of so loftya mountain by mere human effort, or by the ordinary exertion of humanstrength. But as to whether, after the Deluge went forth, there existedgiants who could do such deeds, or men endowed beyond others with bodilyforce, there is scant tradition to tell us. 

But, as our countrymen aver, those who even to-day are said to dwellin that rugged and inaccessible desert aforesaid, are, by the mutablenature of their bodies, vouchsafed the power of being now near, now far, and of appearing and vanishing in turn. The approach to this desert isbeset with perils of a fearful kind, and has seldom granted to thosewho attempted it an unscathed return. Now I will let my pen pass to mytheme. 

 ENDNOTES: (1) Waldemar the Second (1203-42); Saxo does not reach his history. 

BOOK ONE. 

Now Dan and Angul, with whom the stock of the Danes begins, werebegotten of Humble, their father, and were the governors and notonly the founders of our race. (Yet Dudo, the historian of Normandy, considers that the Danes are sprung and named from the Danai. ) And thesetwo men, though by the wish and favour of their country they gainedthe lordship of the realm, and, owing to the wondrous deserts oftheir bravery, got the supreme power by the consenting voice of theircountrymen, yet lived without the name of king: the usage whereof wasnot then commonly resorted to by any authority among our people. 

Of these two, Angul, the fountain, so runs the tradition, of thebeginnings of the Anglian race, caused his name to be applied to thedistrict which he ruled. This was an easy kind of memorial wherewithto immortalise his fame: for his successors a little later, when theygained possession of Britain, changed the original name of the islandfor a fresh title, that of their own land. This action was much thoughtof by the ancients: witness Bede, no mean figure among the writers ofthe Church, who was a native of England, and made it his care to embodythe doings of his country in the most hallowed treasury of his pages;deeming it equally a religious duty to glorify in writing the deeds ofhis land, and to chronicle the history of the Church. 

From Dan, however, so saith antiquity; the pedigrees of our kingshave flowed in glorious series, like channels from some parent spring. Grytha, a matron most highly revered among the Teutons, bore him twosons, HUMBLE and LOTHER. 

The ancients, when they were to choose a king, were wont to stand onstones planted in the ground, and to proclaim their votes, in order toforeshadow from the steadfastness of the stones that the deed would belasting. By this ceremony Humble was elected king at his father's death, thus winning a novel favour from his country; but by the malice ofensuing fate he fell from a king into a common man. For he was taken byLother in war, and bought his life by yielding up his crown; such, intruth, were the only terms of escape offered him in his defeat. Forced, therefore, by the injustice of a brother to lay down his sovereignty, hefurnished the lesson to mankind, that there is less safety, though morepomp, in the palace than in the cottage. Also, he bore his wrong someekly that he seemed to rejoice at his loss of title as though it werea blessing; and I think he had a shrewd sense of the quality of a king'sestate. But Lother played the king as insupportably as he had played thesoldier, inaugurating his reign straightway with arrogance and crime;for he counted it uprightness to strip all the most eminent of life orgoods, and to clear his country of its loyal citizens, thinking all hisequals in birth his rivals for the crown. He was soon chastised for hiswickedness; for he met his end in an insurrection of his country; whichhad once bestowed on him his kingdom, and now bereft him of his life. 

SKIOLD, his son, inherited his natural bent, but not his behaviour;avoiding his inborn perversity by great discretion in his tender years, and thus escaping all traces of his father's taint. So he appropriatedwhat was alike the more excellent and the earlier share of the familycharacter; for he wisely departed from his father's sins, and became ahappy counterpart of his grandsire's virtues. This man was famous in hisyouth among the huntsmen of his father for his conquest of a monstrousbeast: a marvellous incident, which augured his future prowess. For hechanced to obtain leave from his guardians, who were rearing him verycarefully, to go and see the hunting. A bear of extraordinary sizemet him; he had no spear, but with the girdle that he commonly wore hecontrived to bind it, and gave it to his escort to kill. More thanthis, many champions of tried prowess were at the same time of his lifevanquished by him singly; of these Attal and Skat were renowned andfamous. While but fifteen years of age he was of unusual bodily sizeand displayed mortal strength in its perfection, and so mighty were theproofs of his powers that the rest of the kings of the Danes were calledafter him by a common title, the SKIOLDUNG'S. Those who were wont tolive an abandoned and flaccid life, and to sap their self-control bywantonness, this man vigilantly spurred to the practice of virtue inan active career. Thus the ripeness of Skiold's spirit outstrippedthe fulness of his strength, and he fought battles at which one of histender years could scarce look on. And as he thus waxed in years andvalour he beheld the perfect beauty of Alfhild, daughter of the King ofthe Saxons, sued for her hand, and, for her sake, in the sight of thearmies of the Teutons and the Danes, challenged and fought with Skat, governor of Allemannia, and a suitor for the same maiden; whom he slew, afterwards crushing the whole nation of the Allemannians, and forcingthem to pay tribute, they being subjugated by the death of theircaptain. Skiold was eminent for patriotism as well as arms. For heannulled unrighteous laws, and most heedfully executed whatsoever madefor the amendment of his country's condition. Further, he regained byhis virtue the realm that his father's wickedness had lost. He was thefirst to proclaim the law abolishing manumissions. A slave, to whom hehad chanced to grant his freedom, had attempted his life by stealthytreachery, and he exacted a bitter penalty; as though it were just thatthe guilt of one freedman should be visited upon all. He paid off allmen's debts from his own treasury, and contended, so to say, with allother monarchs in courage, bounty, and generous dealing. The sick heused to foster, and charitably gave medicines to those sore stricken;bearing witness that he had taken on him the care of his country and notof himself. He used to enrich his nobles not only with home taxes, butalso with plunder taken in war; being wont to aver that the prize-moneyshould flow to the soldiers, and the glory to the general. 

Thus delivered of his bitterest rival in wooing, he took as the prize ofcombat the maiden, for the love of whom he had fought, and wedded herin marriage. Soon after, he had by her a son, GRAM, whose wondrous partssavoured so strongly of his father's virtues that he was deemed to treadin their very footsteps. The days of Gram's youth were enriched withsurpassing gifts of mind and body, and he raised them to the crest ofrenown. Posterity did such homage to his greatness that in the mostancient poems of the Danes royal dignity is implied in his very name. He practiced with the most zealous training whatsoever serves to sharpenand strengthen the bodily powers. Taught by the fencers, he trainedhimself by sedulous practice to parrying and dealing blows. He took towife the daughter of his upbringer, Roar, she being his foster-sisterand of his own years, in order the better to show his gratefulness forhis nursing. A little while after he gave her in marriage to a certainBess, since he had ofttimes used his strenuous service. In this partnerof his warlike deeds he put his trust; and he has left it a questionwhether he has won more renown by Bess's valour or his own. 

Gram, chancing to hear that Groa, daughter of Sigtryg, King of theSwedes, was plighted to a certain giant, and holding accursed an unionso unworthy of the blood royal, entered on a Swedish war; beingdestined to emulate the prowess of Hercules in resisting the attempts ofmonsters. He went into Gothland, and, in order to frighten people out ofhis path, strode on clad in goats' skins, swathed in the motley hides ofbeasts, and grasping in his right hand a dreadful weapon, thus feigningthe attire of a giant; when he met Groa herself riding with a verysmall escort of women on foot, and making her way, as it chanced, to theforest-pools to bathe, she thought it was her betrothed who had hastenedto meet her, and was scared with feminine alarm at so strange a garb:so, flinging up the reins, and shaking terribly all over, she began inthe song of her country, thus:

"I see that a giant, hated of the king, has come, and darkens thehighways with his stride. Or my eyes play me false; for it has oftbefallen bold warriors to skulk behind the skin of a beast. "

Then began Bess: "Maiden, seated on the shoulders of the steed, tell me, pouring forth in thy turn words of answer, what is thy name, and of whatline art thou born?"

Groa replied: "Groa is my name; my sire is a king, glorious in blood, gleaming in armour. Disclose to us, thou also, who thou art, or whencesprung!"

To whom Bess: "I am Bess, brave in battle, ruthless to foes, a terror tonations, and oft drenching my right hand in the blood of foes. "

Then said Groa: "Who, prithee, commands your lines? Under what captainraise ye the war-standards? What prince controls the battle? Under whoseguidance is the war made ready?"

Bess in answer: "Gram, the blest in battle, rules the array: force norfear can swerve him; flaming pyre and cruel sword and ocean billow havenever made him afraid. Led by him, maiden, we raise the golden standardsof war. "

Groa once more: "Turn your feet and go back hence, lest Sigtryg vanquishyou all with his own array, and fasten you to a cruel stake, yourthroats haltered with the cord, and doom your carcases to the stiffnoose, and, glaring evilly, thrust out your corpses to the hungryraven. "

Bess again: "Gram, ere he shall shut his own eyes in death, shall firstmake him a ghost, and, smiting him on the crest, shall send him toTartarus. We fear no camp of the Swedes. Why threaten us with ghastlydooms, maiden?"

Groa answered him: "Behold, I will ride thence to see again the roof ofmy father which I know, that I may not rashly set eyes on the array ofmy brother who is coming. And I pray that your death-doom may tarry foryou who abide. "

Bess replied: "Daughter, to thy father go back with good cheer; norimprecate swift death upon us, nor let choler shake thy bosom. For oftenhas a woman, harsh at first and hard to a wooer, yielded the secondtime. "

Whereupon Gram could brook no longer to be silent, and pitching histones gruffly, so as to mimic a gruesome and superhuman voice, accostedthe maiden thus:

"Let not the maiden fear the brother of the fleet giant, nor turn palebecause I am nigh her. For I am sent by Grip, and never seek the couchand embrace of damsels save when their wish matches mine. "

Groa answered: "Who so mad as to wish to be the leman of giants? Or whatwoman could love the bed that genders monsters? Who could be the wifeof demons, and know the seed whose fruit is monstrous? Or who would fainshare her couch with a barbarous giant? Who caresses thorns with herfingers? Who would mingle honest kisses with mire? Who would uniteshaggy limbs to smooth ones which correspond not? Full ease of lovecannot be taken when nature cries out against it: nor doth the lovecustomary in the use of women sort with monsters. "

Gram rejoined: "Oft with conquering hand I have tamed the necks ofmighty kings, defeating with stronger arm their insolent pride. Thencetake red-glowing gold, that the troth may be made firm by the gift, andthat the faith to be brought to our wedlock may stand fast. "

Thus speaking, he cast off his disguises, and revealed his naturalcomeliness; and by a single sight of him he filled the damsel withwell-nigh as much joy as he had struck her with fear before at hiscounterfeit. She was even incited to his embraces by the splendour ofhis beauty; nor did he fail to offer her the gifts of love. 

Having won Groa, Bess proceeded and learnt that the road was besetby two robbers. These he slew simply by charging them as they rushedcovetously forth to despoil him. This done, loth to seem to have doneany service to the soil of an enemy, he put timbers under the carcasesof the slain, fastened them thereto, and stretched them so as tocounterfeit an upright standing position; so that in their death theymight menace in seeming those whom their life had harmed in truth; andthat, terrible even after their decease, they might block the roadin effigy as much as they had once in deed. Whence it appears that inslaying the robbers he took thought for himself and not for Sweden: forhe betokened by so singular an act how great a hatred of Sweden filledhim. Having heard from the diviners that Sigtryg could only be conqueredby gold, he straightway fixed a knob of gold to a wooden mace, equippedhimself therewith in the war wherein he attacked the king, and obtainedhis desire. This exploit was besung by Bess in a most zealous strain ofeulogy:

"Gram, the fierce wielder of the prosperous mace, knowing not the steel, rained blows on the outstretched sword, and with a stock beat off thelances of the mighty. 

"Following the decrees and will of the gods, he brought low the gloryof the powerless Swedes, doing their king to death and crushing him withthe stiff gold. 

"For he pondered on the arts of war: he wielded in his clasp theruddy-flashing wood, and victoriously with noble stroke made theirfallen captain writhe. 

"Shrewdly he conquered with the hardness of gold him whom fate forbadeshould be slain by steel; unsworded, waging war with the worthier metal. 

"This treasure, for which its deviser claims glory and the height ofhonour, shall abide yet more illustrious hereafter, known far and widein ampler fame. "

Having now slain Sigtryg, the King of Sweden, Gram desired to confirmhis possession of the empire which he had won in war; and therefore, suspecting Swarin the governor of Gothland of aspiring to the crown, hechallenged him to combat, and slew him. This man's brethren, of whomhe had seven lawfully born, and nine the sons of a concubine, sought toavenge their brother's death, but Gram, in an unequal contest, cut themoff. 

Gram, for his marvellous prowess, was granted a share in the sovereigntyby his father, who was now in extreme age, and thought it betterand likewise more convenient to give his own blood a portion ofthe supremacy of the realm, than now in the setting of his life toadminister it without a partner. Therefore Ring, a nobly-born Zealander, stirred the greater part of the Danes with desire for insurrection;fancying that one of these men was unripe for his rank, and that theother had run the course of his powers, alleging the weakness in yearsof both, and declaring that the wandering wit of an old man made theone, and that of a boy the other, unfit for royal power. But they foughtand crushed him, making him an example to all men, that no season oflife is to be deemed incompatible with valour. 

Many other deeds also King Gram did. He declared war against Sumble, King of the Finns; but when he set eyes upon the King's daughter, Signe, he laid down his arms, the foeman turned into the suitor, and, promisingto put away his own wife, he plighted troth with her. But, while muchbusied with a war against Norway, which he had taken up against KingSwipdag for debauching his sister and his daughter, he heard froma messenger that Signe had, by Sumble's treachery, been promised inmarriage to Henry, King of Saxony. Then, inclining to love the maidenmore than his soldiers, he left his army, privily made his way toFinland, and came in upon the wedding, which was already begun. Puttingon a garb of the utmost meanness, he lay down at the table in a seat ofno honour. When asked what he brought, he professed skill in leechcraft. At last, when all were drenched in drunkenness, he gazed at the maiden, and amid the revels of the riotous banquet, cursing deep the ficklenessof women, and vaunting loud his own deeds of valour, he poured out thegreatness of his wrath in a song like this:

"Singly against eight at once I drove the darts of death, and smote ninewith a back-swung sword, when I slew Swarin, who wrongfully assumed hishonours and tried to win fame unmerited; wherefore I have oft dyed inforeign blood my blade red with death and reeking with slaughter, andhave never blenched at the clash of dagger or the sheen of helmet. NowSigne, the daughter of Sumble, vilely spurns me, and endures vows notmine, cursing her ancient troth; and, conceiving an ill-ordered love, commits a notable act of female lightness; for she entangles, lures, andbestains princes, rebuffing beyond all others the lordly of birth;yet remaining firm to none, but ever wavering, and bringing to birthimpulses doubtful and divided. "

And as he spoke he leapt up from where he lay, and there he cut Henrydown while at the sacred board and the embraces of his friends, carriedoff his bride from amongst the bridesmaids, felled most of the guests, and bore her off with him in his ship. Thus the bridal was turned into afuneral; and the Finns might learn the lesson, that hands should not belaid upon the loves of other men. 

After this SWIPDAG, King of Norway, destroyed Gram, who was attemptingto avenge the outrage on his sister and the attempt on his daughter'schastity. This battle was notable for the presence of the Saxon forces, who were incited to help Swipdag, not so much by love of him, as bydesire to avenge Henry. 

GUTHORM and HADDING, the son of Gram (Groa being the mother of the firstand Signe of the second), were sent over to Sweden in a ship by theirfoster-father, Brage (Swipdag being now master of Denmark), and put incharge of the giants Wagnhofde and Hafle, for guard as well as rearing. 

As I shall have briefly to relate doings of these folk, and would fainnot seem to fabricate what conflicts with common belief or outsteps thefaithful truth, it is worth the knowing that there were in old timesthree kinds of magicians who by diverse sleights practiced extraordinarymarvels. The first of these were men of monstrous stock, termedby antiquity giants; these by their exceeding great bodily staturesurpassed the size natural to mankind. Those who came after these werethe first who gained skill in divination from entrails, and attained thePythonic art. These surpassed the former in briskness of mental parts asmuch as they fell behind them in bodily condition. Constant wars forthe supremacy were waged between these and the giants; till at last thesorcerers prevailed, subdued the tribe of giants by arms, and acquirednot merely the privilege of ruling, but also the repute of being divine. Both of these kinds had extreme skill in deluding the eyesight, knowing how to obscure their own faces and those of others with diverssemblances, and to darken the true aspects of things with beguilingshapes. But the third kind of men, springing from the natural union ofthe first two, did not answer to the nature of their parents either inbodily size or in practice of magic arts; yet these gained credit fordivinity with minds that were befooled by their jugglings. 

Nor must we marvel if, tempted by the prodigious miracles of these folk, the barbaric world fell to worshipping a false religion, when otherslike unto these, who were mere mortals, but were reverenced with divinehonours, beguiled even the shrewdness of the Latins. I have touched onthese things lest, when I relate of sleights and marvels, I be checkedby the disbelief of the reader. Now I will leave these matters andreturn to my theme. 

Swipdag, now that he had slain Gram, was enriched with the realms ofDenmark and Sweden; and because of the frequent importunities of hiswife he brought back from banishment her brother Guthorm, upon hispromising tribute, and made him ruler of the Danes. But Haddingpreferred to avenge his father rather than take a boon from his foe. 

This man's nature so waxed and throve that in the early season ofhis youth he was granted the prime of manhood. Leaving the pursuit ofpleasure, he was constantly zealous in warlike exercises; rememberingthat he was the son of a fighting father, and was bound to spend hiswhole span of life in approved deeds of warfare. Hardgrep, daughter ofWagnhofde, tried to enfeeble his firm spirit with her lures of love, contending and constantly averring that he ought to offer the firstdues of the marriage bed in wedlock with her, who had proffered to hischildhood most zealous and careful fostering, and had furnished him withhis first rattle. 

Nor was she content with admonishing in plain words, but began a strainof song as follows:

"Why doth thy life thus waste and wander? Why dost thou pass thy yearsunwed, following arms, thirsting for throats? Nor does my beauty drawthy vows. Carried away by excess of frenzy, thou art little prone tolove. Steeped in blood and slaughter, thou judgest wars better than thebed, nor refreshest thy soul with incitements. Thy fierceness finds noleisure; dalliance is far from thee, and savagery fostered. Nor is thyhand free from blasphemy while thou loathest the rites of love. Letthis hateful strictness pass away, let that loving warmth approach, andplight the troth of love to me, who gave thee the first breasts of milkin childhood, and helped thee, playing a mother's part, duteous to thyneeds. "

When he answered that the size of her body was unwieldy for the embracesof a mortal, since doubtless her nature was framed in conformity to hergiant stock, she said:

"Be not moved by my unwonted look of size. For my substance is sometimesthinner, sometimes ampler; now meagre, now abundant; and I alter andchange at my pleasure the condition of my body, which is at one timeshrivelled up and at another time expanded: now my tallness rises to theheavens, and now I settle down into a human being, under a more boundedshape. "

As he still faltered, and was slow to believe her words, she added thefollowing song:

"Youth, fear not the converse of my bed. I change my bodily outline intwofold wise, and am wont to enjoin a double law upon my sinews. For Iconform to shapes of different figure in turn, and am altered at myown sweet will: now my neck is star-high, and soars nigh to the loftyThunderer; then it falls and declines to human strength, and plantsagain on earth that head which was near the firmament. Thus I lightlyshift my body into diverse phases, and am beheld in varying wise; forchangefully now cramped stiffness draws in my limbs, now the virtue ofmy tall body unfolds them, and suffers them to touch the cloud-tops. Now I am short and straitened, now stretch out with loosened knee; and Ihave mutably changed myself like wax into strange aspects. He who knowsof Proteus should not marvel at me. My shape never stays the same, andmy aspect is twofold: at one time it contrasts its outstretched limbs, at another shoots them out when closed; now disentangling the membersand now rolling them back into a coil. I dart out my ingathered limbs, and presently, while they are strained, I wrinkle them up, dividingmy countenance between shapes twain, and adopting two forms; with thegreater of these I daunt the fierce, while with the shorter I seek theembraces of men. "

By thus averring she obtained the embraces of Hadding; and her love forthe youth burned so high that when she found him desirous of revisitinghis own land, she did not hesitate to follow him in man's attire, andcounted it as joy to share his hardships and perils. While upon thejourney she had undertaken, she chanced to enter in his company, inorder to pass the night, a dwelling, the funeral of whose dead masterwas being conducted with melancholy rites. Here, desiring to pry intothe purposes of heaven by the help of a magical espial, she graved onwood some very dreadful spells, and caused Hadding to put them under thedead man's tongue; thus forcing him to utter, with the voice so given, astrain terrible to hear:

"Perish accursed he who hath dragged me back from those below, let himbe punished for calling a spirit out of bale!

"Whoso hath called me, who am lifeless and dead, back from the abodebelow, and hath brought me again into upper air, let him pay fullpenalty with his own death in the dreary shades beneath livid Styx. Behold, counter to my will and purpose, I must declare some bittertidings. For as ye go away from this house ye will come to the narrowpath of a grove, and will be a prey to demons all about. Then she whohath brought our death back from out of void, and has given us a sightof this light once more, by her prayers wondrously drawing forth theghost and casting it into the bonds of the body, shall bitterly bewailher rash enterprise. 

"Perish accursed he who hath dragged me back from those below, let himbe punished for calling a spirit out of bale!

"For when the black pestilence of the blast that engenders monsters hascrushed out the inmost entrails with stern effort, and when their handhas swept away the living with cruel nail, tearing off limbs and rendingravished bodies; then Hadding, thy life shall survive, nor shall thenether realms bear off thy ghost, nor thy spirit pass heavily to thewaters of Styx; but the woman who hath made the wretched ghost come backhither, crushed by her own guilt, shall appease our dust; she shall bedust herself. 

"Perish accursed he who hath dragged me back from those below, let himbe punished for calling a spirit out of bale!"

So, while they were passing the night in the forest foretold them, in ashelter framed of twigs, a hand of extraordinary size was seen to wanderover the inside of the dwelling. Terrified at this portent, Haddingentreated the aid of his nurse. Then Hardgrep, expanding her limbs andswelling to a mighty bigness, gripped the hand fast and held it to herfoster-child to hew off. What flowed from the noisesome wounds he dealtwas not so much blood as corrupt matter. But she paid the penalty ofthis act, presently being torn in pieces by her kindred of the samestock; nor did her constitution or her bodily size help her againstfeeling the attacks of her foes' claws. 

Hadding, thus bereft of his foster-mother, chanced to be made an ally ina solemn covenant to a rover, Lysir, by a certain man of great age thathad lost an eye, who took pity on his loneliness. Now the ancients, whenabout to make a league, were wont to besprinkle their footsteps withblood of one another, so to ratify their pledge of friendship byreciprocal barter of blood. Lysir and Hadding, being bound thus inthe strictest league, declared war against Loker, the tyrant of theKurlanders. They were defeated; and the old man aforementioned tookHadding, as he fled on horseback, to his own house, and there refreshedhim with a certain pleasant draught, telling him that he would findhimself quite brisk and sound in body. This prophetic advice heconfirmed by a song as follows:

"As thou farest hence, a foe, thinking thee a deserter, will assailthee, that he may keep thee bound and cast thee to be devoured by themangling jaws of beasts. But fill thou the ears of the warders withdivers tales, and when they have done the feast and deep sleep holdsthem, snap off the fetters upon thee and the loathly chains. Turn thyfeet thence, and when a little space has fled, with all thy mightrise up against a swift lion who is wont to toss the carcases of theprisoners, and strive with thy stout arms against his savage shoulders, and with naked sword search his heart-strings. Straightway put thythroat to him and drink the steaming blood, and devour with ravenousjaws the banquet of his body. Then renewed strength will come tothy limbs, then shall undreamed-of might enter thy sinews, andan accumulation of stout force shall bespread and nerve thy framethrough-out. I myself will pave the path to thy prayers, and will subduethe henchmen in sleep, and keep them snoring throughout the lingeringnight. "

And as he spoke, he took back the young man on his horse, and set himwhere he had found him. Hadding cowered trembling under his mantle; butso extreme was his wonder at the event, that with keen vision he peeredthrough its holes. And he saw that before the steps of the horse laythe sea; but was told not to steal a glimpse of the forbidden thing, andtherefore turned aside his amazed eyes from the dread spectacle of theroads that he journeyed. Then he was taken by Loker, and found by verysure experience that every point of the prophecy was fulfilled uponhim. So he assailed Handwan, king of the Hellespont, who was entrenchedbehind an impregnable defence of wall in his city Duna, and withstoodhim not in the field, but with battlements. Its summit defying allapproach by a besieger, he ordered that the divers kinds of birds whowere wont to nest in that spot should be caught by skilled fowlers, andhe caused wicks which had been set on fire to be fastened beneath theirwings. The birds sought the shelter of their own nests, and filled thecity with a blaze; all the townsmen flocked to quench it, and left thegates defenceless. He attacked and captured Handwan, but suffered him toredeem his life with gold for ransom. Thus, when he might have cut offhis foe, he preferred to grant him the breath of life; so far did hismercy qualify his rage. 

After this he prevailed over a great force of men of the East, and cameback to Sweden. Swipdag met him with a great fleet off Gottland; butHadding attacked and destroyed him. And thus he advanced to a loftypitch of renown, not only by the fruits of foreign spoil, but bythe trophies of his vengeance for his brother and his father. And heexchanged exile for royalty, for he became king of his own land as soonas he regained it. 

At this time there was one Odin, who was credited over all Europe withthe honour, which was false, of godhead, but used more continuallyto sojourn at Upsala; and in this spot, either from the sloth of theinhabitants or from its own pleasantness, he vouchsafed to dwell withsomewhat especial constancy. The kings of the North, desiring morezealously to worship his deity, embounded his likeness in a goldenimage; and this statue, which betokened their homage, they transmittedwith much show of worship to Byzantium, fettering even the effigied armswith a serried mass of bracelets. Odin was overjoyed at such notoriety, and greeted warmly the devotion of the senders. But his queen Frigga, desiring to go forth more beautified, called smiths, and had the goldstripped from the statue. Odin hanged them, and mounted the statue upona pedestal, which by the marvellous skill of his art he made to speakwhen a mortal touched it. But still Frigga preferred the splendour ofher own apparel to the divine honours of her husband, and submittedherself to the embraces of one of her servants; and it was by thisman's device she broke down the image, and turned to the service of herprivate wantonness that gold which had been devoted to public idolatry. Little thought she of practicing unchastity, that she might the easiersatisfy her greed, this woman so unworthy to be the consort of a god;but what should I here add, save that such a godhead was worthy of sucha wife? So great was the error that of old befooled the minds of men. Thus Odin, wounded by the double trespass of his wife, resented theoutrage to his image as keenly as that to his bed; and, ruffled by thesetwo stinging dishonours, took to an exile overflowing with noble shame, imagining so to wipe off the slur of his ignominy. 

When he had retired, one Mit-othin, who was famous for his jugglingtricks, was likewise quickened, as though by inspiration from on high, to seize the opportunity of feigning to be a god; and, wrapping theminds of the barbarians in fresh darkness, he led them by the renown ofhis jugglings to pay holy observance to his name. He said that thewrath of the gods could never be appeased nor the outrage to their deityexpiated by mixed and indiscriminate sacrifices, and therefore forbadethat prayers for this end should be put up without distinction, appointing to each of those above his especial drink-offering. But whenOdin was returning, he cast away all help of jugglings, went to Finlandto hide himself, and was there attacked and slain by the inhabitants. Even in his death his abominations were made manifest, for those whocame nigh his barrow were cut off by a kind of sudden death; and afterhis end, he spread such pestilence that he seemed almost to leave afilthier record in his death than in his life: it was as though he wouldextort from the guilty a punishment for his slaughter. The inhabitants, being in this trouble, took the body out of the mound, beheaded it, andimpaled it through the breast with a sharp stake; and herein that peoplefound relief. 

The death of Odin's wife revived the ancient splendour of his name, and seemed to wipe out the disgrace upon his deity; so, returning fromexile, he forced all those, who had used his absence to assume thehonours of divine rank, to resign them as usurped; and the gangs ofsorcerers that had arisen he scattered like a darkness before theadvancing glory of his godhead. And he forced them by his power not onlyto lay down their divinity, but further to quit the country, deemingthat they, who tried to foist themselves so iniquitously into the skies, ought to be outcasts from the earth. 

Meanwhile Asmund, the son of Swipdag, fought with Hadding to avenge hisfather. And when he heard that Henry his son, his love for whom he seteven before his own life, had fallen fighting valiantly, his soul longedfor death, and loathed the light of day, and made a song in a strainlike this:

"What brave hath dared put on my armour? The sheen of the helmet servesnot him who tottereth, nor doth the breastplate fitly shelter him thatis sore spent. Our son is slain, let us riot in battle; my eager lovefor him driveth me to my death, that I may not be left outliving my dearchild. In each hand I am fain to grasp the sword; now without shield letus ply our warfare bare-breasted, with flashing blades. Let the rumourof our rage beacon forth: boldly let us grind to powder the column ofthe foe; nor let the battle be long and chafe us; nor let our onset beshattered in rout and be still. "

When he had said this, he gripped his hilt with both hands, and, fearless of peril, swung his shield upon his back and slew many. Haddingtherefore called on the powers with which he was allied to protect him, and on a sudden Wagnhofde rode up to fight on his side. And when Asmundsaw his crooked sword, he cried out, and broke into the followingstrain:

"Why fightest thou with curved sword? The short sword shall prove thydoom, the javelin shall be flung and bring forth death. Thou shouldstconquer thy foe by thy hand, but thou trustest that he can be rentby spells; thou trustest more in words than rigour, and puttest thystrength in thy great resource. Why dost thus beat me back with thyshield, threatening with thy bold lance, when thou art so covered withwretched crimes and spotted all over? Thus hath the brand of shamebestained thee, rotting in sin, lubber-lipped. "

While he thus clamoured, Hadding, flinging his spear by the thong, pierced him through. But Asmund lacked not comfort even for his death;for while his life flickered in the socket he wounded the foot of hisslayer, and by this short instant of revenge he memorized his fall, punishing the other with an incurable limp. Thus crippling of a limbbefell one of them and loss of life the other. Asmund's body was buriedin solemn state at Upsala and attended with royal obsequies. His wifeGunnhild, loth to outlive him, cut off her own life with the sword, choosing rather to follow her lord in death than to forsake him byliving. Her friends, in consigning her body to burial, laid her with herhusband's dust, thinking her worthy to share the mound of the man, herlove for whom she had set above life. So there lies Gunnhild, claspingher lord somewhat more beautifully in the tomb than she had ever done inthe bed. 

After this Hadding, now triumphant, wasted Sweden. But Asmund's son, named Uffe, shrinking from a conflict, transported his army intoDenmark, thinking it better to assail the house of his enemy than toguard his own, and deeming it a timely method of repelling his wrongsto retaliate upon his foe what he was suffering at his hands. Thus theDanes had to return and defend their own, preferring the safety oftheir land to lordship of a foreign realm; and Uffe went back to his owncountry, now rid of an enemy's arms. 

Hadding, on returning from the Swedish war, perceived that his treasury, wherein he was wont to store the wealth he had gotten by the spoilsof war, had been forced and robbed, and straightway hanged its keeperGlumer, proclaiming by a crafty device, that, if any of the culpritsbrought about the recovery of the stolen goods, he should have thesame post of honour as Glumer had filled. Upon this promise, one ofthe guilty men became more zealous to reap the bounty than to hide hiscrime, and had the money brought back to the king. His confederatesfancied he had been received into the king's closest friendship, andbelieved that the honours paid him were as real as they were lavish; andtherefore they also, hoping to be as well rewarded, brought back theirmoneys and avowed their guilt. Their confession was received at firstwith promotion and favours, and soon visited with punishment, thusbequeathing a signal lesson against being too confiding. I should judgethat men, whose foolish blabbing brought them to destruction, whenwholesome silence could have ensured their safety, well deserved toatone upon the gallows for their breach of reticence. 

After this Hadding passed the whole winter season in the utmostpreparation for the renewal of the war. When the frosts had been meltedby the springtime sun, he went back to Sweden and there spent five yearsin warfare. By dint of this prolonged expedition, his soldiers, havingconsumed all their provision, were reduced almost to the extremity ofemaciation, and began to assuage their hunger with mushrooms from thewood. At last, under stress of extreme necessity, they devoured theirhorses, and finally satisfied themselves with the carcases of dogs. Worse still, they did not scruple to feed upon human limbs. So, when theDanes were brought unto the most desperate straits, there sounded inthe camp, in the first sleep of the night, and no man uttering it, thefollowing song:

"With foul augury have ye left the abode of your country, thinking toharry these fields in War. What idle notion mocks your minds? What blindself-confidence has seized your senses, that ye think this soil can thusbe won. The might of Sweden cannot yield or quail before the War of thestranger; but the whole of your column shall melt away when it beginsto assault our people in War. For when flight has broken up the furiousonset, and the straggling part of the fighters wavers, then to thosewho prevail in the War is given free scope to slay those who turn theirbacks, and they have earned power to smite the harder when fate drivesthe renewer of the war headlong. Nor let him whom cowardice deters aimthe spears. "

This prophecy was accomplished on the morrow's dawn by a great slaughterof the Danes. On the next night the warriors of Sweden heard anutterance like this, none knowing who spake it:

"Why doth Uffe thus defy me with grievous rebellion? He shall pay theutmost penalty. For he shall be buried and transpierced under showers oflances, and shall fall lifeless in atonement for his insolent attempt. Nor shall the guilt of his wanton rancour be unpunished; and, as Iforebode, as soon as he joins battle and fights, the points shall fastenin his limbs and strike his body everywhere, and his raw gaping woundsno bandage shall bind up; nor shall any remedy heal over thy widegashes. "

On that same night the armies fought; when two hairless old men, ofappearance fouler than human, and displaying their horrid baldness inthe twinkling starlight, divided their monstrous efforts with opposingardour, one of them being zealous on the Danish side, and the other asfervent for the Swedes. Hadding was conquered and fled to Helsingland, where, while washing in the cold sea-water his body which was scorchedwith heat, he attacked and cut down with many blows a beast of unknownkind, and having killed it had it carried into camp. As he was exultingin this deed a woman met him and addressed him in these words:

"Whether thou tread the fields afoot, or spread canvas overseas, thoushalt suffer the hate of the gods, and through all the world shaltbehold the elements oppose thy purposes. Afield thou shalt fall, on seathou shalt be tossed, an eternal tempest shall attend the steps ofthy wandering, nor shall frost-bind ever quit thy sails; nor shall thyroof-tree roof thee, but if thou seekest it, it shall fall smitten bythe hurricane; thy herd shall perish of bitter chill. All things shallbe tainted, and shall lament that thy lot is there. Thou shalt beshunned like a pestilent tetter, nor shall any plague be fouler thanthou. Such chastisement doth the power of heaven mete out to thee, fortruly thy sacrilegious hands have slain one of the dweller's above, disguised in a shape that was not his: thus here art thou, the slayer ofa benignant god! But when the sea receives thee, the wrath of the prisonof Eolus shall be loosed upon thy head. The West and the furious North, the South wind shall beat thee down, shall league and send forth theirblasts in rivalry; until with better prayers thou hast melted thesternness of heaven, and hast lifted with appeasement the punishmentthou hast earned. "

So, when Hadding went back, he suffered all things after this onefashion, and his coming brought disquiet upon all peaceful places. Forwhen he was at sea a mighty storm arose and destroyed his fleet in agreat tempest: and when, a shipwrecked man, he sought entertainment, hefound a sudden downfall of that house. Nor was there any cure for histrouble, ere he atoned by sacrifice for his crime, and was able toreturn into favour with heaven. For, in order to appease the deities, hesacrificed dusky victims to the god Frey. This manner of propitiation bysacrifice he repeated as an annual feast, and left posterity to follow. This rite the Swedes call Froblod (the sacrifice or feast of Frey). 

Hadding chanced to hear that a certain giant had taken in trothRagnhild, daughter of Hakon, King of the Nitherians; and, loathing soignominious a state of affairs, and utterly abominating the destinedunion, he forestalled the marriage by noble daring. For he wentto Norway and overcame by arms him that was so foul, a lover for aprincess. For he thought so much more of valour than of ease, that, though he was free to enjoy all the pleasures of a king, he accounted itsweeter than any delight to repel the wrongs done, not only to himself, but to others. The maiden, not knowing him, ministered with healingtendance to the man that had done her kindness and was bruised with manywounds. And in order that lapse of time might not make her forgethim, she shut up a ring in his wound, and thus left a mark on his leg. Afterwards her father granted her freedom to choose her own husband; sowhen the young men were assembled at banquet, she went along them andfelt their bodies carefully, searching for the tokens she had stored uplong ago. All the rest she rejected, but Hadding she discovered by thesign of the secret ring; then she embraced him, and gave herself to bethe wife of him who had not suffered a giant to win her in marriage. 

While Hadding was sojourning with her a marvellous portent befell him. While he was at supper, a woman bearing hemlocks was seen to raise herhead beside the brazier, and, stretching out the lap of her robe, seemed to ask, "in what part of the world such fresh herbs had grown inwinter?" The king desired to know; and, wrapping him in her mantle, shedrew him with her underground, and vanished. I take it that the nethergods purposed that he should pay a visit in the flesh to the regionswhither he must go when he died. So they first pierced through a certaindark misty cloud, and then advancing along a path that was worn awaywith long thoroughfaring, they beheld certain men wearing rich robes, and nobles clad in purple; these passed, they at last approached sunnyregions which produced the herbs the woman had brought away. Goingfurther, they came on a swift and tumbling river of leaden waters, whirling down on its rapid current divers sorts of missiles, andlikewise made passable by a bridge. When they had crossed this, theybeheld two armies encountering one another with might and main. And whenHadding inquired of the woman about their estate: "These, " she said, "are they who, having been slain by the sword, declare the manner oftheir death by a continual rehearsal, and enact the deeds of their pastlife in a living spectacle. " Then a wall hard to approach and to climbblocked their further advance. The woman tried to leap it, but in vain, being unable to do so even with her slender wrinkled body; then shewrung off the head of a cock which she chanced to be taking down withher, and flung it beyond the barrier of the walls; and forthwith thebird came to life again, and testified by a loud crow to recovery of itsbreathing. Then Hadding turned back and began to make homewards withhis wife; some rovers bore down on him, but by swift sailing he baffledtheir snares; for though it was almost the same wind that helped both, they were behind him as he clove the billows, and, as they had only justas much sail, could not overtake him. 

Meantime Uffe, who had a marvellously fair daughter, decreed that theman who slew Hadding should have her. This sorely tempted one Thuning, who got together a band of men of Perm (Byarmenses), being fain so towin the desired advancement. Hadding was going to fall upon him, butwhile he was passing Norway in his fleet he saw upon the beach an oldman signing to him, with many wavings of his mantle, to put into shore. His companions opposed it, and declared that it would be a ruinousdiversion from their journey; but he took the man on board, and wasinstructed by him how to order his army. For this man, in arrangingthe system of the columns, used to take special care that the front rowconsisted of two, the second of four, while the third increased and wasmade up to eight, and likewise each row was double that in front of it. Also the old man bade the wings of the slingers go back to the extremityof the line, and put with them the ranks of the archers. So when thesquadrons were arranged in the wedge, he stood himself behind thewarriors, and from the wallet which was slung round his neck drew anarbalist. This seemed small at first, but soon projected with moreprolonged tip, and accommodated ten arrows to its string at once, whichwere shot all at once at the enemy in a brisk volley, and inflicted asmany wounds. Then the men of Perm, quitting arms for cunning, by theirspells loosed the sky in clouds of rain, and melted the joyous visage ofthe air in dismal drenching showers. But the old man, on the other hand, drove back with a cloud the heavy mass of storm which had arisen, and checked the dripping rain by this barrier of mist. Thus Haddingprevailed. But the old man, when he parted from him, foretold that thedeath whereby he would perish would be inflicted, not by the might of anenemy, but by his own hand. Also he forbade him to prefer obscure warsto such as were glorious, and border wars to those remote. 

Hadding, after leaving him, was bidden by Uffe to Upsala on pretence ofa interview; but lost all his escort by treachery, and made his escapesheltered by the night. For when the Danes sought to leave the houseinto which they had been gathered on pretext of a banquet, they foundone awaiting them, who mowed off the head of each of them with hissword as it was thrust out of the door. For this wrongful act Haddingretaliated and slew Uffe; but put away his hatred and consigned his bodyto a sepulchre of notable handiwork, thus avowing the greatness of hisfoe by his pains to beautify his tomb, and decking in death with costlydistinctions the man whom he used to pursue in his life with hot enmity. Then, to win the hearts of the people he had subdued, he appointedHunding, the brother of Uffe, over the realm, that the sovereignty mightseem to be maintained in the house of Asmund, and not to have passedinto the hand of a stranger. 

Thus his enemy was now removed, and he passed several years without anystirring events and in utter disuse of arms; but at last he pleaded thelong while he had been tilling the earth, and the immoderate time he hadforborne from exploits on the seas; and seeming to think war a merrierthing than peace, he began to upbraid himself with slothfulness in astrain like this:

"Why loiter I thus in darksome hiding, in the folds of rugged hills, norfollow seafaring as of old? The continual howling of the band of wolves, and the plaintive cry of harmful beasts that rises to heaven, and thefierce impatient lions, all rob my eyes of sleep. Dreary are the ridgesand the desolation to hearts that trusted to do wilder work. The starkrocks and the rugged lie of the ground bar the way to spirits who arewont to love the sea. It were better service to sound the firths withthe oars, to revel in plundered wares, to pursue the gold of others formy coffer, to gloat over sea-gotten gains, than to dwell in rough landsand winding woodlands and barren glades. "

Then his wife, loving a life in the country, and weary of themarin harmony of the sea-birds, declared how great joy she found infrequenting the woodlands, in the following strain:

"The shrill bird vexes me as I tarry by the shore, and with itschattering rouses me when I cannot sleep. Wherefore the noisy sweep ofits boisterous rush takes gentle rest from my sleeping eye, nor doththe loud-chattering sea-mew suffer me to rest in the night, forcing itswearisome tale into my dainty ears; nor when I would lie down doth itsuffer me to be refreshed, clamouring with doleful modulation of itsill-boding voice. Safer and sweeter do I deem the enjoyment of thewoods. How are the fruits of rest plucked less by day or night than bytarrying tossed on the shifting sea?"

At this time one Toste emerged, from the obscure spot of Jutland wherehe was born, into bloody notoriety. For by all manner of wanton attacksupon the common people he spread wide the fame of his cruelty, andgained so universal a repute for rancour, that he was branded withthe name of the Wicked. Nor did he even refrain from wrongdoing toforeigners, but, after foully harrying his own land, went on to assaultSaxony. The Saxon general Syfrid, when his men were hard put to it inthe battle, entreated peace. Toste declared that he should have what heasked, but only if he would promise to become his ally in a war againstHadding. Syfrid demurred, dreading to fulfill the condition, but bysharp menaces Toste induced him to promise what he asked. For threatscan sometimes gain a request which soft-dealing cannot compass. Haddingwas conquered by this man in an affair by land; but in the midst of hisflight he came on his enemy's fleet, and made it unseaworthy by boringthe sides; then he got a skiff and steered it out to sea. Toste thoughthe was slain, but though he sought long among the indiscriminate heapsof dead, could not find him, and came back to his fleet; when he sawfrom afar off a light boat tossing on the ocean billows. Putting outsome vessels, he resolved to give it chase, but was brought back byperil of shipwreck, and only just reached the shore. Then he quicklytook some sound craft, and accomplished the journey which he had beforebegun. Hadding, seeing he was caught, proceeded to ask his companionwhether he was a skilled and practised swimmer; and when the other saidhe was not, Hadding despairing of flight, deliberately turned the vesselover and held on inside to its hollow, thus making his pursuers thinkhim dead. Then he attacked Toste, who, careless and unaware, wasgreedily watching over the remnants of his spoil; cut down his army, forced him to quit his plunder, and avenged his own rout by that ofToste. 

But Toste lacked not heart to avenge himself. For, not having storeenough in his own land to recruit his forces--so heavy was the blow hehad received--he went to Britain, calling himself an ambassador. Uponhis outward voyage, for sheer wantonness, he got his crew together toplay dice, and when a wrangle arose from the throwing of the cubes, hetaught them to wind it up with a fatal affray. And so, by means of thispeaceful sport, he spread the spirit of strife through the whole ship, and the jest gave place to quarrelling, which engendered bloody combat. Also, fain to get some gain out of the misfortunes of others, he seizedthe moneys of the slain, and attached to him a certain rover thenfamous, named Koll; and a little after returned in his company to hisown land, where he was challenged and slain by Hadding, who preferred tohazard his own fortune rather than that of his soldiers. For generals ofantique valour were loth to accomplish by general massacre what could bedecided by the lot of a few. 

After these deeds the figure of Hadding's dead wife appeared before himin his sleep, and sang thus:

"A monster is born to thee that shall tame the rage of wild beasts, andcrush with fierce mouth the fleet wolves. "

Then she added a little: "Take thou heed; from thee hath issued a birdof harm, in choler a wild screech-owl, in tongue a tuneful swan. "

On the morrow the king, when he had shaken off slumber, told the visionto a man skilled in interpretations, who explained the wolf to denote ason that would be truculent and the word swan as signifying a daughter;and foretold that the son would be deadly to enemies and the daughtertreacherous to her father. The result answered to the prophecy. Hadding's daughter, Ulfhild, who was wife to a certain private personcalled Guthorm, was moved either by anger at her match, or withaspirations to glory, and throwing aside all heed of daughterly love, tempted her husband to slay her father; declaring that she preferredthe name of queen to that of princess. I have resolved to set forth themanner of her exhortation almost in the words in which she uttered it;they were nearly these:

"Miserable am I, whose nobleness is shadowed by an unequal yoke! Haplessam I, to whose pedigree is bound the lowliness of a peasant! Lucklessissue of a king, to whom a common man is equal by law of marriage!Pitiable daughter of a prince, whose comeliness her spiritless fatherhath made over to base and contemptible embraces! Unhappy child ofthy mother, with thy happiness marred by consorting with this bed! thypurity is handled by the impurity of a peasant, thy nobility is boweddown by ignoble commonness, thy high birth is impaired by the estate ofthy husband! But thou, if any pith be in thee, if valour reign in thysoul at all, if thou deem thyself fit husband for a king's daughter, wrest the sceptre from her father, retrieve thy lineage by thy valour, balance with courage thy lack of ancestry, requite by bravery thydetriment of blood. Power won by daring is more prosperous than that wonby inheritance. Boldness climbs to the top better than inheritance, and worth wins power better than birth. Moreover, it is no shame tooverthrow old age, which of its own weight sinks and totters to itsfall. It shall be enough for my father to have borne the sceptre forso long; let the dotard's power fall to thee; if it elude thee, it willpass to another. Whatsoever rests on old age is near its fall. Thinkthat his reign has been long enough, and be it thine, though late in theday, to be first. Further, I would rather have my husband than my fatherking--would rather be ranked a king's wife than daughter. It is betterto embrace a monarch in one's home, than to give him homage from afar;it is nobler to be a king's bride than his courtier. Thou, too, mustsurely prefer thyself to thy wife's father for bearing the sceptre; fornature has made each one nearest to himself. If there be a will for thedeed, a way will open; there is nothing but yields to the wit of man. The feast must be kept, the banquet decked, the preparations lookedto, and my father bidden. The path to treachery shall be smoothed by apretence of friendship, for nothing cloaks a snare better than the nameof kindred. Also his soddenness shall open a short way to his slaughter;for when the king shall be intent upon the dressing of his hair, and hishand is upon his beard and his mind upon stories; when he has parted hisknotted locks, either with hairpin or disentangling comb, then lethim feel the touch of the steel in his flesh. Busy men commonly deviselittle precaution. Let thy hand draw near to punish all his sins. It isa righteous deed to put forth thy hand to avenge the wretched!"

Thus Ulfhild importuned, and her husband was overcome by her promptings, and promised his help to the treachery. But meantime Hadding was warnedin a dream to beware of his son-in-law's guile. He went to the feast, which his daughter had made ready for him with a show of love, andposted an armed guard hard by to use against the treachery when needwas. As he ate, the henchman who was employed to do the deed of guilesilently awaited a fitting moment for his crime, his dagger hid underhis robe. The king, remarking him, blew on the trumpet a signal to thesoldiers who were stationed near; they straightway brought aid, and hemade the guile recoil on its deviser. 

Meanwhile Hunding, King of the Swedes, heard false tidings that Haddingwas dead, and resolved to greet them with obsequies. So he gathered hisnobles together, and filled a jar of extraordinary size with ale, andhad this set in the midst of the feasters for their delight, and, to omit no mark of solemnity, himself assumed a servant's part, nothesitating to play the cupbearer. And while he was passing through thepalace in fulfilment of his office, he stumbled and fell into the jar, and, being choked by the liquor, gave up the ghost; thus atoning eitherto Orcus, whom he was appeasing by a baseless performance of the rites, or to Hadding, about whose death he had spoken falsely. Hadding, whenhe heard this, wished to pay like thanks to his worshipper, and, notenduring to survive his death, hanged himself in sight of the wholepeople. 

BOOK TWO

HADDING was succeeded by FRODE, his son, whose fortunes were many andchangeful. When he had passed the years of a stripling, he displayedthe fulness of a warrior's prowess; and being loth that this shouldbe spoilt by slothfulness, he sequestered his mind from delightsand perseveringly constrained it to arms. Warfare having drained hisfather's treasury, he lacked a stock of pay to maintain his troops, andcast about diligently for the supplies that he required; and whilethus employed, a man of the country met him and roused his hopes by thefollowing strain:

"Not far off is an island rising in delicate slopes, hiding treasure inits hills and ware of its rich booty. Here a noble pile is kept by theoccupant of the mount, who is a snake wreathed in coils, doubled in manya fold, and with tail drawn out in winding whorls, shaking his manifoldspirals and shedding venom. If thou wouldst conquer him, thou must usethy shield and stretch thereon bulls' hides, and cover thy body withthe skins of kine, nor let thy limbs lie bare to the sharp poison;his slaver burns up what it bespatters. Though the three-forked tongueflicker and leap out of the gaping mouth, and with awful yawn menaceghastly wounds remember to keep the dauntless temper of thy mind; norlet the point of the jagged tooth trouble thee, nor the starkness of thebeast, nor the venom spat from the swift throat. Though the force ofhis scales spurn thy spears, yet know there is a place under his lowestbelly whither thou mayst plunge the blade; aim at this with thy sword, and thou shalt probe the snake to his centre. Thence go fearless up tothe hill, drive the mattock, dig and ransack the holes; soon fill thypouch with treasure, and bring back to the shore thy craft laden. "

Frode believed, and crossed alone to the island, loth to attack thebeast with any stronger escort than that wherewith it was the custom forchampions to attack. When it had drunk water and was repairing to itscave, its rough and sharp hide spurned the blow of Frode's steel. Alsothe darts that he flung against it rebounded idly, foiling the effortof the thrower. But when the hard back yielded not a whit, he noted thebelly heedfully, and its softness gave entrance to the steel. The beasttried to retaliate by biting, but only struck the sharp point of itsmouth upon the shield. Then it shot out its flickering tongue again andagain, and gasped away life and venom together. 

The money which the King found made him rich; and with this supply heapproached in his fleet the region of the Kurlanders, whose king Dorn, dreading a perilous war, is said to have made a speech of the followingkind to his soldiers:

"Nobles! Our enemy is a foreigner, begirt with the arms and the wealthof almost all the West; let us, by endeavouring to defer the battle forour profit, make him a prey to famine, which is all inward malady; andhe will find it very hard to conquer a peril among his own people. It iseasy to oppose the starving. Hunger will be a better weapon against ourfoe than arms; famine will be the sharpest lance we shall hurl at him. For lack of food nourishes the pestilence that eats away men's strength, and lack of victual undermines store of weapons. Let this whirl thespears while we sit still; let this take up the prerogative and the dutyof fighting. Unimperilled, we shall be able to imperil others; we candrain their blood and lose no drop of ours. One may defeat an enemy byinaction. Who would not rather fight safely than at a loss? Who wouldstrive to suffer chastisement when he may contend unhurt? Our successin arms will be more prosperous if hunger joins battle first. Let hungercaptain us, and so let us take the first chance of conflict. Let itdecide the day in our stead, and let our camp remain free from the stirof war; if hunger retreat beaten, we must break off idleness. He who isfresh easily overpowers him who is shaken with languor. The hand thatis flaccid and withered will come fainter to the battle. He whom anyhardship has first wearied, will bring slacker hands to the steel. Whenhe that is wasted with sickness engages with the sturdy, the victoryhastens. Thus, undamaged ourselves, we shall be able to deal damage toothers. "

Having said this, he wasted all the places which he saw would be hard toprotect, distrusting his power to guard them, and he so far forestalledthe ruthlessness of the foe in ravaging his own land, that he leftnothing untouched which could be seized by those who came after. Then heshut up the greater part of his forces in a town of undoubted strength, and suffered the enemy to blockade him. Frode, distrusting his power ofattacking this town, commanded several trenches of unwonted depth tobe made within the camp, and the earth to be secretly carried out inbaskets and cast quietly into the river bordering the walls. Then he hada mass of turf put over the trenches to hide the trap: wishing to cutoff the unwary enemy by tumbling them down headlong, and thinking thatthey would be overwhelmed unawares by the slip of the subsiding earth. Then he feigned a panic, and proceeded to forsake the camp for a shortwhile. The townsmen fell upon it, missed their footing everywhere, rolled forward into the pits, and were massacred by him under a showerof spears. 

Thence he travelled and fell in with Trannon, the monarch of theRuthenians. Desiring to spy out the strength of his navy, he made anumber of pegs out of sticks, and loaded a skiff with them; and in thishe approached the enemy's fleet by night, and bored the hulls of thevessels with an auger. And to save them from a sudden influx ofthe waves, he plugged up the open holes with the pegs he had beforeprovided, and by these pieces of wood he made good the damage done bythe auger. But when he thought there were enough holes to drown thefleet, he took out the plugs, thus giving instant access to the waters, and then made haste to surround the enemy's fleet with his own. TheRuthenians were beset with a double peril, and wavered whether theyshould first withstand waves or weapons. Fighting to save their shipsfrom the foe, they were shipwrecked. Within, the peril was more terriblethan without: within, they fell back before the waves, while drawingthe sword on those without. For the unhappy men were assaulted by twodangers at once; it was doubtful whether the swiftest way of safetywas to swim or to battle to the end; and the fray was broken off atits hottest by a fresh cause of doom. Two forms of death advanced in asingle onset; two paths of destruction offered united peril: it was hardto say whether the sword or the sea hurt them more. While one man wasbeating off the swords, the waters stole up silently and took him. Contrariwise, another was struggling with the waves, when the steel cameup and encompassed him. The flowing waters were befouled with the goryspray. Thus the Ruthenians were conquered, and Frode made his way backhome. 

Finding that some envoys, whom he had sent into Russia to levy tribute, had been horribly murdered through the treachery of the inhabitants, Frode was stung by the double wrong and besieged closely their townRotel. Loth that the intervening river should delay his capture ofthe town, he divided the entire mass of the waters by making new anddifferent streams, thus changing what had been a channel of unknowndepth into passable fords; not ceasing till the speed of the eddy, slackened by the division of its outlet, rolled its waves onward infainter current, and winding along its slender reaches, slowly thinnedand dwindled into a shallow. Thus he prevailed over the river; and thetown, which lacked natural defences, he overthrew, his soldiers breakingin without resistance. This done, he took his army to the city ofPaltisca. Thinking no force could overcome it, he exchanged war forguile. He went into a dark and unknown hiding-place, only a very fewbeing in the secret, and ordered a report of his death to be spreadabroad, so as to inspire the enemy with less fear; his obsequies beingalso held, and a barrow raised, to give the tale credit. Even thesoldiers bewailed his supposed death with a mourning which was in thesecret of the trick. This rumour led Vespasins, the king of the city, to show so faint and feeble a defence, as though the victory was alreadyhis, that the enemy got a chance of breaking in, and slew him as hesported at his ease. 

Frode, when he had taken this town, aspired to the Empire of the East, and attacked the city of Handwan. This king, warned by Hadding's havingonce fired his town, accordingly cleared the tame birds out of all hishouses, to save himself from the peril of like punishment. But Frodewas not at a loss for new trickery. He exchanged garments with aserving-maid, and feigned himself to be a maiden skilled in fighting;and having thus laid aside the garb of man and imitated that of woman, he went to the town, calling himself a deserter. Here he reconnoitredeverything narrowly, and on the next day sent out an attendant withorders that the army should be up at the walls, promising that he wouldsee to it that the gates were opened. Thus the sentries were eluded andthe city despoiled while it was buried in sleep; so that it paid for itsheedlessness with destruction, and was more pitiable for its own sloththan by reason of the valour of the foe. For in warfare nought is foundto be more ruinous than that a man, made foolhardy by ease, shouldneglect and slacken his affairs and doze in arrogant self-confidence. 

Handwan, seeing that the fortunes of his country were lost andoverthrown, put all his royal wealth on shipboard and drowned it in thesea, so as to enrich the waves rather than his enemy. Yet it had beenbetter to forestall the goodwill of his adversaries with gifts of moneythan to begrudge the profit of it to the service of mankind. After this, when Frode sent ambassadors to ask for the hand of his daughter, heanswered, that he must take heed not to be spoiled by his thrivingfortunes, or to turn his triumph into haughtiness; but let him ratherbethink him to spare the conquered, and in this their abject estate torespect their former bright condition; let him learn to honour theirpast fortune in their present pitiable lot. Therefore, said Handwan, hemust mind that he did not rob of his empire the man with whom he soughtalliance, nor bespatter her with the filth of ignobleness whom hedesired to honour with marriage: else he would tarnish the honour of theunion with covetousness. The courtliness of this saying not only won himhis conqueror for son-in-law, but saved the freedom of his realm. 

Meantime Thorhild, wife of Hunding, King of the Swedes, possessed witha boundless hatred for her stepsons Ragnar and Thorwald, and fain toentangle them in divers perils, at last made them the king's shepherds. But Swanhwid, daughter of Hadding, wished to arrest by woman's wit theruin of natures so noble; and taking her sisters to serve as retinue, journeyed to Sweden. Seeing the said youths beset with sundry prodigieswhile busy watching at night over their flocks, she forbade her sisters, who desired to dismount, in a poem of the following strain:

"Monsters I behold taking swift leaps and flinging themselves over thenight places. The demon is at war, and the unholy throng, devoted to themischievous fray, battles in the mid-thoroughfare. Prodigies of aspectgrim to behold pass by, and suffer no mortal to enter this country. The ranks galloping in headlong career through the void bid us stay ouradvance in this spot; they warn us to turn our rein and hold off fromthe accursed fields, they forbid us to approach the country beyond. Ascowling horde of ghosts draws near, and scurries furiously through thewind, bellowing drearily to the stars. Fauns join Satyrs, and the throngof Pans mingles with the Spectres and battles with fierce visage. TheSwart ones meet the Woodland Spirits, and the pestilent phantoms striveto share the path with the Witches. Furies poise themselves on the leap, and on them huddle the Phantoms, whom Foreboder (Fantua) joined to theFlatnoses (Satyrs), jostles. The path that the footfarer must treadbrims with horror. It were safer to burden the back of the tall horse. "

Thereon Ragnar declared that he was a slave of the king, and gave asreason of his departure so far from home that, when he had been banishedto the country on his shepherd's business, he had lost the flock ofwhich he had charge, and despairing to recover it, had chosen ratherto forbear from returning than to incur punishment. Also, loth to saynothing about the estate of his brother, he further spoke the followingpoem:

"Think us men, not monsters; we are slaves who drove our lingeringflocks for pasture through the country. But while we took our pastime ingentle sports, our flock chanced to stray and went into far-off fields. And when our hope of finding them, our long quest failed, trouble cameupon the mind of the wretched culprits. And when sure tracks of our kinewere nowhere to be seen, dismal panic filled our guilty hearts. Thatis why, dreading the penal stripe of the rod, we thought it dolefulto return to our own roof. We supposed it safer to hold aloof from thefamiliar hearth than to bear the hand of punishment. Thus we are fain toput off the punishment; we loathe going back and our wish is to lie hidhere and escape our master's eye. This will aid us to elude the avengerof his neglected flock; and this is the one way of escape that remainssafe for us. "

Then Swanhwid gazed intently, and surveying his features, which werevery comely, admired them ardently, and said:

"The radiant flashing of thine eyes is eloquent that thou art of kinglyand not of servile stock. Beauty announces blood, and loveliness of soulglitters in the flash of the eyes. A keen glance betokens lordly birth, and it is plain that he whom fairness, that sure sign of nobleness, commends, is of no mean station. The outward alertness of thine eyessignifies a spirit of radiance within. Face vouches for race; and thelustre of forefathers is beheld in the brightness of the countenance. For an aspect so benign and noble could never have issued from baseparentage. The grace of thy blood makes thy brow mantle with a kindredgrace, and the estate of thy birth is reflected in the mirror of thycountenance. It is no obscure craftsman, therefore, that has finishedthe portrait of so choice a chasing. Now therefore turn aside with allspeed, seek constantly to depart out of the road, shun encounters withmonsters, lest ye yield your most gracious bodies to be the prey andpasture of the vilest hordes. "

But Ragnar was seized with great shame for his unsightly attire, whichhe thought was the only possible device to disguise his birth. So herejoined, "That slaves were not always found to lack manhood; that astrong hand was often hidden under squalid raiment, and sometimes astout arm was muffled trader a dusky cloak; thus the fault of naturewas retrieved by valour, and deficiency in race requited by nobleness ofspirit. He therefore feared the might of no supernatural prowess, saveof the god Thor only, to the greatness of whose force nothing humanor divine could fitly be compared. The hearts of men ought not tobe terrified at phantoms, which were only awful from their ghastlyfoulness, and whose semblances, marked by counterfeit ghostliness, werewont for a moment to borrow materiality from the fluent air. Swanhwidtherefore erred in trying, womanlike, to sap the firm strength of men, and to melt in unmanly panic that might which knew not defeat. "

Swanhwid marvelled at the young man's steadfastness, and cast off thecloud of mist which overshadowed her, dispelling the darkness whichshrouded her face, till it was clear and cloudless. Then, promisingthat she would give him a sword fitted for diver's kinds of battle, sherevealed the marvellous maiden beauty of her lustrous limbs. Thus wasthe youth kindled, and she plighted her troth with him, and profferingthe sword, she thus began:

"King, in this sword, which shall expose the monsters to thy blows, takethe first gift of thy betrothed. Show thyself duly deserving hereof; lethand rival sword, and aspire to add lustre to its weapon. Let the mightof steel strengthen the defenceless point of thy wit, and let spiritknow how to work with hand. Let the bearer match the burden: and thatthy deed may sort with thy blade, let equal weight in each be thine. What avails the javelin when the breast is weak and faint, and thequivering hands have dropped the lance? Let steel join soul, and beboth the body's armour! Let the right hand be linked with its hilt inalliance. These fight famous battles, because they always keep moreforce when together; but less when parted. Therefore if it be joy tothee to win fame by the palm of war, pursue with daring whatsoever ishard pressed by thy hand. "

After thus discoursing long in harmoniously-adjusted strains, she sentaway her retinue, and passed all the night in combat against the foulestthrongs of monsters; and at return of daybreak she perceived fallen allover the fields diverse shapes of phantoms, and figures extraordinaryto look on; and among them was seen the semblance of Thorhild herselfcovered with wounds. All these she piled in a heap and burnt, kindlinga huge pyre, lest the foul stench of the filthy carcases might spreadin pestilent vapour and hurt those who came nigh with its taint ofcorruption. This done, she won the throne of Sweden for Ragnar, andRagnar for her husband. And though he deemed it uncomely to inauguratehis first campaign with a wedding, yet, moved by gratitude for thepreservation of his safety, he kept his promise. 

Meantime one Ubbe, who had long since wedded Ulfhild the sister ofFrode, trusting in the high birth of his wife, seized the kingdom ofDenmark, which he was managing carelessly as deputy. Frode was thusforced to quit the wars of the East and fought a great battle in Swedenwith his sister Swanhwid, in which he was beaten. So he got on board askiff, and sailed stealthily in a circuit, seeking some way of boringthrough the enemy's fleet. When surprised by his sister and asked whyhe was rowing silently and following divers meandering courses, he cutshort her inquiry by a similar question; for Swanhwid had also, at thesame time of the night, taken to sailing about alone, and was stealthilysearching out all the ways of approach and retreat through devious anddangerous windings. So she reminded her brother of the freedom he hadgiven her long since, and went on to ask him that he should allow herfull enjoyment of the husband she had taken; since, before he started onthe Russian war, he had given her the boon of marrying as she would; andthat he should hold valid after the event what he had himself allowed tohappen. These reasonable entreaties touched Frode, and he made a peacewith Ragnar, and forgave, at his sister's request, the wrongdoing whichRagnar, seemed to have begun because of her wantonness. They presentedhim with a force equal to that which they had caused him to lose:a handsome gift in which he rejoiced as compensation for so ugly areverse. 

Ragnar, entering Denmark, captured Ubbe, had him brought before him, andpardoned him, preferring to visit his ill deserts with grace rather thanchastisement; because the man seemed to have aimed at the crown ratherat his wife's instance than of his own ambition, and to have been theimitator and not the cause of the wrong. But he took Ulfhild away fromhim and forced her to wed his friend Scot, the same man that founded theScottish name; esteeming change of wedlock a punishment for her. As shewent away he even escorted her in the royal chariot, requiting evilwith good; for he regarded the kinship of his sister rather than herdisposition, and took more thought for his own good name than of heriniquity. But the fair deeds of her brother did not make her obstinateand wonted hatred slacken a whit; she wore the spirit of her new husbandwith her design of slaying Frode and mastering the sovereignty of theDanes. For whatsoever design the mind has resolutely conceived, it isslow to quit; nor is a sin that is long schemed swept away by the streamof years. For the temper of later life follows the mind of childhood;nor do the traces easily fade of vices which have been stamped upon thecharacter in the impressible age. Finding the ears of her husband deaf, she diverted her treachery from her brother against her lord, hiringbravoes to cut his throat while he slept. Scot was told about this by awaiting-woman, and retired to bed in his cuirass on the night on whichhe had heard the deed of murder was to be wrought upon him. Ulfhildasked him why he had exchanged his wonted ways to wear the garb ofsteel; he rejoined that such was just then his fancy. The agents ofthe treachery, when they imagined him in a deep sleep, burst in; buthe slipped from his bed and cut them down. The result was, that heprevented Ulfhild from weaving plots against her brother, and also lefta warning to others to beware of treachery from their wives. 

Meantime the design occurred to Frode of a campaign against Friesland;he was desirous to dazzle the eyes of the West with the glory he had wonin conquering the East. He put out to ocean, and his first contest waswith Witthe, a rover of the Frisians; and in this battle he bade hiscrews patiently bear the first brunt of the enemy's charge by merelyopposing their shields, ordering that they should not use their missilesbefore they perceived that the shower of the enemy's spears was utterlysilent. This the Frisians hurled as vehemently as the Danes received itimpassively; for Witthe supposed that the long-suffering of Frode wasdue to a wish for peace. High rose the blast of the trumpet, and loudwhizzed the javelins everywhere, till at last the heedless Frisians hadnot a single lance remaining, and they were conquered, overwhelmed bythe missiles of the Danes. They fled hugging the shore, and were cut topieces amid the circuitous windings of the canals. Then Frode exploredthe Rhine in his fleet, and laid hands on the farthest parts of Germany. Then he went back to the ocean, and attacked the Frisian fleet, whichhad struck on shoals; and thus he crowned shipwreck with slaughter. Norwas he content with the destruction of so great an army of his foes, butassailed Britain, defeated its king, and attacked Melbrik, the Governorof the Scottish district. Just as he was preparing to fight him, heheard from a scout that the King of the Britons was at hand, and couldnot look to his front and his rear both at once. So he assembled thesoldiers, and ordered that they should abandon their chariots, flingaway all their goods, and scatter everywhere over the fields the goldwhich they had about them; for he declared that their one chance was tosquander their treasure; and that, now they were hemmed in, their onlyremaining help was to tempt the enemy from combat to covetousness. Theyought cheerfully to spend on so extreme a need the spoil they had gottenamong foreigners; for the enemy would drop it as eagerly, when it wasonce gathered, as they would snatch it when they first found it; for itwould be to them more burden than profit. 

Then Thorkill, who was a more notable miser and a better orator thanthem all, dishelming and leaning on his shield, said:

"O King! Most of us who rate high what we have bought with ourlife-blood find thy bidding hard. We take it ill that we should flingaway what we have won with utmost hazard; and men are loth to forsakewhat they have purchased at peril of their lives. For it is uttermadness to spurn away like women what our manly hearts and hands haveearned, and enrich the enemy beyond their hopes. What is more odiousthan to anticipate the fortune of war by despising the booty which isours, and, in terror of an evil that may never come, to quit a goodwhich is present and assured? Shall we scatter our gold upon the earth, ere we have set eyes upon the Scots? Those who faint at the thought ofwarring when they are out for war, what manner of men are they to bethought in the battle? Shall we be a derision to our foes, we who weretheir terror? Shall we take scorn instead of glory? The Briton willmarvel that he was conquered by men whom he sees fear is enough toconquer. We struck them before with panic; shall we be panic-stricken bythem? We scorned them when before us; shall we dread them when they arenot here? When will our bravery win the treasure which our cowardicerejects? Shall we shirk the fight, in scorn of the money which we foughtto win, and enrich those whom we should rightly have impoverished? Whatdeed more despicable can we do than to squander gold on those whomwe should smite with steel? Panic must never rob us of the spoils ofvalour; and only war must make us quit what in warfare we have won. Let us sell our plunder at the price at which we bought it; let thepurchase-money be weighed out in steel. It is better to die a nobledeath, than to molder away too much in love with the light life. In afleeting instant of time life forsakes us, but shame pursues us past thegrave. Further, if we cast away this gold, the greater the enemy thinksour fear, the hotter will be his chase. Besides, whichever the issue ofthe day, the gold is not hateful to us. Conquerors, we shall triumph inthe treasure which now we bear; conquered, we shall leave it to pay ourburying. "

So spoke the old man; but the soldiers regarded the advice of their kingrather than of their comrade, and thought more of the former than ofthe latter counsel. So each of them eagerly drew his wealth, whateverhe had, from his pouch; they unloaded their ponies of the various goodsthey were carrying; and having thus cleared their money-bags, girded ontheir arms more deftly. They went on, and the Britons came up, but brokeaway after the plunder which lay spread out before them. Their king, when he beheld them too greedily busied with scrambling for thetreasure, bade them "take heed not to weary with a load of riches thosehands which were meant for battle, since they ought to know that avictory must be culled ere it is counted. Therefore let them scorn thegold and give chase to the possessors of the gold; let them admire thelustre, not of lucre, but of conquest; remembering, that a trophygave more reward than gain. Courage was worth more than dross, if theymeasured aright the quality of both; for the one furnished outwardadorning, but the other enhanced both outward and inward grace. Therefore they must keep their eyes far from the sight of money, andtheir soul from covetousness, and devote it to the pursuits of war. Further, they should know that the plunder had been abandoned by theenemy of set purpose, and that the gold had been scattered rather tobetray them than to profit them. Moreover, the honest lustre of thesilver was only a bait on the barb of secret guile. It was not thoughtto be that they, who had first forced the Britons to fly, would lightlyfly themselves. Besides, nothing was more shameful than riches whichbetrayed into captivity the plunderer whom they were supposed to enrich. For the Danes thought that the men to whom they pretended to haveoffered riches ought to be punished with sword and slaughter. Let themtherefore feel that they were only giving the enemy a weapon if theyseized what he had scattered. For if they were caught by the look of thetreasure that had been exposed, they must lose, not only that, butany of their own money that might remain. What could it profit them togather what they must straightway disgorge? But if they refuse to abasethemselves before money, they would doubtless abase the foe. Thus it wasbetter for them to stand erect in valour than be grovelling in greed;with their souls not sinking into covetousness, but up and doing forrenown. In the battle they would have to use not gold but swords. "

As the king ended, a British knight, shewing them all his lapful ofgold, said:

"O King! From thy speech can be gathered two feelings; and one of themwitnesses to thy cowardice and the other to thy ill will: inasmuch asthou forbiddest us the use of the wealth because of the enemy, and alsothinkest it better that we should serve thee needy than rich. What ismore odious than such a wish? What more senseless than such a counsel?We recognise these as the treasures of our own homes, and having doneso, shall we falter to pick them up? We were on our way to regain themby fighting, we were zealous to win them back by our blood: shall weshun them when they are restored unasked? Shall we hesitate to claim ourown? Which is the greater coward, he who squanders his winnings, orhe who is fearful to pick up what is squandered? Look how chance hasrestored what compulsion took! These are, not spoils from the enemy, butfrom ourselves; the Dane took gold from Britain, he brought none. Beatenand loth we lost it; it comes back for nothing, and shall we run awayfrom it? Such a gift of fortune it were a shame to take in an unworthyspirit. For what were madder than to spurn wealth that is set openlybefore us, and to desire it when it is shut up and kept from us? Shallwe squeamishly yield what is set under our eyes, and clutch at it whenit vanishes? Shall we seek distant and foreign treasure, refraining fromwhat is made public property? If we disown what is ours, when shall wedespoil the goods of others? No anger of heaven can I experience whichcan force me to unload of its lawful burden the lap which is filled withmy father's and my grandsire's gold. I know the wantonness of the Danes:never would they have left jars full of wine had not fear forced themto flee. They would rather have sacrificed their life than their liquor. This passion we share with them, and herein we are like them. Grant thattheir flight is feigned; yet they will light upon the Scots ere theycan come back. This gold shall never rust in the country, to be troddenunderfoot of swine or brutes: it will better serve the use of men. Besides, if we plunder the spoil of the army that prevailed over us, wetransfer the luck of the conqueror to ourselves. For what surer omen oftriumph could be got, than to bear off the booty before the battle, andto capture ere the fray the camp which the enemy have forsaken? Betterconquer by fear than by steel. "

The knight had scarce ended, when behold; the hands of all were loosedupon the booty and everywhere plucked up the shining treasure. There youmight have marvelled at their disposition of filthy greed, and watcheda portentous spectacle of avarice. You could have seen gold and grassclutched up together; the birth of domestic discord; fellow-countrymenin deadly combat, heedless of the foe; neglect of the bonds ofcomradeship and of reverence for ties; greed the object of all minds, and friendship of none. 

Meantime Frode traversed in a great march the forest which separatesScotland and Britain, and bade his soldiers arm. When the Scots beheldhis line, and saw that they had only a supply of light javelins, whilethe Danes were furnished with a more excellent style of armour, theyforestalled the battle by flight. Frode pursued them but a little way, fearing a sally of the British, and on returning met Scot, the husbandof Ulfhild, with a great army; he had been brought from the utmost endsof Scotland by the desire of aiding the Danes. Scot entreated him toabandon the pursuit of the Scottish and turn back into Britain. So heeagerly regained the plunder which he had cunningly sacrificed; and gotback his wealth with the greater ease, that he had so tranquilly letit go. Then did the British repent of their burden and pay for theircovetousness with their blood. They were sorry to have clutched at greedwith insatiate arms, and ashamed to have hearkened to their own avaricerather than to the counsel of their king. 

Then Frode attacked London, the most populous city of Britain; but thestrength of its walls gave him no chance of capturing it. Therefore hereigned to be dead, and his guile strengthened him. For Daleman, thegovernor of London, on hearing the false news of his death, accepted thesurrender of the Danes, offered them a native general, and suffered themto enter the town, that they might choose him out of a great throng. They feigned to be making a careful choice, but beset Daleman in a nightsurprise and slew him. 

When he had done these things, and gone back to his own land, one Skatentertained him at a banquet, desirous to mingle his toilsome warfarewith joyous licence. Frode was lying in his house, in royal fashion, upon cushions of cloth of gold, and a certain Hunding challenged him tofight. Then, though he had bent his mind to the joys of wassail, he hadmore delight in the prospect of a fray than in the presence of a feast, and wound up the supper with a duel and the duel with a triumph. In thecombat he received a dangerous wound; but a taunt of Hakon the championagain roused him, and, slaying his challenger, he took vengeance forthe disturbance of his rest. Two of his chamber-servants were openlyconvicted of treachery, and he had them tied to vast stones anddrowned in the sea; thus chastising the weighty guilt of their souls byfastening boulders to their bodies. Some relate that Ulfhild gave him acoat which no steel could pierce, so that when he wore it no missile'spoint could hurt him. Nor must I omit how Frode was wont to sprinkle hisfood with brayed and pounded atoms of gold, as a resource against theusual snares of poisoners. While he was attacking Ragnar, the King ofSweden, who had been falsely accused of treachery, he perished, not bythe spears, but stifled in the weight of his arms and by the heat of hisown body. 

Frode left three sons, Halfdan, Ro, and Skat, who were equal in valour, and were seized with an equal desire for the throne. All thought ofsway, none was constrained by brotherly regard: for love of othersforsaketh him who is eaten up with love of self, nor can any man takethought at once for his own advancement and for his friendship withothers. Halfdan, the eldest son, disgraced his birth with the sin ofslaying his brethren, winning his kingdom by the murder of his kin;and, to complete his display of cruelty, arrested their adherents, firstconfining them in bonds, and presently hanging them. The most notablething in the fortunes of Halfdan was this, that though he devoted everyinstant of his life to the practice of cruel deeds, yet he died of oldage, and not by the steel. 

Halfdan's sons were Ro and Helge. Ro is said to have been the founder ofRoskild, which was later increased in population and enhanced in powerby Sweyn, who was famous for the surname Forkbeard. Ro was short andspare, while Helge was rather tall of stature. Dividing the realm withhis brother, Helge was allotted the domain of the sea; and attackingSkalk, the King of Sklavia, with his naval force, he slew him. Havingreduced Sklavia into a province, he scoured the various arms of the seain a wandering voyage. Savage of temper as Helge was, his cruelty wasnot greater than his lust. For he was so immoderately prone tolove, that it was doubtful whether the heat of his tyranny or of hisconcupiscence was the greater. In Thorey he ravished the maiden Thora, who bore a daughter, to whom she afterwards gave the name of Urse. Thenhe conquered in battle, before the town of Stad, the son of Syrik, Kingof Saxony, Hunding, whom he challenged, attacked, and slew in duel. Forthis he was called Hunding's-Bane, and by that name gained glory of hisvictory. He took Jutland out of the power of the Saxons, and entrustedits management to his generals, Heske, Eyr, and Ler. In Saxony heenacted that the slaughter of a freedman and of a noble should bevisited with the same punishment; as though he wished it to be clearlyknown that all the households of the Teutons were held in equalslavery, and that the freedom of all was tainted and savoured equally ofdishonour. 

Then Helge went freebooting to Thorey. But Thora had not ceased tobewail her lost virginity, and planned a shameful device in abominablevengeance for her rape. For she deliberately sent down to the beachher daughter, who was of marriageable age, and prompted her father todeflower her. And though she yielded her body to the treacherous luresof delight, yet she must not be thought to have abjured her integrityof soul, inasmuch as her fault had a ready excuse by virtue of herignorance. Insensate mother, who allowed the forfeiture of her child'schastity in order to avenge her own; caring nought for the purity of herown blood, so she might stain with incest the man who had cost her herown maidenhood at first! Infamous-hearted woman, who, to punish herdefiler, measured out as it were a second defilement to herself, whereas she clearly by the selfsame act rather swelled than lessened thetransgression! Surely, by the very act wherewith she thought to reachher revenge, she accumulated guilt; she added a sin in trying to removea crime: she played the stepdame to her own offspring, not sparing herdaughter abomination in order to atone for her own disgrace. Doubtlessher soul was brimming over with shamelessness, since she swerved so farfrom shamefastness, as without a blush to seek solace for her wrong inher daughter's infamy. A great crime, with but one atonement; namely, that the guilt of this intercourse was wiped away by a fortunateprogeny, its fruits being as delightful as its repute was evil. 

ROLF, the son of Urse, retrieved the shame of his birth by signal deedsof valour; and their exceeding lustre is honoured with bright laudationby the memory of all succeeding time. For lamentation sometimes ends inlaughter, and foul beginnings pass to fair issues. So that the father'sfault, though criminal, was fortunate, being afterwards atoned for by ason of such marvellous splendour. 

Meantime Ragnar died in Sweden; and Swanhwid his wife passed away soonafter of a malady which she had taken from her sorrow, following indeath the husband from whom she had not endured severance in life. Forit often happens that some people desire to follow out of life thosewhom they loved exceedingly when alive. Their son Hothbrodd succeededthem. Fain to extend his empire, he warred upon the East, and after ahuge massacre of many peoples begat two sons, Athisl and Hother, andappointed as their tutor a certain Gewar, who was bound to him by greatservices. Not content with conquering the East, he assailed Denmark, challenged its king, Ro, in three battles, and slew him. Helge, whenhe heard this, shut up his son Rolf in Leire, wishing, however he mighthave managed his own fortunes, to see to the safety of his heir. WhenHothbrodd sent in governors, wanting to free his country from alienrule, he posted his people about the city and prevailed and slew them. Also he annihilated Hothbrodd himself and all his forces in a navalbattle; so avenging fully the wrongs of his country as well as of hisbrother. Hence he who had before won a nickname for slaying Hunding, nowbore a surname for the slaughter of Hothbrodd. Besides, as if theSwedes had not been enough stricken in the battles, he punished them bystipulating for most humiliating terms; providing by law that no wrongdone to any of them should receive amends according to the form of legalcovenants. After these deeds, ashamed of his former infamy, he hated hiscountry and his home, went back to the East, and there died. Some thinkthat he was affected by the disgrace which was cast in his teeth, anddid himself to death by falling upon his drawn sword. 

He was succeeded by his son Rolf, who was comely with every gift of mindand body, and graced his mighty stature with as high a courage. In histime Sweden was subject to the sway of the Danes; wherefore Athisl, theson of Hothbrodd, in pursuit of a crafty design to set his country free, contrived to marry Rolf's mother, Urse, thinking that his kinship bymarriage would plead for him, and enable him to prompt his stepson moreeffectually to relax the tribute; and fortune prospered his wishes. ButAthisl had from his boyhood been imbued with a hatred of liberality, andwas so grasping of money, that he accounted it a disgrace to be calledopenhanded. Urse, seeing him so steeped in filthy covetousness, desiredto be rid of him; but, thinking that she must act by cunning, veiled theshape of her guile with a marvellous skill. Feigning to be unmotherly, she spurred on her husband to grasp his freedom, and urged and temptedhim to insurrection; causing her son to be summoned to Sweden with apromise of vast gifts. For she thought that she would best gain herdesire if, as soon as her son had got his stepfather's gold, she couldsnatch up the royal treasures and flee, robbing her husband of bedand money to hoot. For she fancied that the best way to chastise hiscovetousness would be to steal away his wealth. This deep guilefulnesswas hard to detect, from such recesses of cunning did it spring; becauseshe dissembled her longing for a change of wedlock under a show ofaspiration for freedom. Blind-witted husband, fancying the motherkindled against the life of the son, never seeing that it was rather hisown ruin being compassed! Doltish lord, blind to the obstinatescheming of his wife, who, out of pretended hatred of her son, devisedopportunity for change of wedlock! Though the heart of woman shouldnever be trusted, he believed in a woman all the more insensately, because he supposed her faithful to himself and treacherous to her son. 

Accordingly, Rolf, tempted by the greatness of the gifts, chanced toenter the house of Athisl. He was not recognised by his mother owing tohis long absence and the cessation of their common life; so in jest hefirst asked for some victual to appease his hunger. She advised himto ask the king for a luncheon. Then he thrust out a torn piece ofhis coat, and begged of her the service of sewing it up. Finding hismother's ears shut to him, he observed, "That it was hard to discover afriendship that was firm and true, when a mother refused her son a meal, and a sister refused a brother the help of her needle. " Thus he punishedhis mother's error, and made her blush deep for her refusal of kindness. Athisl, when he saw him reclining close to his mother at the banquet, taunted them both with wantonness, declaring that it was an impureintercourse of brother and sister. Rolf repelled the charge against hishonour by an appeal to the closest of natural bonds, and answered, thatit was honourable for a son to embrace a beloved mother. Also, whenthe feasters asked him what kind of courage he set above all others, henamed Endurance. When they also asked Athisl, what was the virtue whichabove all he desired most devotedly, he declared, Generosity. Proofswere therefore demanded of bravery on the one hand and munificence onthe other, and Rolf was asked to give an evidence of courage first. Hewas placed to the fire, and defending with his target the side that wasmost hotly assailed, had only the firmness of his endurance to fortifythe other, which had no defence. How dexterous, to borrow from hisshield protection to assuage the heat, and to guard his body, which wasexposed to the flames, with that which sometime sheltered it amid thehurtling spears! But the glow was hotter than the fire of spears; asthough it could not storm the side that was entrenched by theshield, yet it assaulted the flank that lacked its protection. But awaiting-maid who happened to be standing near the hearth, saw that hewas being roasted by the unbearable heat upon his ribs; so taking thestopper out of a cask, she spilt the liquid and quenched the flame, andby the timely kindness of the shower checked in its career the torturingblaze. Rolf was lauded for supreme endurance, and then came the requestfor Athisl's gifts. And they say that he showered treasures on hisstepson, and at last, in order to crown the gift, bestowed on him anenormously heavy necklace. 

Now Urse, who had watched her chance for the deed of guile, on the thirdday of the banquet, without her husband ever dreaming of such a thing, put all the king's wealth into carriages, and going out stealthily, stole away from her own dwelling and fled in the glimmering twilight, departing with her son. Thrilled with fear of her husband's pursuit, andutterly despairing of escape beyond, she begged and bade her companionsto cast away the money, declaring that they must lose either life orriches; the short and only path to safety lay in flinging away thetreasure, nor could any aid to escape be found save in the loss of theirpossessions. Therefore, said she, they must follow the example of themanner in which Frode was said to have saved himself among the Britons. She added, that it was not paying a great price to lay down the Swedes'own goods for them to regain; if only they could themselves gain a startin flight, by the very device which would check the others in theirpursuit, and if they seemed not so much to abandon their own possessionsas to restore those of other men. Not a moment was lost; in order tomake the flight swifter, they did the bidding of the queen. The gold iscleared from their purses; the riches are left for the enemy to seize. Some declare that Urse kept back the money, and strewed the tracks ofher flight with copper that was gilt over. For it was thought crediblethat a woman who could scheme such great deeds could also have paintedwith lying lustre the metal that was meant to be lost, mimicking richesof true worth with the sheen of spurious gold. So Athisl, when he sawthe necklace that he had given to Rolf left among the other goldenornaments, gazed fixedly upon the dearest treasure of his avarice, and, in order to pick up the plunder, glued his knees to the earth anddeigned to stoop his royalty unto greed. Rolf, seeing him lie abjectlyon his face in order to gather up the money, smiled at the sight of aman prostrated by his own gifts, just as if he were seeking covetouslyto regain what he had craftily yielded up. The Swedes were contentwith their booty, and Rolf quickly retired to his ships, and managed toescape by rowing violently. 

Now they relate that Rolf used with ready generosity to grant at thefirst entreaty whatsoever he was begged to bestow, and never put off therequest till the second time of asking. For he preferred to forestallrepeated supplication by speedy liberality, rather than mar his kindnessby delay. This habit brought him a great concourse of champions; valourhaving commonly either rewards for its food or glory for its spur. 

At this time, a certain Agnar, son of Ingild, being about to wed Rute, the sister of Rolf, celebrated his bridal with a great banquet. Thechampions were rioting at this banquet with every sort of wantonness, and flinging from all over the room knobbed bones at a certain Hjalte;but it chanced that his messmate, named Bjarke, received a violent blowon the head through the ill aim of the thrower; at whom, stung both bythe pain and the jeering, he sent the bone back, so that he twisted thefront of his head to the back, and wrung the back of it to where thefront had been; punishing the wryness of the man's temper by turning hisface sidelong. This deed moderated their wanton and injurious jests, anddrove the champions to quit the place. The bridegroom, nettled at thisaffront to the banquet, resolved to fight Bjarke, in order to seekvengeance by means of a duel for the interruption of their mirth. At theoutset of the duel there was a long dispute, which of them ought to havethe chance of striking first. For of old, in the ordering of combats, men did not try to exchange their blows thick and fast; but there wasa pause, and at the same time a definite succession in striking: thecontest being carried on with few strokes, but those terrible, so thathonour was paid more to the mightiness than to the number of the blows. Agnar, being of higher rank, was put first; and the blow which he dealtis said to have been so furious, that he cut through the front of thehelmet, wounded the skin on the scalp, and had to let go his sword, which became locked in the vizor-holes. Then Bjarke, who was to dealthe return-stroke, leaned his foot against a stock, in order to give thefreer poise to his steel, and passed his fine-edged blade through themidst of Agnar's body. Some declare that Agnar, in supreme suppressionof his pain, gave up the ghost with his lips relaxed into a smile. Thechampions passionately sought to avenge him, but were visited by Bjarkewith like destruction; for he used a sword of wonderful sharpness andunusual length which he called Lovi. While he was triumphing in thesedeeds of prowess, a beast of the forest furnished him fresh laurels. Forhe met a huge bear in a thicket, and slew it with a javelin; and thenbade his companion Hjalte put his lips to the beast and drink the bloodthat came out, that he might be the stronger afterwards. For it wasbelieved that a draught of this sort caused an increase of bodilystrength. By these valorous achievements he became intimate with themost illustrious nobles, and even, became a favourite of the king; tookto wife his sister Rute, and had the bride of the conquered as the prizeof the conquest. When Rolf was harried by Athisl he avenged himself onhim in battle and overthrew Athisl in war. Then Rolf gave his sisterSkulde in marriage to a youth of keen wit, called Hiartuar, and made himgovernor of Sweden, ordaining a yearly tax; wishing to soften the lossof freedom to him by the favour of an alliance with himself. 

Here let me put into my work a thing that it is mirthful to record. Ayouth named Wigg, scanning with attentive eye the bodily size of Rolf, and smitten with great wonder thereat, proceeded to inquire in jestwho was that "Krage" whom Nature in her beauty had endowed with suchtowering stature? Meaning humorously to banter his uncommon tallness. For "Krage" in the Danish tongue means a tree-trunk, whose branches arepollarded, and whose summit is climbed in such wise that the footuses the lopped timbers as supports, as if leaning on a ladder, and, gradually advancing to the higher parts, finds the shortest way to thetop. Rolf accepted this random word as though it were a name of honourfor him, and rewarded the wit of the saying with a heavy bracelet. ThenWigg, thrusting out his right arm decked with the bracelet, put his leftbehind his back in affected shame, and walked with a ludicrous gait, declaring that he, whose lot had so long been poverty-stricken, was gladof a scanty gift. When he was asked why he was behaving so, he saidthat the arm which lacked ornament and had no splendour to boast ofwas mantling with the modest blush of poverty to behold the other. Theingenuity of this saying won him a present to match the first. ForRolf made him bring out to view, like the other, the hand which he washiding. Nor was Wigg heedless to repay the kindness; for he promised, uttering a strict vow, that, if it befell Rolf to perish by the sword, he would himself take vengeance on his slayers. Nor should it be omittedthat in old time nobles who were entering. The court used to devote totheir rulers the first-fruits of their service by vowing some mightyexploit; thus bravely inaugurating their first campaign. 

Meantime, Skulde was stung with humiliation at the payment of thetribute, and bent her mind to devise deeds of horror. Taunting herhusband with his ignominious estate, she urged and egged him to breakoff his servitude, induced him to weave plots against Rolf, and filledhis mind with the most abominable plans of disloyalty, declaring thateveryone owed more to their freedom than to kinship. Accordingly, sheordered huge piles of arms to be muffled up under divers coverings, to be carried by Hiartuar into Denmark, as if they were tribute: thesewould furnish a store wherewith to slay the king by night. So thevessels were loaded with the mass of pretended tribute, and theyproceeded to Leire, a town which Rolf had built and adorned with therichest treasure of his realm, and which, being a royal foundation anda royal seat, surpassed in importance all the cities of the neighbouringdistricts. The king welcomed the coming of Hiartuar with a splendidbanquet, and drank very deep, while his guests, contrary to theircustom, shunned immoderate tippling. So, while all the others weresleeping soundly, the Swedes, who had been kept from their ordinary restby their eagerness on their guilty purpose, began furtively to slip downfrom their sleeping-rooms. Straightway uncovering the hidden heap ofweapons, each girded on his arms silently and then went to the palace. Bursting into its recesses, they drew their swords upon the sleepingfigures. Many awoke; but, invaded as much by the sudden and dreadfulcarnage as by the drowsiness of sleep, they faltered in theirresistance; for the night misled them and made it doubtful whether thosethey met were friends or foes. Hjalte, who was foremost in tried braveryamong the nobles of the king, chanced to have gone out in the dead ofthat same night into the country and given himself to the embraces of aharlot. But when his torpid hearing caught from afar the rising din ofbattle, preferring valour to wantonness, he chose rather to seek thedeadly perils of the War-god than to yield to the soft allurements ofLove. What a love for his king, must we suppose, burned in this warrior!For he might have excused his absence by feigning not to have known; buthe thought it better to expose his life to manifest danger than save itfor pleasure. As he went away, his mistress asked him how aged a manshe ought to marry if she were to lose him? Then Hjalte bade her comecloser, as though he would speak to her more privately; and, resentingthat she needed a successor to his love, he cut off her nose and madeher unsightly, punishing the utterance of that wanton question with ashameful wound, and thinking that the lecherousness of her soul ought tobe cooled by outrage to her face. When he had done this, he said he lefther choice free in the matter she had asked about. Then he went quicklyback to the town and plunged into the densest of the fray, mowing downthe opposing ranks as he gave blow for blow. Passing the sleeping-roomof Bjarke, who was still slumbering, he bade him wake up, addressing himas follows:

"Let him awake speedily, whoso showeth himself by service or avowethhimself in mere loyalty, a friend of the king! Let the princes shake offslumber, let shameless lethargy begone; let their spirits awake and warmto the work; each man's own right hand shall either give him to glory, or steep him in sluggard shame; and this night shall be either end orvengeance of our woes. 

"I do not now bid ye learn the sports of maidens, nor stroke softcheeks, nor give sweet kisses to the bride and press the slenderbreasts, nor desire the flowing wine and chafe the soft thigh and casteyes upon snowy arms. I call you out to the sterner fray of War. We needthe battle, and not light love; nerveless languor has no business here:our need calls for battles. Whoso cherishes friendship for the king, let him take up arms. Prowess in war is the readiest appraiser of men'sspirits. Therefore let warriors have no fearfulness and the brave nofickleness: let pleasure quit their soul and yield place to arms. Gloryis now appointed for wages; each can be the arbiter of his own renown, and shine by his own right hand. Let nought here be tricked out withwantonness: let all be full of sternness, and learn how to rid them ofthis calamity. He who covets the honours or prizes of glory must not befaint with craven fear, but go forth to meet the brave, nor whiten atthe cold steel. "

At this utterance, Bjarke, awakened, roused up his chamber-page Skalkspeedily, and addressed him as follows:

"Up, lad, and fan the fire with constant blowing; sweep the hearth clearof wood, and scatter the fine ashes. Strike out sparks from the fire, rouse the fallen embers, draw out the smothered blaze. Force theslackening hearth to yield light by kindling the coals to a red glowwith a burning log. It will do me good to stretch out my fingers whenthe fire is brought nigh. Surely he that takes heed for his friendshould have warm hands, and utterly drive away the blue and hurtfulchill. "

Hjalte said again: "Sweet is it to repay the gifts received from ourlord, to grip the swords, and devote the steel to glory. Behold, eachman's courage tells him loyally to follow a king of such deserts, and toguard our captain with fitting earnestness. Let the Teuton swords, thehelmets, the shining armlets, the mail-coats that reach the heel, whichRolf of old bestowed upon his men, let these sharpen our mindful heartsto the fray. The time requires, and it is just, that in time of war weshould earn whatsoever we have gotten in the deep idleness of peace, that we should not think more of joyous courses than of sorrowfulfortunes, or always prefer prosperity to hardship. Being noble, let uswith even soul accept either lot, nor let fortune sway our behaviour, for it beseems us to receive equably difficult and delightsome days; letus pass the years of sorrow with the same countenance wherewith we tookthe years of joy. Let us do with brave hearts all the things that in ourcups we boasted with sodden lips; let us keep the vows which we sworeby highest Jove and the mighty gods. My master is the greatest of theDanes: let each man, as he is valorous, stand by him; far, far hence beall cowards! We need a brave and steadfast man, not one that turns hisback on a dangerous pass, or dreads the grim preparations for battle. Often a general's greatest valour depends on his soldiery, for thechief enters the fray all the more at ease that a better array ofnobles throngs him round. Let the thane catch up his arms with fightingfingers, setting his right hand on the hilt and holding fast the shield:let him charge upon the foes, nor pale at any strokes. Let none offerhimself to be smitten by the enemy behind, let none receive the swordsin his back: let the battling breast ever front the blow. `Eagles fightbrow foremost', and with swift gaping beaks speed onward in the front:be ye like that bird in mien, shrinking from no stroke, but with bodyfacing the foe. 

"See how the enemy, furious and confident overduly, his limbs defendedby the steel, and his face with a gilded helmet, charges the thickof the battle-wedges, as though sure of victory, fearless of rout andinvincible by any endeavour. Ah, misery! Swedish assurance spurns theDanes. Behold, the Goths with savage eyes and grim aspect advance withcrested helms and clanging spears: wreaking heavy slaughter in ourblood, they wield their swords and their battle-axes hone-sharpened. 

"Why name thee, Hiartuar, whom Skulde hath filled with guilty purpose, and hath suffered thus to harden in sin? Why sing of thee, villain, whohast caused our peril, betrayer of a noble king? Furious lust of swayhath driven thee to attempt an abomination, and, stung with frenzy, toscreen thyself behind thy wife's everlasting guilt. What error hathmade thee to hurt the Danes and thy lord, and hurled thee into such foulcrime as this? Whence entered thy heart the treason framed with suchcareful guile?

"Why do I linger? Now we have swallowed our last morsel. Our kingperishes, and utter doom overtakes our hapless city. Our last dawn hasrisen, unless perchance there be one here so soft that he fears to offerhimself to the blows, or so unwarlike that he dares not avenge his lord, and disowns all honours worthy of his valour. 

"Thou, Ruta, rise and put forth thy snow-white head, come forth fromthy hiding into the battle. The carnage that is being done without callsthee. By now the council-chamber is shaken with warfare, and the gatescreak with the dreadful fray. Steel rends the mail-coats, the woven meshis torn apart, and the midriff gives under the rain of spears. By nowthe huge axes have hacked small the shield of the king; by now the longswords clash, and the battle-axe clatters its blows upon the shouldersof men, and cleaves their breasts. Why are your hearts afraid? Why isyour sword faint and blunted? The gate is cleared of our people, and isfilled with the press of the strangers. "

And when Hjalte had wrought very great carnage and stained the battlewith blood, he stumbled for the third time on Bjarke's berth, andthinking he desired to keep quiet because he was afraid, made trial ofhim with such taunts at his cowardice as these:

"Bjarke, why art thou absent? Doth deep sleep hold thee? I prithee, whatmakes thee tarry? Come out, or the fire will overcome thee. Ho! Choosethe better way, charge with me! Bears may be kept off with fire; letus spread fire in the recesses, and let the blaze attack the door-postsfirst. Let the firebrand fall upon the bedchamber, let the falling roofoffer fuel for the flames and serve to feed the fire. It is right toscatter conflagration on the doomed gates. But let us who honour ourking with better loyalty form the firm battle-wedges, and, havingmeasured the phalanx in safe rows, go forth in the way the king taughtus: our king, who laid low Rorik, the son of Bok the covetous, andwrapped the coward in death. He was rich in wealth, but in enjoymentpoor, stronger in gain than bravery; and thinking gold better thanwarfare, he set lucre above all things, and ingloriously accumulatedpiles of treasure, scorning the service of noble friends. And when hewas attacked by the navy of Rolf, he bade his servants take the goldfrom the chests and spread it out in front of the city gates, makingready bribes rather than battle, because he knew not the soldier, andthought that the foe should be attempted with gifts and not with arms:as though he could fight with wealth alone, and prolong the war byusing, not men, but wares! So he undid the heavy coffers and the richchests; he brought forth the polished bracelets and the heavy caskets;they only fed his destruction. Rich in treasure, poor in warriors, heleft his foes to take away the prizes which he forebore to give to thefriends of his own land. He who once shrank to give little rings of hisown will, now unwillingly squandered his masses of wealth, rifling hishoarded heap. But our king in his wisdom spurned him and the gifts heproffered, and took from him life and goods at once; nor was his foeprofited by the useless wealth which he had greedily heaped up throughlong years. But Rolf the righteous assailed him, slew him, and capturedhis vast wealth, and shared among worthy friends what the hand ofavarice had piled up in all those years; and, bursting into the campwhich was wealthy but not brave, gave his friends a lordly booty withoutbloodshed. Nothing was so fair to him that he would not lavish it, or sodear that he would not give it to his friends, for he used treasure likeashes, and measured his years by glory and not by gain. Whence it isplain that the king who hath died nobly lived also most nobly, that thehour of his doom is beautiful, and that he graced the years of his lifewith manliness. For while he lived his glowing valour prevailed over allthings, and he was allotted might worthy of his lofty stature. He wasas swift to war as a torrent tearing down to sea, and as speedy to beginbattle as a stag is to fly with cleft foot upon his fleet way. 

"See now, among the pools dripping with human blood, the teeth struckout of the slain are carried on by the full torrent of gore, and arepolished on the rough sands. Dashed on the slime they glitter, and thetorrent of blood bears along splintered bones and flows above loppedlimbs. The blood of the Danes is wet, and the gory flow stagnates fararound, and the stream pressed out of the steaming veins rolls back thescattered bodies. Tirelessly against the Danes advances Hiartuar, loverof battle, and challenges the fighters with outstretched spear. Yethere, amid the dangers and dooms of war, I see Frode's grandson smilingjoyously, who once sowed the fields of Fyriswald with gold. Let us alsobe exalted with an honourable show of joy, following in death the doomof our noble father. Be we therefore cheery in voice and bold in daring;for it is right to spurn all fear with words of courage, and to meet ourdeath in deeds of glory. Let fear quit heart and face; in both let usavow our dauntless endeavours, that no sign anywhere may show us tobetray faltering fear. Let our drawn sword measure the weight of ourservice. Fame follows us in death, and glory shall outlive our crumblingashes! And that which perfect valour hath achieved during its span shallnot fade for ever and ever. What want we with closed floors? Why doththe locked bolt close the folding-gates? For it is now the third cry, Bjarke, that calls thee, and bids thee come forth from the barred room. "

Bjarke rejoined: "Warlike Hjalte, why dost thou call me so loud? I amthe son-in-law of Rolf. He who boasts loud and with big words challengesother men to battle, is bound to be venturous and act up to his words, that his deed may avouch his vaunt. But stay till I am armed and havegirded on the dread attire of war. 

"And now I tie my sword to my side, now first I get my body guarded withmail-coat and headpiece, the helm keeping my brows and the stoutiron shrouding my breast. None shrinks more than I from being burnt aprisoner inside, and made a pyre together with my own house: though anisland brought me forth, and though the land of my birth be bounded, Ishall hold it a debt to repay to the king the twelve kindreds which headded to my honours. Hearken, warriors! Let none robe in mail his bodythat shall perish; let him last of all draw tight the woven steel; letthe shields go behind the back; let us fight with bared breasts, and load all your arms with gold. Let your right hands receive thebracelets, that they may swing their blows the more heavily and plantthe grievous wound. Let none fall back! Let each zealously strive tomeet the swords of the enemy and the threatening spears, that we mayavenge our beloved master. Happy beyond all things is he who can meteout revenge for such a crime, and with righteous steel punish the guiltof treacheries. 

"Lo, methinks I surely pierced a wild stag with the Teutonic sword whichis called Snyrtir: from which I won the name of Warrior, when I felledAgnar, son of Ingild, and brought the trophy home. He shattered andbroke with the bite the sword Hoding which smote upon my head, and wouldhave dealt worse wounds if the edge of his blade had held out better. In return I clove asunder his left arm and part of his left side andhis right foot, and the piercing steel ran down his limbs and smote deepinto his ribs. By Hercules! No man ever seemed to me stronger than he. For he sank down half-conscious, and, leaning on his elbow, welcomeddeath with a smile, and spurned destruction with a laugh, and passedrejoicing in the world of Elysium. Mighty was the man's courage, whichknew how with one laugh to cover his death-hour, and with a joyous faceto suppress utter anguish of mind and body!

"Now also with the same blade I searched the heart of one sprung froman illustrious line, and plunged the steel deep in his breast. He was aking's son, of illustrious ancestry, of a noble nature, and shone withthe brightness of youth. The mailed metal could not avail him, nor hissword, nor the smooth target-boss; so keen was the force of my steel, itknew not how to be stayed by obstacles. 

"Where, then, are the captains of the Goths, and the soldiery ofHiartuar? Let them come, and pay for their might with their life-blood. Who can cast, who whirl the lance, save scions of kings? War springsfrom the nobly born: famous pedigrees are the makers of war. For theperilous deeds which chiefs attempt are not to be done by the venturesof common men. Renowned nobles are passing away. Lo! Greatest Rolf, thygreat ones have fallen, thy holy line is vanishing. No dim and lowlyrace, no low-born dead, no base souls are Pluto's prey, but he weavesthe dooms of the mighty, and fills Phlegethon with noble shapes. 

"I do not remember any combat wherein swords were crossed in turn andblow dealt out for blow more speedily. I take three for each I give;thus do the Goths requite the wounds I deal them, and thus doth thestronger hand of the enemy avenge with heaped interest the punishmentthat they receive. Yet singly in battle I have given over the bodies ofso many men to the pyre of destruction, that a mound like a hill couldgrow up and be raised out of their lopped limbs, and the piles ofcarcases would look like a burial-barrow. And now what doeth he, who butnow bade me come forth, vaunting himself with mighty praise, and chafingothers with his arrogant words, and scattering harsh taunts, as thoughin his one body he enclosed twelve lives?"

Hjalte answered: "Though I have but scant help, I am not far off. Evenhere, where I stand, there is need of aid, and nowhere is a force or achosen band of warriors ready for battle wanted more. Already the hardedges and the spear-points have cleft my shield in splinters, and theravening steel has rent and devoured its portions bit by bit in thebattle. The first of these things testifies to and avows itself. Seeingis better than telling, eyesight faithfuller than hearing. For of thebroken shield only the fastenings remain, and the boss, pierced andbroken in its circle, is all left me. And now, Bjarke, thou art strong, though thou hast come forth more tardily than was right, and thouretrievest by bravery the loss caused by thy loitering. "

But Bjarke said: "Art thou not yet weary of girding at me and goading mewith taunts? Many things often cause delay. The reason why I tarried wasthe sword in my path, which the Swedish foe whirled against my breastwith mighty effort. Nor did the guider of the hilt drive home the swordwith little might; for though the body was armed he smote it as far asone may when it is bare or defenceless; he pierced the armour of hardsteel like yielding waters; nor could the rough, heavy breastplate giveme any help. 

"But where now is he that is commonly called Odin, the mighty in battle, content ever with a single eye? If thou see him anywhere, Rute, tellme. "

Rute replied: "Bring thine eye closer and look under my arm akimbo:thou must first hallow thine eyes with the victorious sign, if thou wiltsafely know the War-god face to face. "

Then said Bjarke: "If I may look on the awful husband of Frigg, howsoever he be covered with his white shield, and guide his tall steed, he shall in no wise go safe out of Leire; it is lawful to lay low in warthe war-waging god. Let a noble death come to those that fall before theeyes of their king. While life lasts, let us strive for the power to diehonourably and to reap a noble end by our deeds. I will die overpowerednear the head of my slain captain, and at his feet thou also shalt slipon thy face in death, so that whoso scans the piled corpses may see inwhat wise we rate the gold our lord gave us. We shall be the prey ofravens and a morsel for hungry eagles, and the ravening bird shall feaston the banquet of our body. Thus should fall princes dauntless in war, clasping their famous king in a common death. "

I have composed this particular series of harangues in metrical shape, because the gist of the same thoughts is found arranged in a short formin a certain ancient Danish song, which is repeated by heart by manyconversant with antiquity. 

Now, it came to pass that the Goths gained the victory and all the arrayof Rolf fell, no man save Wigg remaining out of all those warriors. Forthe soldiers of the king paid this homage to his noble virtues in thatbattle, that his slaying inspired in all the longing to meet their end, and union with him in death was accounted sweeter than life. 

HIARTUAR rejoiced, and had the tables spread for feasting, bidding thebanquet come after the battle, and fain to honour his triumph with acarouse. And when he was well filled therewith, he said that it wasmatter of great marvel to him, that out of all the army of Rolf no manhad been found to take thought for his life by flight or fraud. Hence, he said, it had been manifest with what zealous loyalty they had kepttheir love for their king, because they had not endured to survive him. He also blamed his ill fortune, because it had not suffered the homageof a single one of them to be left for himself: protesting that he wouldvery willingly accept the service of such men. Then Wigg came forth, andHiartuar, as though he were congratulating him on the gift, asked him ifhe were willing to fight for him. Wigg assenting, he drew and proferredhim a sword. But Wigg refused the point, and asked for the hilt, sayingfirst that this had been Rolf's custom when he handed forth a sword tohis soldiers. For in old time those who were about to put themselves independence on the king used to promise fealty by touching the hilt ofthe sword. And in this wise Wigg clasped the hilt, and then drove thepoint through Hiartuar; thus gaining the vengeance which he had promisedRolf to accomplish for him. When he had done this, and the soldiersof Hiartuar rushed at him, he exposed his body to them eagerly andexultantly, shouting that he felt more joy in the slaughter of thetyrant than bitterness at his own. Thus the feast was turned intoa funeral, and the wailing of burial followed the joy of victory. Glorious, ever memorable hero, who valiantly kept his vow, andvoluntarily courted death, staining with blood by his service the tablesof the despot! For the lively valour of his spirit feared not the handsof the slaughterers, when he had once beheld the place where Rolf hadbeen wont to live bespattered with the blood of his slayer. Thus theroyalty of Hiartuar was won and ended on the same day. For whatsoeveris gotten with guile melts away in like fashion as it is sought, and nofruits are long-lasting that have been won by treachery and crime. Hence it came to pass that the Swedes, who had a little before been thepossessors of Denmark, came to lose even their own liberty. For theywere straightway cut off by the Zealanders, and paid righteous atonementto the injured shades of Rolf. In this way does stern fortune commonlyavenge the works of craft and cunning. 

BOOK THREE. 

After Hiartuar, HOTHER, whom I mentioned above, the brother of Athisl, and also the fosterling of King Gewar, became sovereign of both realms. It will be easier to relate his times if I begin with the beginningof his life. For if the earlier years of his career are not doomed tosilence, the latter ones can be more fully and fairly narrated. 

When Helgi had slain Hodbrodd, his son Hother passed the length of hisboyhood under the tutelage of King Gewar. While a stripling, he excelledin strength of body all his foster-brethren and compeers. Moreover, hewas gifted with many accomplishments of mind. He was very skilled inswimming and archery, and also with the gloves; and further was asnimble as such a youth could be, his training being equal to hisstrength. Though his years were unripe, his richly-dowered spiritsurpassed them. None was more skilful on lyre or harp; and he wascunning on the timbrel, on the lute, and in every modulation of stringinstruments. With his changing measures he could sway the feelings ofmen to what passions he would; he knew how to fill human hearts with joyor sadness, with pity or with hatred, and used to enwrap the soul withthe delight or terror of the ear. All these accomplishments of the youthpleased Nanna, the daughter of Gewar, mightily, and she began to seekhis embraces. For the valour of a youth will often kindle a maid, andthe courage of those whose looks are not so winning is often acceptable. For love hath many avenues; the path of pleasure is opened to someby grace, to others by bravery of soul, and to some by skill inaccomplishments. Courtesy brings to some stores of Love, while most arecommended by brightness of beauty. Nor do the brave inflict a shallowerwound on maidens than the comely. 

Now it befell that Balder the son of Odin was troubled at the sight ofNanna bathing, and was seized with boundless love. He was kindled by herfair and lustrous body, and his heart was set on fire by her manifestbeauty; for nothing exciteth passion like comeliness. Therefore heresolved to slay with the sword Hother, who, he feared, was likeliest tobaulk his wishes; so that his love, which brooked no postponement, mightnot be delayed in the enjoyment of its desire by any obstacle. 

About this time Hother chanced, while hunting, to be led astray by amist, and he came on a certain lodge in which were wood-maidens; andwhen they greeted him by his own name, he asked who they were. They declared that it was their guidance and government that mainlydetermined the fortunes of war. For they often invisibly took partin battles, and by their secret assistance won for their friends thecoveted victories. They averted, indeed, that they could win triumphsand inflict defeats as they would; and further told him how Balder hadseen his foster-sister Nanna while she bathed, and been kindled withpassion for her; but counselled Hother not to attack him in war, worthyas he was of his deadliest hate, for they declared that Balder was ademigod, sprung secretly from celestial seed. When Hother had heardthis, the place melted away and left him shelterless, and he foundhimself standing in the open and out in the midst of the fields, withouta vestige of shade. Most of all he marvelled at the swift flight of themaidens, the shifting of the place, and the delusive semblance of thebuilding. For he knew not that all that had passed around him had been amere mockery and an unreal trick of the arts of magic. 

Returning thence, he related to Gewar the mystification that hadfollowed on his straying, and straightway asked him for his daughter. Gewar answered that he would most gladly favour him, but that he fearedif he rejected Balder he would incur his wrath; for Balder, he said, hadproffered him a like request. For he said that the sacred strength ofBalder's body was proof even against steel; adding, however, that heknew of a sword which could deal him his death, which was fastened up inthe closest bonds; this was in the keeping of Miming, the Satyr of thewoods, who also had a bracelet of a secret and marvellous virtue, thatused to increase the wealth of the owner. Moreover, the way to theseregions was impassable and filled with obstacles, and therefore hard formortal men to travel. For the greater part of the road was perpetuallybeset with extraordinary cold. So he advised him to harness a car withreindeer, by means of whose great speed he could cross the hard-frozenridges. And when he had got to the place, he should set up his tent awayfrom the sun in such wise that it should catch the shadow of the cavewhere Miming was wont to be; while he should not in return cast ashade upon Miming, so that no unaccustomed darkness might be thrown andprevent the Satyr from going out. Thus both the bracelet and the swordwould be ready to his hand, one being attended by fortune in wealthand the other by fortune in war, and each of them thus bringing a greatprize to the owner. Thus much said Gewar; and Hother was not slow tocarry out his instructions. Planting his tent in the manner aforesaid, he passed the nights in anxieties and the days in hunting. But througheither season he remained very wakeful and sleepless, allotting thedivisions of night and day so as to devote the one to reflection onevents, and to spend the other in providing food for his body. Once ashe watched all night, his spirit was drooping and dazed with anxiety, when the Satyr cast a shadow on his tent. Aiming a spear at him, hebrought him down with the blow, stopped him, and bound him, while hecould not make his escape. Then in the most dreadful words he threatenedhim with the worst, and demanded the sword and bracelets. The Satyr wasnot slow to tender him the ransom of his life for which he was asked. So surely do all prize life beyond wealth; for nothing is ever cherishedmore among mortals than the breath of their own life. Hother, exultingin the treasure he had gained, went home enriched with trophies which, though few, were noble. 

When Gelder, the King of Saxony, heard that Hother had gained thesethings, he kept constantly urging his soldiers to go and carry off suchglorious booty; and the warriors speedily equipped a fleet in obedienceto their king. Gewar, being very learned in divining and an expert inthe knowledge of omens, foresaw this; and summoning Hother, told him, when Gelder should join battle with him, to receive his spears withpatience, and not let his own fly until he saw the enemy's missilesexhausted; and further, to bring up the curved scythes wherewith thevessels could be rent and the helmets and shields plucked from thesoldiers. Hother followed his advice and found its result fortunate. Forhe bade his men, when Gelder began to charge, to stand their ground anddefend their bodies with their shields, affirming that the victory inthat battle must be won by patience. But the enemy nowhere kept backtheir missiles, spending them all in their extreme eagerness to fight;and the more patiently they found Hother bear himself in his receptionof their spears and lances, the more furiously they began to hurl them. Some of these stuck in the shields and some in the ships, and few werethe wounds they inflicted; many of them were seen to be shaken off idlyand to do no hurt. For the soldiers of Hother performed the biddingof their king, and kept off the attack of the spears by a penthouse ofinterlocked shields; while not a few of the spears smote lightly onthe bosses and fell into the waves. When Gelder was emptied of all hisstore, and saw the enemy picking it up, and swiftly hurling it backat him, he covered the summit of the mast with a crimson shield, as asignal of peace, and surrendered to save his life. Hother received himwith the friendliest face and the kindliest words, and conquered him asmuch by his gentleness as he had by his skill. 

At this time Helgi, King of Halogaland, was sending frequent embassiesto press his suit for Thora, daughter of Kuse, sovereign of the Finnsand Perms. Thus is weakness ever known by its wanting help from others. For while all other young men of that time used to sue in marriage withtheir own lips, this man was afflicted with so faulty an utterance thathe was ashamed to be heard not only by strangers, but by those of hisown house. So much doth calamity shun all witnesses; for natural defectsare the more vexing the more manifest they are. Kuse despised hisembassy, answering that that man did not deserve a wife who trusted toolittle to his own manhood, and borrowed by entreaty the aid of others inorder to gain his suit. When Helgi heard this, he besought Hother, whomhe knew to be an accomplished pleader, to favour his desires, promisingthat he would promptly perform whatsoever he should command him. Theearnest entreaties of the youth prevailed on Hother, and he went toNorway with an armed fleet, intending to achieve by arms the end whichhe could not by words. And when he had pleaded for Helgi with themost dulcet eloquence, Kuse rejoined that his daughter's wish must beconsulted, in order that no paternal strictness might forestall anythingagainst her will. He called her in and asked her whether she felt aliking for her wooer; and when she assented he promised Helgi her hand. In this way Hother, by the sweet sounds of his fluent and well-turnedoratory, opened the ears of Kuse, which were before deaf to the suit heurged. 

While this was passing in Halogaland, Balder entered the country ofGewar armed, in order to sue for Nanna. Gewar bade him learn Nanna'sown mind; so he approached the maiden with the most choice and cajolingwords; and when he could win no hearing for his prayers, he persisted inasking the reason of his refusal. She replied, that a god could not wedwith a mortal, because the vast difference of their natures preventedany bond of intercourse. Also the gods sometimes used to break theirpledges; and the bond contracted between unequals was apt to snapsuddenly. There was no firm tie between those of differing estate; forbeside the great, the fortunes of the lowly were always dimmed. Alsolack and plenty dwelt in diverse tents, nor was there any fast bond ofintercourse between gorgeous wealth and obscure poverty. In fine, thethings of earth would not mate with those of heaven, being sundered bya great original gulf through a difference in nature; inasmuch as mortalman was infinitely far from the glory of the divine majesty. Withthis shuffling answer she eluded the suit of Balder, and shrewdly woveexcuses to refuse his hand. 

When Hother heard this from Gewar, he complained long to Helgi ofBalder's insolence. Both were in doubt as to what should be done, andbeat their brains over divers plans; for converse with a friend in theday of trouble, though it removeth not the peril, yet maketh the heartless sick. Amid all the desires of their souls the passion of valourprevailed, and a naval battle was fought with Balder. One would havethought it a contest of men against gods, for Odin and Thor and the holyarray of the gods fought for Balder. There one could have beheld a warin which divine and human might were mingled. But Hother was clad inhis steel-defying tunic, and charged the closest bands of the gods, assailing them as vehemently as a son of earth could assail the powersabove. However, Thor was swinging his club with marvellous might, andshattered all interposing shields, calling as loudly on his foesto attack him as upon his friends to back him up. No kind of armourwithstood his onset, no man could receive his stroke and live. Whatsoever his blow fended off it crushed; neither shield nor helmendured the weight of its dint; no greatness of body or of strengthcould serve. Thus the victory would have passed to the gods, but thatHother, though his line had already fallen back, darted up, hewed offthe club at the haft, and made it useless. And the gods, when they hadlost this weapon, fled incontinently. But that antiquity vouches for it, it were quite against common belief to think that men prevailed againstgods. (We call them gods in a supposititious rather than in a realsense; for to such we give the title of deity by the custom of nations, not because of their nature. )

As for Balder, he took to flight and was saved. The conquerors eitherhacked his ships with their swords or sunk them in the sea; not contentto have defeated gods, they pursued the wrecks of the fleet with suchrage, as if they would destroy them to satiate their deadly passion forwar. Thus doth prosperity commonly whet the edge of licence. The haven, recalling by its name Balder's flight, bears witness to the war. Gelder, the King of Saxony, who met his end in the same war, was set by Hotherupon the corpses of his oarsmen, and then laid on a pyre built ofvessels, and magnificently honoured in his funeral by Hother, who notonly put his ashes in a noble barrow, treating them as the remains ofa king, but also graced them with most reverent obsequies. Then, toprevent any more troublesome business delaying his hopes of marriage, he went back to Gewar and enjoyed the coveted embraces of Nanna. Next, having treated Helgi and Thora very generously, he brought his new queenback to Sweden, being as much honoured by all for his victory as Balderwas laughed at for his flight. 

At this time the nobles of the Swedes repaired to Demnark to pay theirtribute; but Hother, who had been honoured as a king by his countrymenfor the splendid deeds of his father, experienced what a lying panderFortune is. For he was conquered in the field by Balder, whom a littlebefore he had crushed, and was forced to flee to Gewar, thus losingwhile a king that victory which he had won as a common man. Theconquering Balder, in order to slake his soldiers, who were parched withthirst, with the blessing of a timely draught, pierced the earth deepand disclosed a fresh spring. The thirsty ranks made with gaping lipsfor the water that gushed forth everywhere. The traces of these springs, eternised by the name, are thought not quite to have dried up yet, though they have ceased to well so freely as of old. Balder wascontinually harassed by night phantoms feigning the likeness of Nanna, and fell into such ill health that he could not so much as walk, and began the habit of going his journeys in a two horse car or afour-wheeled carriage. So great was the love that had steeped his heartand now had brought him down almost to the extremity of decline. For hethought that his victory had brought him nothing if Nanna was not hisprize. Also Frey, the regent of the gods, took his abode not far fromUpsala, where he exchanged for a ghastly and infamous sin-offering theold custom of prayer by sacrifice, which had been used by so manyages and generations. For he paid to the gods abominable offerings, bybeginning to slaughter human victims. 

Meantime Hother (1) learned that Denmark lacked leaders, and thatHiartuar had swiftly expiated the death of Rolf; and he used to saythat chance had thrown into his hands that to which he could scarcehave aspired. For first, Rolf, whom he ought to have killed, since heremembered that Rolf's father had slain his own, had been punished bythe help of another; and also, by the unexpected bounty of events, a chance had been opened to him of winning Denmark. In truth, if thepedigree of his forefathers were rightly traced, that realm was his byancestral right! Thereupon he took possession, with a very great fleet, of Isefjord, a haven of Zealand, so as to make use of his impendingfortune. There the people of the Danes met him and appointed him king;and a little after, on hearing of the death of his brother Athisl, whomhe had bidden rule the Swedes, he joined the Swedish empire to that ofDenmark. But Athisl was cut off by an ignominious death. For whilst, ingreat jubilation of spirit, he was honouring the funeral rites ofRolf with a feast, he drank too greedily, and paid for his filthyintemperance by his sudden end. And so, while he was celebrating thedeath of another with immoderate joviality, he forced on his own apace. 

While Hother was in Sweden, Balder also came to Zealand with a fleet;and since he was thought to be rich in arms and of singular majesty, the Danes accorded him with the readiest of voices whatever he askedconcerning the supreme power. With such wavering judgment was theopinion of our forefathers divided. Hother returned from Sweden andattacked him. They both coveted sway, and the keenest contest for thesovereignty began between them; but it was cut short by the flight ofHother. He retired to Jutland, and caused to be named after him thevillage in which he was wont to stay. Here he passed the winter season, and then went back to Sweden alone and unattended. There he summoned thegrandees, and told them that he was weary of the light of life becauseof the misfortunes wherewith Balder had twice victoriously stricken him. Then he took farewell of all, and went by a circuitous path to a placethat was hard of access, traversing forests uncivilised. For it ofthappens that those upon whom has come some inconsolable trouble ofspirit seek, as though it were a medicine to drive away their sadness, far and sequestered retreats, and cannot bear the greatness of theirgrief amid the fellowship of men; so dear, for the most part, issolitude to sickness. For filthiness and grime are chiefly pleasing tothose who have been stricken with ailments of the soul. Now he had beenwont to give out from the top of a hill decrees to the people when theycame to consult him; and hence when they came they upbraided the slothof the king for hiding himself, and his absence was railed at by allwith the bitterest complaints. 

But Hother, when he had wandered through remotest byways and crossed anuninhabited forest, chanced to come upon a cave where dwelt some maidenswhom he knew not; but they proved to be the same who had once given himthe invulnerable coat. Asked by them wherefore he had come thither, herelated the disastrous issue of the war. So he began to bewail the illluck of his failures and his dismal misfortunes, condemning their breachof faith, and lamenting that it had not turned out for him as they hadpromised him. But the maidens said that though he had seldom come offvictorious, he had nevertheless inflicted as much defeat on the enemyas they on him, and had dealt as much carnage as he had shared in. Moreover, the favour of victory would be speedily his, if he could firstlay hands upon a food of extraordinary delightsomeness which hadbeen devised to increase the strength of Balder. For nothing would bedifficult if he could only get hold of the dainty which was meant toenhance the rigour of his foe. 

Hard as it sounded for earthborn endeavours to make armed assault uponthe gods, the words of the maidens inspired Hother's mind with instantconfidence to fight with Balder. Also some of his own people said thathe could not safely contend with those above; but all regard for theirmajesty was expelled by the boundless fire of his spirit. For in bravesouls vehemence is not always sapped by reason, nor doth counsel defeatrashness. Or perchance it was that Hother remembered how the might ofthe lordliest oft proveth unstable, and how a little clod can batterdown great chariots. 

On the other side, Balder mustered the Danes to arms and met Hotherin the field. Both sides made a great slaughter; the carnage of theopposing parties was nearly equal, and night stayed the battle. Aboutthe third watch, Hother, unknown to any man, went out to spy upon theenemy, anxiety about the impending peril having banished sleep. Thisstrong excitement favours not bodily rest, and inward disquiet suffersnot outward repose. So, when he came to the camp of the enemy he heardthat three maidens had gone out carrying the secret feast of Balder. Heran after them (for their footsteps in the dew betrayed their flight), and at last entered their accustomed dwelling. When they asked him whohe was, he answered, a lutanist, nor did the trial belie his profession. For when the lyre was offered him, he tuned its strings, ordered andgoverned the chords with his quill, and with ready modulation pouredforth a melody pleasant to the ear. Now they had three snakes, of whosevenom they were wont to mix a strengthening compound for the food ofBalder, and even now a flood of slaver was dripping on the food from theopen mouths of the serpents. And some of the maidens would, for kindnesssake, have given Hother a share of the dish, had not eldest of the threeforbidden them, declaring that Balder would be cheated if they increasedthe bodily powers of his enemy. He had said, not that he was Hother, butthat he was one of his company. Now the same nymphs, in their graciouskindliness, bestowed on him a belt of perfect sheen and a girdle whichassured victory. 

Retracing the path by which he had come, he went back on the same road, and meeting Balder plunged his sword into his side, and laid him lowhalf dead. When the news was told to the soldiers, a cheery shout oftriumph rose from all the camp of Hother, while the Danes held a publicmourning for the fate of Balder. He, feeling no doubt of his impendingdeath, and stung by the anguish of his wound, renewed the battle onthe morrow; and, when it raged hotly, bade that he should be borne on alitter into the fray, that he might not seem to die ignobly within histent. On the night following, Proserpine was seen to stand by him in avision, and to promise that on the morrow he should have her embrace. The boding of the dream was not idle; for when three days had passed, Balder perished from the excessive torture of his wound; and his bodygiven a royal funeral, the army causing it to be buried in a barrowwhich they had made. 

Certain men of our day, Chief among whom was Harald, (2) since the storyof the ancient burial-place still survived, made a raid on it by nightin the hope of finding money, but abandoned their attempt in suddenpanic. For the hill split, and from its crest a sudden and mightytorrent of loud-roaring waters seemed to burst; so that its flying mass, shooting furiously down, poured over the fields below, and envelopedwhatsoever it struck upon, and at its onset the delvers were dislodged, flung down their mattocks, and fled divers ways; thinking that if theystrove any longer to carry through their enterprise they would be caughtin the eddies of the water that was rushing down. Thus the guardian godsof that spot smote fear suddenly into the minds of the youths, takingthem away from covetousness, and turning them to see to their safety;teaching them to neglect their greedy purpose and be careful of theirlives. Now it is certain that this apparent flood was not real butphantasmal; not born in the bowels of the earth (since Nature sufferethnot liquid springs to gush forth in a dry place), but produced by somemagic agency. All men afterwards, to whom the story of that breaking inhad come down, left this hill undisturbed. Wherefore it has never beenmade sure whether it really contains any wealth; for the dread of perilhas daunted anyone since Harald from probing its dark foundations. 

But Odin, though he was accounted the chief of the gods, began toinquire of the prophets and diviners concerning the way to accomplishvengeance for his son, as well as all others whom he had beard wereskilled in the most recondite arts of soothsaying. For godhead that isincomplete is oft in want of the help of man. Rostioph (Hrossthiof), the Finn, foretold to him that another son must be born to him by Rinda(Wrinda), daughter of the King of the Ruthenians; this son was destinedto exact punishment for the slaying of his brother. For the gods hadappointed to the brother that was yet to be born the task of avenginghis kinsman. Odin, when he heard this, muffled his face with a cap, thathis garb might not betray him, and entered the service of the said kingas a soldier; and being made by him captain of the soldiers, and givenan army, won a splendid victory over the enemy. And for his stoutachievement in this battle the king admitted him into the chief placein his friendship, distinguishing him as generously with gifts aswith honours. A very little while afterwards Odin routed the enemysingle-handed, and returned, at once the messenger and the doer ofthe deed. All marvelled that the strength of one man could deal suchslaughter upon a countless host. Trusting in these services, he privilylet the king into the secret of his love, and was refreshed by his mostgracious favour; but when he sought a kiss from the maiden, he receiveda cuff. But he was not driven from his purpose either by anger at theslight or by the odiousness of the insult. 

Next year, loth to quit ignobly the quest he had taken up so eagerly, heput on the dress of a foreigner and went back to dwell with the king. Itwas hard for those who met him to recognise him; for his assumed filthobliterated his true features, and new grime hid his ancient aspect. Hesaid that his name was Roster (Hrosstheow), and that he was skilledin smithcraft. And his handiwork did honour to his professions: for heportrayed in bronze many and many a shape most beautifully, so that hereceived a great mass of gold from the king, and was ordered tohammer out the ornaments of the matrons. So, after having wrought manyadornments for women's wearing, he at last offered to the maiden abracelet which he had polished more laboriously than the rest andseveral rings which were adorned with equal care. But no services couldassuage the wrath of Rinda; when he was fain to kiss her she cuffed him;for gifts offered by one we hate are unacceptable, while those tenderedby a friend are far more grateful: so much doth the value of theoffering oft turn on the offerer. For this stubborn-hearted maiden neverdoubted that the crafty old man was feigning generosity in order toseize an opening to work his lust. His temper, moreover, was keen andindomitable; for she knew that his homage covered guile, and that underthe devotion of his gifts there lay a desire for crime. Her father fellto upbraiding her heavily for refusing the match; but she loathed to wedan old man, and the plea of her tender years lent her some support inher scorning of his hand; for she said that a young girl ought not tomarry prematurely. 

But Odin, who had found that nothing served the wishes of lovers morethan tough persistency, though he was stung with the shame of his doublerebuff, nevertheless, effacing the form he had worn before, went to theking for the third time, professing the completest skill in soldiership. He was led to take this pains not only by pleasure but by the wish towipe out his disgrace. For of old those who were skilled in magic gainedthis power of instantly changing their aspect and exhibiting the mostdifferent shapes. Indeed, they were clever at imitating any age, notonly in its natural bodily appearance, but also in its stature; and sothe old man, in order to exhibit his calling agreeably, used to rideproudly up and down among the briskest of them. But not even such atribute could move the rigour of the maiden; for it is hard for the mindto come back to a genuine liking for one against whom it has once borneheavy dislike. When he tried to kiss her at his departure, she repulsedhim so that he tottered and smote his chin upon the ground. Straightwayhe touched her with a piece of bark whereon spells were written, andmade her like unto one in frenzy: which was a gentle revenge to take forall the insults he had received. 

But still he did not falter in the fulfilment of his purpose; for trustin his divine majesty buoyed him up with confidence; so, assuming thegarb of a maiden, this indefatigable journeyer repaired for thefourth time to the king, and, on being received by him, showed himselfassiduous and even forward. Most people believed him to be a woman, ashe was dressed almost in female attire. Also he declared that his namewas Wecha, and his calling that of a physician: and this assertionhe confirmed by the readiest services. At last he was taken into thehousehold of the queen, and played the part of a waiting-woman to theprincess, and even used to wash the soil off her feet at eventide; andas he was applying the water he was suffered to touch her calves and theupper part of the thighs. But fortune goes with mutable steps, and thuschance put into his hand what his address had never won. For it happenedthat the girl fell sick, and looked around for a cure; and she summonedto protect her health those very hands which aforetime she had rejected, and appealed for preservation to him whom she had ever held in loathing. He examined narrowly all the symptoms of the trouble, and declared that, in order to check the disease as soon as possible, it was needful to usea certain drugged draught; but that it was so bitterly compounded, thatthe girl could never endure so violent a cure unless she submitted tobe bound; since the stuff of the malady must be ejected from the veryinnermost tissues. When her father heard this he did not hesitateto bind his daughter; and laying her on the bed, he bade her endurepatiently all the applications of the doctor. For the king was trickedby the sight of the female dress, which the old man was using todisguise his persistent guile; and thus the seeming remedy became anopportunity of outrage. For the physician seized the chance of love, and, abandoning his business of healing, sped to the work, not ofexpelling the fever, but of working his lust; making use of the sicknessof the princess, whom in sound health he had found adverse to him. Itwill not be wearisome if I subjoin another version of this affair. For there are certain who say that the king, when he saw the physiciangroaning with love, but despite all his expense of mind and bodyaccomplishing nothing, did not wish to rob of his due reward one who hadso well earned it, and allowed him to lie privily with his daughter. So doth the wickedness of the father sometimes assail the child, whenvehement passion perverts natural mildness. But his fault was soonfollowed by a remorse that was full of shame, when his daughter bore achild. 

But the gods, whose chief seat was then at Byzantium, (Asgard), seeingthat Odin had tarnished the fair name of godhead by divers injuries toits majesty, thought that he ought to be removed from their society. And they had him not only ousted from the headship, but outlawed andstripped of all worship and honour at home; thinking it better that thepower of their infamous president should be overthrown than that publicreligion should be profaned; and fearing that they might themselves beinvolved in the sin of another, and though guiltless be punished for thecrime of the guilty. For they saw that, now the derision of their greatgod was brought to light, those whom they had lured to proffer themdivine honours were exchanging obeisance for scorn and worship forshame; that holy rites were being accounted sacrilege, and fixed andregular ceremonies deemed so much childish raving. Fear was in theirsouls, death before their eyes, and one would have supposed that thefault of one was visited upon the heads of all. So, not wishing Odinto drive public religion into exile, they exiled him and put one Oller(Wulder?) in his place, to bear the symbols not only Of royalty but alsoof godhead, as though it had been as easy a task to create a god as aking. And though they had appointed him priest for form's sake, theyendowed him actually with full distinction, that he might be seen to bethe lawful heir to the dignity, and no mere deputy doing another's work. Also, to omit no circumstance of greatness, they further gave his thename of Odin, trying by the prestige of that title to be rid of theobloquy of innovation. For nearly ten years Oller held the presidencyof the divine senate; but at last the gods pitied the horrible exile ofOdin, and thought that he had now been punished heavily enough; so heexchanged his foul and unsightly estate for his ancient splendour; forthe lapse of time had now wiped out the brand of his earlier disgrace. Yet some were to be found who judged that he was not worthy to approachand resume his rank, because by his stage-tricks and his assumption of awoman's work he had brought the foulest scandal on the name of the gods. Some declare that he bought back the fortune of his lost divinity withmoney; flattering some of the gods and mollifying some with bribes;and that at the cost of a vast sum he contrived to get back to thedistinction which he had long quitted. If you ask how much he paidfor them, inquire of those who have found out what is the price of agodhead. I own that to me it is but little worth. 

Thus Oller was driven out from Byzantium by Odin and retired intoSweden. Here, while he was trying, as if in a new world, to repair therecords of his glory, the Danes slew him. The story goes that he wassuch a cunning wizard that he used a certain bone, which he had markedwith awful spells, wherewith to cross the seas, instead of a vessel;and that by this bone he passed over the waters that barred his way asquickly as by rowing. 

But Odin, now that he had regained the emblems of godhead, shone overall parts of the world with such a lustre of renown that all nationswelcomed him as though he were light restored to the universe; nor wasany spot to be found on the earth which did not hornage to his might. Then finding that Boe, his son by Rhlda, was enamoured of the hardshipsof war, he called him, and bade him bear in mind the slaying of hisbrother: saying that it would be better for him to take vengeande on themurderers of Balder than to overcome them in battle; for warfare wasmost fitting and wholesome when a holy occasion for waging it wasfurnished by a righteous opening for vengeande. 

News came meantime that Gewar had been slain by the guile of his ownsatrap (jarl), Gunne. Hother determined to visit his murder with thestrongest and sharpest revenge. So he surprised Gunne, cast him on ablazing pyre, and burnt him; for Gunne had himself treacherously waylaidGewar, and burnt him alive in the night. This was his offering ofvengeance to the shade of his foster-father; and then he made his sons, Herlek and Gerit, rulers of Norway. 

Then he summoned the elders to assembly, and told them that he wouldperish in the war wherein he was bound to meet Boe, and said that heknew this by no doubtful guesswork, but by sure prophecies of seers. So he besought them to make his son RORIK king, so that the judgmentof wicked men should not transfer the royalty to strange and unknownhouses; averring that he would reap more joy from the succession ofhis son than bitterness from his own impending death. This request wasspeedily granted. Then he met Boe in battle and was killed; but smalljoy the victory gave Boe. Indeed, he left the battle so sore strickenthat he was lifted on his shield and carried home by his foot-soldierssupporting him in turn, to perish next day of the pain of his wounds. The Ruthenian army gave his body a gorgeous funeral and buried it ina splendid howe, which it piled in his name, to save the record of somighty a warrior from slipping out of the recollection of after ages. 

So the Kurlanders and the Swedes, as though the death of Hother set themfree from the burden of their subjection, resolved to attack Denmark, towhich they were accustomed to do homage with a yearly tax. By this theSlavs also were emboldened to revolt, and a number of others were turnedfrom subjects into foes. Rorik, in order to check this wrongdoing, summoned his country to arms, recounted the deeds of his forefathers, and urged them in a passionate harangue unto valorous deeds. But thebarbarians, loth to engage without a general, and seeing that theyneeded a head, appointed a king over them; and, displaying all the restof their military force, hid two companies of armed men in a dark spot. But Rorik saw the trap; and perceiving that his fleet was wedged in acertain narrow creek among the shoal water, took it out from the sandswhere it was lying, and brought it forth to sea; lest it should strikeon the oozy swamps, and be attacked by the foe on different sides. Also, he resolved that his men should go into hiding during the day, wherethey could stay and suddenly fall on the invaders of his ships. He saidthat perchance the guile might in the end recoil on the heads of itsdevisors. And in fact the barbarians who had been appointed to theambuscade knew nothing of the wariness of the Danes, and sallyingagainst them rashly, were all destroyed. The remaining force of theSlavs, knowing nothing of the slaughter of their friends, hung in doubtwondering over the reason of Rorik's tarrying. And after waiting longfor him as the months wearily rolled by, and finding delay every daymore burdensome, they at last thought they should attack him with theirfleet. 

Now among them there was a man of remarkable stature, a wizard bycalling. He, when he beheld the squadrons of the Danes, said: "Suffera private combat to forestall a public slaughter, so that the dangerof many may be bought off at the cost of a few. And if any of you shalltake heart to fight it out with me, I will not flinch from these termsof conflict. But first of all I demand that you accept the terms Iprescribe, the form whereof I have devised as follows: If I conquer, letfreedom be granted us from taxes; if I am conquered, let the tribute bepaid you as of old: For to-day I will either free my country from theyoke of slavery by my victory or bind her under it by my defeat. Acceptme as the surety and the pledge for either issue. " One of the Danes, whose spirit was stouter than his strength, heard this, and proceeded toask Rorik, what would be the reward for the man who met the challengerin combat? Rorik chanced to have six bracelets, which were sointertwined that they could not be parted from one another, the chain ofknots being inextricaly laced; and he promised them as a reward forthe man who would venture on the combat. But the youth, who doubted hisfortune, said: "Rorik, if I prove successful, let thy generosity awardthe prize of the conqueror, do thou decide and allot the palm; but ifmy enterprise go little to my liking, what prize canst thou owe to thebeaten, who will be wrapped either in cruel death or in bitter shame?These things commonly go with feebleness, these are the wages of thedefeated, for whom naught remains but utter infamy. What guerdon mustbe paid, what thanks offered, to him who lacks the prize of courage? Whohas ever garlanded with ivy the weakling in War, or decked him with aconqueror's wage? Valour wins the prize, not sloth, and failure lacksrenown. For one is followed by triumph and honour, the other by anunsightly life or by a stagnant end. I, who know not which way the issueof this duel inclines, dare not boldly anticipate that as a reward, ofwhich I know not whether it be rightly mine. For one whose victory isdoubtful may not seize the assured reward of the victor. I forbear, while I am not sure of the day, to claim firmly the title to the wreath. I refuse the gain, which may be the wages of my death as much as of mylife. It is folly to lay hands on the fruit before it is ripe, and to befain to pluck that which one is not yet sure is one's title. This handshall win me the prize, or death. " Having thus spoken, he smote thebarbarian with his sword; but his fortune was tardier than his spirit;for the other smote him back, and he fell dead under the force of thefirst blow. Thus he was a sorry sight unto the Danes, but the Slavsgranted their triumphant comrade a great procession, and received himwith splendid dances. On the morrow the same man, whether he was elatedwith the good fortune of his late victory, or was fired with the wish towin another, came close to the enemy, and set to girding at them in thewords of his former challenge. For, supposing that he had laid low thebravest of the Danes, he did not think that any of them would have anyheart left to fight further with him upon his challenge. Also, trustingthat, now one champion had fallen, he had shattered the strength of thewhole army, he thought that naught would be hard to achieve upon whichhis later endeavours were bent. For nothing pampers arrogance more thansuccess, or prompts to pride more surely than prosperity. 

So Rorik was vexed that the general courage should be sapped by theimpudence of one man; and that the Danes, with their roll of victories, should be met presumptuously by those whom they had beaten of old; nay, should be ignominiously spurned; further, that in all that host not oneman should be found so quick of spirit or so vigorous of arm, that helonged to sacrifice his life for his country. It was the high-heartedUbbe who first wiped off this infamous reproach upon the hesitatingDanes. For he was of great bodily strength and powerful in incantations. He also purposely asked the prize of the combat, and the king promisedhim the bracelets. Then said he: "How can I trust the promise when thoukeepest the pledge in thine own hands, and dost not deposit the gift inthe charge of another? Let there be some one to whom thou canst entrustthe pledge, that thou mayst not be able to take thy promise back. Forthe courage of the champion is kindled by the irrevocable certainty ofthe prize. " Of course it was plain that he had said this in jest; sheercourage had armed him to repel the insult to his country. But Rorikthought he was tempted by avarice, and was loth to seem as if, contraryto royal fashion, he meant to take back the gift or revoke his promise;so, being stationed on his vessel, he resolved to shake off thebracelets, and with a mighty swing send them to the asker. But hisattempt was baulked by the width of the gap between them; for thebracelets fell short of the intended spot, the impulse being too faintand slack, and were reft away by the waters. For this nickname ofSlyngebond, (swing-bracelet) clung to Rorik. But this event testifiedmuch to the valour of Ubbe. For the loss of his drowned prize neverturned his mind from his bold venture; he would not seem to let hiscourage be tempted by the wages of covetousness. So he eagerly wentto fight, showing that he was a seeker of honour and not the slave oflucre, and that he set bravery before lust of pelf; and intent to provethat his confidence was based not on hire, but on his own great soul. Not a moment is lost; a ring is made; the course is thronged withsoldiers; the champions engage; a din arises; the crowd of onlookersshouts in discord, each backing his own. And so the valour of thechampions blazes to white-heat; falling dead under the wounds dealt byone another, they end together the combat and their lives. I think thatit was a provision of fortune that neither of them should reap joy andhonour by the other's death. This event won back to Rorik the hearts ofthe insurgents and regained him the tribute. 

At this time Horwendil and Feng, whose father Gerwendil had beengovernor of the Jutes, were appointed in his place by Rorik to defendJutland. But Horwendil held the monarchy for three years, and then, towill the height of glory, devoted himself to roving. Then Koller, Kingof Norway, in rivalry of his great deeds and renown, deemed it would bea handsome deed if by his greater strength in arms he could bedim thefar-famed glory of the rover; and cruising about the sea, he watched forHorwendil's fleet and came up with it. There was an island lying in themiddle of the sea, which each of the rovers, bringing his ships up oneither side, was holding. The captains were tempted by the pleasant lookof the beach, and the comeliness of the shores led them to look throughthe interior of the springtide woods, to go through the glades, and roamover the sequestered forests. It was here that the advance of Koller andHorwendil brought them face to face without any witness. Then Horwendilendeavoured to address the king first, asking him in what way it was hispleasure to fight, and declaring that one best which needed the courageof as few as possible. For, said he, the duel was the surest of allmodes of combat for winning the meed of bravery, because it relied onlyupon native courage, and excluded all help from the hand of another. Koller marvelled at so brave a judgment in a youth, and said: "Sincethou hast granted me the choice of battle, I think it is best to employthat kind which needs only the endeavours of two, and is free from allthe tumult. Certainly it is more venturesome, and allows of a speedieraward of the victory. This thought we share, in this opinion we agree ofour own accord. But since the issue remains doubtful, we must paysome regard to gentle dealing, and must not give way so far to ourinclinations as to leave the last offices undone. Hatred is in ourhearts; yet let piety be there also, which in its due time may take theplace of rigour. For the rights of nature reconcile us, though we areparted by differences of purpose; they link us together, howsoeverrancour estrange our spirit. Let us, therefore, have this piousstipulation, that the conqueror shall give funeral rites to theconquered. For all allow that these are the last duties of humankind, from which no righteous man shrinks. Let each army lay aside itssternness and perform this function in harmony. Let jealousy departat death, let the feud be buried in the tomb. Let us not show such anexample of cruelty as to persecute one another's dust, though hatred hascome between us in our lives. It will be a boast for the victor if hehas borne his beaten foe in a lordly funeral. For the man who pays therightful dues over his dead enemy wins the goodwill of the survivor; andwhoso devotes gentle dealing to him who is no more, conquers the livingby his kindness. Also there is another disaster, not less lamentable, which sometimes befalls the living--the loss of some part of their body;and I think that succor is due to this just as much as to the worst hapthat may befall. For often those who fight keep their lives safe, butsuffer maiming; and this lot is commonly thought more dismal than anydeath; for death cuts off memory of all things, while the living cannotforget the devastation of his own body. Therefore this mischief alsomust be helped somehow; so let it be agreed, that the injury of eitherof us by the other shall be made good with ten talents (marks) of gold. For if it be righteous to have compassion on the calamities of another, how much more is it to pity one's own? No man but obeys nature'sprompting; and he who slights it is a self-murderer. "

After mutually pledging their faiths to these terms, they began thebattle. Nor was their strangeness his meeting one another, nor thesweetness of that spring-green spot, so heeded as to prevent them fromthe fray. Horwendil, in his too great ardour, became keener to attackhis enemy than to defend his own body; and, heedless of his shield, hadgrasped his sword with both hands; and his boldness did not fail. For byhis rain of blows he destroyed Koller's shield and deprived him of it, and at last hewed off his foot and drove him lifeless to the ground. Then, not to fail of his compact, he buried him royally, gave him a howeof lordly make and pompous obsequies. Then he pursued and slew Koller'ssister Sela, who was a skilled warrior and experienced in roving. 

He had now passed three years in valiant deeds of war; and, in order towin higher rank in Rorik's favour, he assigned to him the best trophiesand the pick of the plunder. His friendship with Rorik enabled himto woo and will in marriage his daughter Gerutha, who bore him a sonAmleth. 

Such great good fortune stung Feng with jealousy, so that he resolvedtreacherously to waylay his brother, thus showing that goodness is notsafe even from those of a man's own house. And behold, when a chancecame to murder him, his bloody hand sated the deadly passion of hissoul. Then he took the wife of the brother he had butchered, cappingunnatural murder with incest. For whoso yields to one iniquity, speedilyfalls an easier victim to the next, the first being an incentive tothe second. Also, the man veiled the monstrosity of his deed with suchhardihood of cunning, that he made up a mock pretence of goodwillto excuse his crime, and glossed over fratricide with a show ofrighteousness. Gerutha, said he, though so gentle that she would do noman the slightest hurt, had been visited with her husband's extremesthate; and it was all to save her that he had slain his brother; for hethought it shameful that a lady so meek and unrancorous should sufferthe heavy disdain of her husband. Nor did his smooth words fail in theirintent; for at courts, where fools are sometimes favoured and backbiterspreferred, a lie lacks not credit. Nor did Feng keep from shamefulembraces the hands that had slain a brother; pursuing with equal guiltboth of his wicked and impious deeds. 

Amleth beheld all this, but feared lest too shrewd a behaviour mightmake his uncle suspect him. So he chose to feign dulness, and pretendan utter lack of wits. This cunning course not only concealed hisintelligence but ensured his safety. Every day he remained in hismother's house utterly listless and unclean, flinging himself on theground and bespattering his person with foul and filthy dirt. Hisdiscoloured face and visage smutched with slime denoted foolish andgrotesque madness. All he said was of a piece with these follies; allhe did savoured of utter lethargy. In a word, you would not have thoughthim a man at all, but some absurd abortion due to a mad fit of destiny. He used at times to sit over the fire, and, raking up the embers withhis hands, to fashion wooden crooks, and harden them in the fire, shaping at their lips certain barbs, to make them hold more tightlyto their fastenings. When asked what he was about, he said that he waspreparing sharp javelins to avenge his father. This answer was not alittle scoffed at, all men deriding his idle and ridiculous pursuit; butthe thing helped his purpose afterwards. Now it was his craft in thismatter that first awakened in the deeper observers a suspicion of hiscunning. For his skill in a trifling art betokened the hidden talent ofthe craftsman; nor could they believe the spirit dull where the hand hadacquired so cunning a workmanship. Lastly, he always watched with themost punctual care over his pile of stakes that he had pointed in thefire. Some people, therefore, declared that his mind was quick enough, and fancied that he only played the simpleton in order to hide hisunderstanding, and veiled some deep purpose under a cunning feint. Hiswiliness (said these) would be most readily detected, if a fair womanwere put in his way in some secluded place, who should provoke his mindto the temptations of love; all men's natural temper being too blindlyamorous to be artfully dissembled, and this passion being also tooimpetuous to be checked by cunning. Therefore, if his lethargy werefeigned, he would seize the opportunity, and yield straightway toviolent delights. So men were commissioned to draw the young man inhis rides into a remote part of the forest, and there assail him with atemptation of this nature. Among these chanced to be a foster-brother ofAmleth, who had not ceased to have regard to their common nurture;and who esteemed his present orders less than the memory of their pastfellowship. He attended Amleth among his appointed train, being anxiousnot to entrap, but to warn him; and was persuaded that he would sufferthe worst if he showed the slightest glimpse of sound reason, and aboveall if he did the act of love openly. This was also plain enough toAmleth himself. For when he was bidden mount his horse, he deliberatelyset himself in such a fashion that he turned his back to the neck andfaced about, fronting the tail; which he proceeded to encompass with thereins, just as if on that side he would check the horse in its furiouspace. By this cunning thought he eluded the trick, and overcame thetreachery of his uncle. The reinless steed galloping on, with riderdirecting its tail, was ludicrous enough to behold. 

Amleth went on, and a wolf crossed his path amid the thicket. When hiscompanions told him that a young colt had met him, he retorted, that inFeng's stud there were too few of that kind fighting. This was a gentlebut witty fashion of invoking a curse upon his uncle's riches. Whenthey averred that he had given a cunning answer, he answered that he hadspoken deliberately; for he was loth, to be thought prone to lyingabout any matter, and wished to be held a stranger to falsehood; andaccordingly he mingled craft and candour in such wise that, though hiswords did lack truth, yet there was nothing to betoken the truth andbetray how far his keenness went. 

Again, as he passed along the beach, his companions found the rudderof a ship, which had been wrecked, and said they had discovered a hugeknife. "This, " said he, "was the right thing to carve such a huge ham;"by which he really meant the sea, to whose infinitude, he thought, thisenormous rudder matched. Also, as they passed the sandhills, and badehim look at the meal, meaning the sand, he replied that it had beenground small by the hoary tempests of the ocean. His companions praisinghis answer, he said that he had spoken it wittingly. Then they purposelyleft him, that he might pluck up more courage to practise wantonness. The woman whom his uncle had dispatched met him in a dark spot, asthough she had crossed him by chance; and he took her and would haveravished her, had not his foster-brother, by a secret device, given himan inkling of the trap. For this man, while pondering the fittest wayto play privily the prompter's part, and forestall the young man'shazardous lewdness, found a straw on the ground and fastened itunderneath the tail of a gadfly that was flying past; which he thendrove towards the particular quarter where he knew Amleth to be: anact which served the unwary prince exceedingly well. The token wasinterpreted as shrewdly as it had been sent. For Amleth saw the gadfly, espied with curiosity the straw which it wore embedded in its tail, andperceived that it was a secret warning to beware of treachery. Alarmed, scenting a trap, and fain to possess his desire in greater safety, hecaught up the woman in his arms and dragged her off to a distant andimpenetrable fen. Moreover, when they had lain together, he conjured herearnestly to disclose the matter to none, and the promise of silence wasaccorded as heartily as it was asked. For both of them had been underthe same fostering in their childhood; and this early rearing in commonhad brought Amleth and the girl into great intimacy. 

So, when he had returned home, they all jeeringly asked him whether hehad given way to love, and he avowed that he had ravished the maid. Whenhe was next asked where he did it, and what had been his pillow, he saidthat he had rested upon the hoof of a beast of burden, upon a cockscomb, and also upon a ceiling. For, when he was starting into temptation, hehad gathered fragments of all these things, in order to avoid lying. Andthough his jest did not take aught of the truth out of the story, theanswer was greeted with shouts of merriment from the bystanders. Themaiden, too, when questioned on the matter, declared that he had doneno such thing; and her denial was the more readily credited when it wasfound that the escort had not witnessed the deed. Then he who had markedthe gadfly in order to give a hint, wishing to show Amleth that to histrick he owed his salvation, observed that latterly he had been singlydevoted to Amleth. The young man's reply was apt. Not to seem forgetfulof his informant's service, he said that he had seen a certain thingbearing a straw flit by suddenly, wearing a stalk of chaff fixed in itshinder parts. The cleverness of this speech, which made the rest splitwith laughter, rejoiced the heart of Amleth's friend. 

Thus all were worsted, and none could open the secret lock of the youngman's wisdom. But a friend of Feng, gifted more with assurance thanjudgment, declared that the unfathomable cunning of such a mind couldnot be detected by any vulgar plot, for the man's obstinacy was so greatthat it ought not to be assailed with any mild measures; there weremany sides to his wiliness, and it ought not to be entrapped by any onemethod. Accordingly, said he, his own profounder acuteness had hit ona more delicate way, which was well fitted to be put in practice, andwould effectually discover what they desired to know. Feng was purposelyto absent himself, pretending affairs of great import. Amleth should becloseted alone with his mother in her chamber; but a man should first becommissioned to place himself in a concealed part of the room and listenheedfully to what they talked about. For if the son had any wits at allhe would not hesitate to speak out in the hearing of his mother, or fearto trust himself to the fidelity of her who bore him. The speaker, loth to seem readier to devise than to carry out the plot, zealouslyproffered himself as the agent of the eavesdropping. Feng rejoiced atthe scheme, and departed on pretence of a long journey. Now he who hadgiven this counsel repaired privily to the room where Amleth was shut upwith his mother, and lay flown skulking in the straw. But Amleth hadhis antidote for the treachery. Afraid of being overheard by someeavesdropper, he at first resorted to his usual imbecile ways, andcrowed like a noisy cock, beating his arms together to mimic theflapping of wings. Then he mounted the straw and began to swing hisbody and jump again and again, wishing to try if aught lurked there inhiding. Feeling a lump beneath his feet, he drove his sword intothe spot, and impaled him who lay hid. Then he dragged him from hisconcealment and slew him. Then, cutting his body into morsels, heseethed it in boiling water, and flung it through the mouth of anopen sewer for the swine to eat, bestrewing the stinking mire with hishapless limbs. Having in this wise eluded the snare, he went back to theroom. Then his mother set up a great wailing, and began to lament herson's folly to his face; but he said: "Most infamous of women; dostthou seek with such lying lamentations to hide thy most heavy guilt?Wantoning like a harlot, thou hast entered a wicked and abominable stateof wedlock, embracing with incestuous bosom thy husband's slayer, andwheedling with filthy lures of blandishment him who had slain the fatherof thy son. This, forsooth, is the way that the mares couple with thevanquishers of their mates; for brute beasts are naturally incited topair indiscriminately; and it would seem that thou, like them, hastclean forgot thy first husband. As for me, not idly do I wear the maskof folly; for I doubt not that he who destroyed his brother will riot asruthlessly in the blood of his kindred. Therefore it is better to choosethe garb of dulness than that of sense, and to borrow some protectionfrom a show of utter frenzy. Yet the passion to avenge my father stillburns in my heart; but I am watching the chances, I await the fittinghour. There is a place for all things; against so merciless and darkspirit must be used the deeper devices of the mind. And thou, whohadst been better employed in lamenting thine own disgrace, know it issuperfluity to bewail my witlessness; thou shouldst weep for the blemishin thine own mind, not for that in another's. On the rest see thoukeep silence. " With such reproaches he rent the heart of his motherand redeemed her to walk in the ways of virtue; teaching her to set thefires of the past above the seductions of the present. 

When Feng returned, nowhere could he find the man who had suggested thetreacherous espial; he searched for him long and carefully, but nonesaid they had seen him anywhere. Amleth, among others, was asked in jestif he had come on any trace of him, and replied that the man had goneto the sewer, but had fallen through its bottom and been stifled by thefloods of filth, and that he had then been devoured by the swine thatcame up all about that place. This speech was flouted by those whoheard; for it seemed senseless, though really it expressly avowed thetruth. 

Feng now suspected that his stepson was certainly full of guile, anddesired to make away with him, but durst not do the deed for fear of thedispleasure, not only of Amleth's grandsire Rorik, but also of his ownwife. So he thought that the King of Britain should be employed toslay him, so that another could do the deed, and he be able to feigninnocence. Thus, desirous to hide his cruelty, he chose rather tobesmirch his friend than to bring disgrace on his own head. Amleth, ondeparting, gave secret orders to his mother to hang the hall withwoven knots, and to perform pretended obsequies for him a year thence;promising that he would then return. Two retainers of Feng thenaccompanied him, bearing a letter graven on wood--a kind of writingmaterial frequent in old times; this letter enjoined the king of theBritons to put to death the youth who was sent over to him. While theywere reposing, Amleth searched their coffers, found the letter, and readthe instructions therein. Whereupon he erased all the writing on thesurface, substituted fresh characters, and so, changing the purport ofthe instructions, shifted his own doom upon his companions. Nor was hesatisfied with removing from himself the sentence of death and passingthe peril on to others, but added an entreaty that the King of Britainwould grant his daughter in marriage to a youth of great judgment whomhe was sending to him. Under this was falsely marked the signature ofFeng. 

Now when they had reached Britain, the envoys went to the king, andproffered him the letter which they supposed was an implement ofdestruction to another, but which really betokened death to themselves. The king dissembled the truth, and entreated them hospitably and kindly. Then Amleth scouted all the splendour of the royal banquet like vulgarviands, and abstaining very strangely, rejected that plenteous feast, refraining from the drink even as from the banquet. All marvelled thata youth and a foreigner should disdain the carefully cooked dainties ofthe royal board and the luxurious banquet provided, as if it weresome peasant's relish. So, when the revel broke up, and the king wasdismissing his friends to rest, he had a man sent into the sleeping-roomto listen secretly, in order that he might hear the midnightconversation of his guests. Now, when Amleth's companions asked him whyhe had refrained from the feast of yestereve, as if it were poison, heanswered that the bread was flecked with blood and tainted; that therewas a tang of iron in the liquor; while the meats of the feast reeked ofthe stench of a human carcase, and were infected by a kind of smack ofthe odour of the charnel. He further said that the king had the eyes ofa slave, and that the queen had in three ways shown the behaviour of abondmaid. Thus he reviled with insulting invective not so much the feastas its givers. And presently his companions, taunting him with his olddefect of wits, began to flout him with many saucy jeers, because heblamed and cavilled at seemly and worthy things, and because he attackedthus ignobly an illustrious king and a lady of so refined a behaviour, bespattering with the shamefullest abuse those who merited all praise. 

All this the king heard from his retainer; and declared that he whocould say such things had either more than mortal wisdom or more thanmortal folly; in these few words fathoming the full depth of Amleth'spenetration. Then he summoned his steward and asked him whence he hadprocured the bread. The steward declared that it had been made by theking's own baker. The king asked where the corn had grown of which itwas made, and whether any sign was to be found there of human carnage?The other answered, that not far off was a field, covered with theancient bones of slaughtered men, and still bearing plainly all thesigns of ancient carnage; and that he had himself planted this fieldwith grain in springtide, thinking it more fruitful than the rest, andhoping for plenteous abundance; and so, for aught he knew, the bread hadcaught some evil savour from this bloodshed. The king, on hearing this, surmised that Amleth had spoken truly, and took the pains to learn alsowhat had been the source of the lard. The other declared that his hogshad, through negligence, strayed from keeping, and battened on therotten carcase of a robber, and that perchance their pork had thus cometo have something of a corrupt smack. The king, finding that Amletll'sjudgment was right in this thing also, asked of what liquor the stewardhad mixed the drink? Hearing that it had been brewed of water and meal, he had the spot of the spring pointed out to him, and set to diggingdeep down; and there he found, rusted away, several swords, the tangwhereof it was thought had tainted the waters. Others relate that Amlethblamed the drink because, while quaffing it, he had detected some beesthat had fed in the paunch of a dead man; and that the taint, which hadformerly been imparted to the combs, had reappeared in the taste. Theking, seeing that Amleth had rightly given the causes of the taste hehad found so faulty, and learning that the ignoble eyes wherewith Amlethhad reproached him concerned some stain upon his birth, had a secretinterview with his mother, and asked her who his father had reallybeen. She said she had submitted to no man but the king. But when hethreatened that he would have the truth out of her by a trial, he wastold that he was the offspring of a slave. By the evidence of the avowalthus extorted he understood the whole mystery of the reproach uponhis origin. Abashed as he was with shame for his low estate, he was soravished with the young man's cleverness, that he asked him why he hadaspersed the queen with the reproach that she had demeaned herself likea slave? But while resenting that the courtliness of his wife had beenaccused in the midnight gossip of guest, he found that her mother hadbeen a bondmaid. For Amleth said he had noted in her three blemishesshowing the demeanor of a slave; first, she had muffled her head inher mantle as handmaids do; next, that she had gathered up her gown forwalking; and thirdly, that she had first picked out with a splinter, andthen chewed up, the remnant of food that stuck in the crevices betweenher teeth. Further, he mentioned that the king's mother had been broughtinto slavery from captivity, lest she should seem servile only in herhabits, yet not in her birth. 

Then the king adored the wisdom of Amleth as though it were inspired, and gave him his daughter to wife; accepting his bare word as though itwere a witness from the skies. Moreover, in order to fulfil the biddingof his friend, he hanged Amleth's companions on the morrow. Amleth, feigning offence, treated this piece of kindness as a grievance, andreceived from the king, as compensation, some gold, which he afterwardsmelted in the fire, and secretly caused to be poured into some hollowedsticks. 

When he had passed a whole year with the king he obtained leave tomake a journey, and returned to his own land, carrying away of allhis princely wealth and state only the sticks which held the gold. On reaching Jutland, he exchanged his present attire for his ancientdemeanour, which he had adopted for righteous ends, purposely assumingan aspect of absurdity. Covered with filth, he entered the banquet-roomwhere his own obsequies were being held, and struck all men utterlyaghast, rumour having falsely noised abroad his death. At last terrormelted into mirth, and the guests jeered and taunted one another, thathe whose last rites they were celebrating as through he were dead, should appear in the flesh. When he was asked concerning his comrades, he pointed to the sticks he was carrying, and said, "Here is both theone and the other. " This he observed with equal truth and pleasantry;for his speech, though most thought it idle, yet departed not from thetruth; for it pointed at the weregild of the slain as though it werethemselves. Thereon, wishing to bring the company into a gayer mood, he jollied the cupbearers, and diligently did the office of plying thedrink. Then, to prevent his loose dress hampering his walk, he girdledhis sword upon his side, and purposely drawing it several times, prickedhis fingers with its point. The bystanders accordingly had both swordand scabbard riveted across with all iron nail. Then, to smooth the waymore safely to his plot, he went to the lords and plied them heavilywith draught upon draught, and drenched them all so deep in wine, thattheir feet were made feeble with drunkenness, and they turned to restwithin the palace, making their bed where they had revelled. Then hesaw they were in a fit state for his plots, and thought that here was achance offered to do his purpose. So he took out of his bosom the stakeshe has long ago prepared, and went into the building, where the groundlay covered with the bodies of the nobles wheezing off their sleep andtheir debauch. Then, cutting away its support, he brought down thehanging his mother had knitted, which covered the inner as well asthe outer walls of the hall. This he flung upon the snorers, and thenapplying the crooked stakes, he knotted and bound them up in suchinsoluble intricacy, that not one of the men beneath, however hard hemight struggle, could contrive to rise. After this he set fire to thepalace. The flames spread, scattering the conflagration far and wide. Itenveloped the whole dwelling, destroyed the palace, and burnt them allwhile they were either buried in deep sleep or vainly striving to arise. Then he went to the chamber of Feng, who had before this been conductedby his train into his pavilion; plucked up a sword that chanced to behanging to the bed, and planted his own in its place. Then, awakeninghis uncle, he told him that his nobles were perishing in the flames, andthat Amleth was here, armed with his crooks to help him, and thirstingto exact the vengeance, now long overdue, for his father's murder. Feng, on hearing this, leapt from his couch, but was cut down while deprivedof his own sword, and as he strove in vain to draw the strange one. Ovaliant Amleth, and worthy of immortal fame, who being shrewdly armedwith a feint of folly, covered a wisdom too high for human wit undera marvellous disguise of silliness! And not only found in his subtletymeans to protect his own safety, but also by its guidance foundopportunity to avenge his father. By this skilful defence of himself, and strenuous revenge for his parent, he has left it doubtful whether weare to think more of his wit or his bravery. (3)

 ENDNOTES: (1) Saxo now goes back to the history of Denmark. All the events hitherto related in Bk. III, after the first paragraph, are a digression in retrospect. (2) M. Conjectures that this was a certain Harald, the bastard son of Erik the Good, and a wild and dissolute man, who died in 1135, not long before the probable date of Saxo's birth. (3) Shakespere's tragedy, "Hamlet", is derived from this story. 

BOOK FOUR. 

Amleth, when he had accomplished the slaughter of his stepfather, fearedto expose his deed to the fickle judgment of his countrymen, and thoughtit well to lie in hiding till he had learnt what way the mob of theuncouth populace was tending. So the whole neighbourhood, who hadwatched the blaze during the night, and in the morning desired to knowthe cause of the fire they had seen, perceived the royal palace fallenin ashes; and, on searching through its ruins, which were yet warm, found only some shapeless remains of burnt corpses. For the devouringflame had consumed everything so utterly that not a single token wasleft to inform them of the cause of such a disaster. Also they saw thebody of Feng lying pierced by the sword, amid his blood-stained raiment. Some were seized with open anger, others with grief, and some withsecret delight. One party bewailed the death of their leader, the othergave thanks that the tyranny of the fratricide was now laid at rest. Thus the occurrence of the king's slaughter was greeted by the beholderswith diverse minds. 

Amleth, finding the people so quiet, made bold to leave his hiding. Summoning those in whom he knew the memory of his father to befast-rooted, he went to the assembly and there made a speech after thismanner:

"Nobles! Let not any who are troubled by the piteous end of Horwendilbe worried by the sight of this disaster before you; be not ye, I say, distressed, who have remained loyal to your king and duteous to yourfather. Behold the corpse, not of a prince, but of a fratricide. Indeed, it was a sorrier sight when ye saw our prince lying lamentably butcheredby a most infamous fratricide-brother, let me not call him. With yourown compassionating eyes ye have beheld the mangled limbs of Horwendil;they have seen his body done to death with many wounds. Surely that mostabominable butcher only deprived his king of life that he might despoilhis country of freedom! The hand that slew him made you slaves. Whothen so mad as to choose Feng the cruel before Horwendil the righteous?Remember how benignantly Horwendil fostered you, how justly he dealtwith you, how kindly he loved you. Remember how you lost the mildest ofprinces and the justest of fathers, while in his place was put a tyrantand an assassin set up; how your rights were confiscated; how everythingwas plague-stricken; how the country was stained with infamies; how theyoke was planted on your necks, and how, your free will was forfeited!And now all this is over; for ye see the criminal stifled in his owncrimes, the slayer of his kin punished for his misdoings. What man ofbut ordinary wit, beholding it, would account this kindness a wrong?What sane man could be sorry that the crime has recoiled upon theculprit? Who could lament the killing of a most savage executioner? Orbewail the righteous death of a most cruel despot? Ye behold the doer ofthe deed; he is before you. Yea, I own that I have taken vengeance formy country and my father. Your hands were equally bound to the taskwhich mine fulfilled. What it would have beseemed you to accomplish withme, I achieved alone. Nor had I any partner in so glorious a deed, orthe service of any man to help me. Not that I forget that you would havehelped this work, had I asked you; for doubtless you have remained loyalto your king and loving to your prince. But I chose that the wickedshould be punished without imperilling you; I thought that others neednot set their shoulders to the burden when I deemed mine strong enoughto bear it. Therefore I consumed all the others to ashes, and left onlythe trunk of Feng for your hands to burn, so that on this at leastyou may wreak all your longing for a righteous vengeance. Now haste upspeedily, heap the pyre, burn up the body of the wicked, consume awayhis guilty limbs, scatter his sinful ashes, strew broadcast his ruthlessdust; let no urn or barrow enclose the abominable remnants of his bones. Let no trace of his fratricide remain; let there be no spot in his ownland for his tainted limbs; let no neighbourhood suck infection fromhim; let not sea nor soil be defiled by harboring his accursed carcase. I have done the rest; this one loyal duty is left for you. These must bethe tyrant's obsequies, this the funeral procession of the fratricide. It is not seemly that he who stripped his country of her freedom shouldhave his ashes covered by his country's earth. 

"Besides, why tell again my own sorrows? Why count over my troubles?Why weave the thread of my miseries anew? Ye know them more fully than Imyself. I, pursued to the death by my stepfather, scorned by my mother, spat upon by friends, have passed my years in pitiable wise, and my daysin adversity; and my insecure life has teemed with fear and perils. In fine, I passed every season of my age wretchedly and in extremecalamity. Often in your secret murmurings together you have sighed overmy lack of wits; there was none (you said) to avenge the father, noneto punish the fratricide. And in this I found a secret testimony of yourlove; for I saw that the memory of the King's murder had not yet fadedfrom your minds. 

"Whose breast is so hard that it can be softened by no fellow-feelingfor what I have felt? Who is so stiff and stony, that he is swayed byno compassion for my griefs? Ye whose hands are clean of the blood ofHorwendil, pity your fosterling, be moved by my calamities. Pity also mystricken mother, and rejoice with me that the infamy of her who was onceyour queen is quenched. For this weak woman had to bear a twofold weightof ignominy, embracing one who was her husband's brother and murderer. Therefore, to hide my purpose of revenge and to veil my wit, Icounterfeited a listless bearing; I feigned dulness; I planned astratagem; and now you can see with your own eyes whether it hassucceeded, whether it has achieved its purpose to the full; I am contentto leave you to judge so great a matter. It is your turn; trample underfoot the ashes of the murderer! Disdain the dust of him who slew hisbrother, and defiled his brother's queen with infamous desecration, whooutraged his sovereign and treasonably assailed his majesty, whobrought the sharpest tyranny upon you, stole your freedom, and crownedfratricide with incest. I have been the agent of this just vengeance; Ihave burned for this righteous retribution; uphold me with a high-bornspirit; pay me the homage that you owe; warm me with your kindly looks. It is I who have wiped off my country's shame; I who have quenched mymother's dishonour; I who have beaten back oppression; I who have put todeath the murderer; I who have baffled the artful hand of my uncle withretorted arts. Were he living, each new day would have multiplied hiscrimes. I resented the wrong done to father and to fatherland: I slewhim who was governing you outrageously and more hardly than it beseemedmen. Acknowledge my service, honour my wit, give me the throne if I haveearned it; for you have in me one who has done you a mighty service, andwho is no degenerate heir to his father's power; no fratricide, but thelawful successor to the throne; and a dutiful avenger of the crime ofmurder. It is I who have stripped you of slavery, and clothed you withfreedom; I have restored your height of fortune, and given you yourglory back; I have deposed the despot and triumphed over the butcher. In your hands is the reward; you know what I have done for you, and fromyour righteousness I ask my wage. "

Every heart had been moved while the young man thus spoke; he affectedsome to compassion, and some even to tears. When the lamentation ceased, he was appointed king by prompt and general acclaim. For one and allrested their greatest hopes on his wisdom, since he had devised thewhole of such an achievement with the deepest cunning, and accomplishedit with the most astonishing contrivance. Many could have been seenmarvelling how he had concealed so subtle a plan over so long a space oftime. 

After these deeds in Denmark, Amleth equipped three vessels, and wentback to Britain to see his wife and her father. He had also enrolled inhis service the flower of the warriors, and arrayed them very choicely, wishing to have everything now magnificently appointed, even as of oldhe had always worn contemptible gear, and to change all his old devotionto poverty for outlay on luxury. He also had a shield made for him, whereon the whole series of his exploits, beginning with his earliestyouth, was painted in exquisite designs. This he bore as a record of hisdeeds of prowess, and gained great increase of fame thereby. Here wereto be seen depicted the slaying of Horwendil; the fratricide and incestof Feng; the infamous uncle, the whimsical nephew; the shapes of thehooked stakes; the stepfather suspecting, the stepson dissembling; thevarious temptations offered, and the woman brought to beguile him; thegaping wolf; the finding of the rudder; the passing of the sand; theentering of the wood; the putting of the straw through the gadfly; thewarning of the youth by the tokens; and the privy dealings with themaiden after the escort was eluded. And likewise could be seen thepicture of the palace; the queen there with her son; the slaying of theeavesdropper; and how, after being killed, he was boiled down, and sodropped into the sewer, and so thrown out to the swine; how his limbswere strewn in the mud, and so left for the beasts to finish. Alsoit could be seen how Amleth surprised the secret of his sleepingattendants, how he erased the letters, and put new characters in theirplaces; how he disdained the banquet and scorned the drink; howhe condemned time face of the king and taxed the Queen with faultybehaviour. There was also represented the hanging of the envoys, andthe young man's wedding; then the voyage back to Denmark; the festivecelebration of the funeral rites; Amleth, in answer to questions, pointing to the sticks in place of his attendants, acting as cupbearer, and purposely drawing his sword and pricking his fingers; the swordriveted through, the swelling cheers of the banquet, the dance growingfast and furious; the hangings flung upon the sleepers, then fastenedwith the interlacing crooks, and wrapped tightly round them as theyslumbered; the brand set to the mansion, the burning of the guests, theroyal palace consumed with fire and tottering down; the visit to thesleeping-room of Feng, the theft of his sword, the useless one setin its place; and the king slain with his own sword's point by hisstepson's hand. All this was there, painted upon Amleth's battle-shieldby a careful craftsman in the choicest of handiwork; he copied truth inhis figures, and embodied real deeds in his outlines. Moreover, Amleth'sfollowers, to increase the splendour of their presence, wore shieldswhich were gilt over. 

The King of Britain received them very graciously, and treated them withcostly and royal pomp. During the feast he asked anxiously whether Fengwas alive and prosperous. His son-in-law told him that the man of whosewelfare he was vainly inquiring had perished by the sword. With a floodof questions he tried to find out who had slain Feng, and learnt thatthe messenger of his death was likewise its author. And when the kingheard this, he was secretly aghast, because he found that an old promiseto avenge Feng now devolved upon himself. For Feng and he had determinedof old, by a mutual compact, that one of them should act as avenger ofthe other. Thus the king was drawn one way by his love for his daughterand his affection for his son-in-law; another way by his regard for hisfriend, and moreover by his strict oath and the sanctity of their mutualdeclarations, which it was impious to violate. At last he slightedthe ties of kinship, and sworn faith prevailed. His heart turned tovengeance, and he put the sanctity of his oath before family bonds. But since it was thought sin to wrong the holy ties of hospitality, hepreferred to execrate his revenge by the hand of another, wishingto mask his secret crime with a show of innocence. So he veiled histreachery with attentions, and hid his intent to harm under a show ofzealous goodwill. His queen having lately died of illness, he requestedAmleth to undertake the mission of making him a fresh match, saying thathe was highly delighted with his extraordinary shrewdness. He declaredthat there was a certain queen reigning in Scotland, whom he vehementlydesired to marry. Now he knew that she was not only unwedded by reasonof her chastity, but that in the cruelty of her arrogance she hadalways loathed her wooers, and had inflicted on her lovers the uttermostpunishment, so that not one but of all the multitude was to be found whohad not paid for his insolence with his life. 

Perilous as this commission was Amleth started, never shrinking to obeythe duty imposed upon him, but trusting partly in his own servants, andpartly in the attendants of the king. He entered Scotland, and, whenquite close to the abode of the queen, he went into a meadow by thewayside to rest his horses. Pleased by the look of the spot, he thoughtof resting--the pleasant prattle of the stream exciting a desire tosleep--and posted men to keep watch some way off. The queen on hearingof this, sent out ten warriors to spy on the approach of the foreignersand their equipment. One of these, being quick-witted, slipped pastthe sentries, pertinaciously made his way up, and took away the shield, which Amleth had chanced to set at his head before he slept, so gentlythat he did not ruffle his slumbers, though he was lying upon it, norawaken one man of all that troop; for he wished to assure his mistressnot only by report but by some token. With equal address he filched theletter entrusted to Amleth from the coffer in which it was kept. Whenthese things were brought to the queen, she scanned the shield narrowly, and from the notes appended made out the whole argument. Then she knewthat here was the man who, trusting in his own nicely calculated scheme, had avenged on his uncle the murder of his father. She also looked atthe letter containing the suit for her band, and rubbed out all thewriting; for wedlock with the old she utterly abhorred, and desiredthe embraces of young men. But she wrote in its place a commissionpurporting to be sent from the King of Britain to herself, signed likethe other with his name and title, wherein she pretended that she wasasked to marry the bearer. Moreover, she included an account of thedeeds of which she had learnt from Amleth's shield, so that one wouldhave thought the shield confirmed the letter, while the letter explainedthe shield. Then she told the same spies whom she had employed before totake the shield back, and put the letter in its place again; playing thevery trick on Amleth which, as she had learnt, he had himself used inoutwitting his companions. 

Amleth, meanwhile, who found that his shield had been filched from underhis head, deliberately shut his eyes and cunningly feigned sleep, hopingto regain by pretended what he had lost by real slumbers. For he thoughtthat the success of his one attempt would incline the spy to deceivehim a second time. And he was not mistaken. For as the spy came upstealthily, and wanted to put back the shield and the writing in theirold place, Amleth leapt up, seized him, and detained him in bonds. Then he roused his retinue, and went to the abode of the queen. Asrepresenting his father-in-law, he greeted her, and handled herthe writing, sealed with the king's seal. The queen, who was namedHermutrude, took and read it, and spoke most warmly of Amleth'sdiligence and shrewdness, saying, that Feng had deserved his punishment, and that the unfathomable wit of Amleth had accomplished a deed pastall human estimation; seeing that not only had his impenetrabledepth devised a mode of revenging his father's death and his mother'sadultery, but it had further, by his notable deeds Of prowess, seizedthe kingdom of the man whom he had found constantly plotting againsthim. She marvelled therefore that a man of such instructed mind couldhave made the one slip of a mistaken marriage; for though his renownalmost rose above mortality, he seemed to have stumbled into an obscureand ignoble match. For the parents of his wife had been slaves, thoughgood luck had graced them with the honours of royalty. Now (said she), when looking for a wife a wise man must reckon the lustre of her birthand not of her beauty. Therefore, if he were to seek a match in a properspirit, he should weigh the ancestry, and not be smitten by the looks;for though looks were a lure to temptation, yet their empty bedizenmenthad tarnished the white simplicity of many a man. Now there was a woman, as nobly born as himself, whom he could take. She herself, whose meanswere not poor nor her birth lowly, was worthy his embraces, since he didnot surpass her in royal wealth nor outshine her in the honour of hisancestors. Indeed she was a queen, and but that her sex gainsaid it, might be deemed a king; may (and this is yet truer), whomsoever shethought worthy of her bed was at once a king, and she yielded herkingdom with herself. Thus her sceptre and her hand went together. Itwas no mean favour for such a woman to offer her love, who in the caseof other men had always followed her refusal with the sword. Thereforeshe pressed him to transfer his wooing, to make over to her his marriagevows, and to learn to prefer birth to beauty. So saying, she fell uponhim with a close embrace. 

Amleth was overjoyed at the gracious speech of the maiden, fell tokissing back, and returned her close embrace, protesting that themaiden's wish was his own. Then a banquet was held, friends bidden, the nobles gathered, and the marriage rites performed. When they wereaccomplished, he went back to Britain with his bride, a strong band ofScots being told to follow close behind, that he might have its helpagainst the diverse treacheries in his path. As he was returning, thedaughter of the King of Britain, to whom he was still married, met him. Though she complained that she was slighted by the wrong of having aparamour put over her, yet, she said, it would be unworthy for her tohate him as an adulterer more than she loved him as a husband: nor wouldshe so far shrink from her lord as to bring herself to hide in silencethe guile which she knew was intended against him. For she had a son asa pledge of their marriage, and regard for him, if nothing else, musthave inclined his mother to the affection of a wife. "He, " she said, "may hate the supplanter of his mother, I will love her; no disastershall put out my flame for thee; no ill-will shall quench it, or preventme from exposing the malignant designs against thee, or from revealingthe snares I have detected. Bethink thee, then, that thou must bewareof thy father-in-law, for thou hast thyself reaped the harvest ofthy mission, foiled the wishes of him who sent thee, and with willfultrespass seized over all the fruit for thyself. " By this speech sheshowed herself more inclined to love her husband than her father. 

While she thus spoke, the King of Britain came up and embraced hisson-in-law closely, but with little love, and welcomed him with abanquet, to hide his intended guile under a show of generosity. ButAmleth, having learnt the deceit, dissembled his fear, took a retinue oftwo hundred horsemen, put on an under-shirt (of mail), and compliedwith the invitation, preferring the peril of falling in with the king'sdeceit to the shame of hanging back. So much heed for honour did hethink that he must take in all things. As he rode up close, the kingattacked him just under the porch of the folding doors, and would havethrust him through with his javelin, but that the hard shirt of mailthrew off the blade. Amleth received a slight wound, and went to thespot where he had bidden the Scottish warriors wait on duty. He thensent back to the king his new wife's spy, whom he had captured. This manwas to bear witness that he had secretly taken from the coffer where itwas kept the letter which was meant for his mistress, and thus wasto make the whole blame recoil on Hermutrude, by this studied excuseabsolving Amleth from the charge of treachery. The king without tarryingpursued Amleth hotly as he fled, and deprived him of most of his forces. So Amleth, on the morrow, wishing to fight for dear life, and utterlydespairing of his powers of resistance, tried to increase his apparentnumbers. He put stakes under some of the dead bodies of his comrades toprop them up, set others on horseback like living men, and tied othersto neighbouring stones, not taking off any of their armour, and dressingthem in due order of line and wedge, just as if they were about toengage. The wing composed of the dead was as thick as the troop of theliving. It was an amazing spectacle this, of dead men dragged out tobattle, and corpses mustered to fight. The plan served him well, for thevery figures of the dead men showed like a vast array as the sunbeamsstruck them. For those dead and senseless shapes restored the originalnumber of the army so well, that the mass might have been unthinned bythe slaughter of yesterday. The Britons, terrified at the spectacle, fled before fighting, conquered by the dead men whom they had overcomein life. I cannot tell whether to think more of the cunning or of thegood fortune of this victory. The Danes came down on the king as he wastardily making off, and killed him. Amleth, triumphant, made a greatplundering, seized the spoils of Britain, and went back with his wivesto his own land. 

Meanwhile Rorik had died, and Wiglek, who had come to the throne, hadharassed Amleth's mother with all manner of insolence and stripped herof her royal wealth, complaining that her son had usurped the kingdom ofJutland and defrauded the King of Leire, who had the sole privilege ofgiving and taking away the rights of high offices. This treatment Amlethtook with such forbearance as apparently to return kindness for slander, for he presented Wiglek with the richest of his spoils. But afterwardshe seized a chance of taking vengeance, attacked him, subdued him, andfrom a covert became an open foe. Fialler, the governor of Skaane, hedrove into exile; and the tale is that Fialler retired to a spotcalled Undensakre, which is unknown to our peoples. After this, Wiglek, recruited with the forces of Skaane and Zealand, sent envoys tochallenge Amleth to a war. Amleth, with his marvellous shrewdness, saw that he was tossed between two difficulties, one of which involveddisgrace and the other danger. For he knew that if he took up thechallenge he was threatened with peril of his life, while to shrink fromit would disgrace his reputation as a soldier. Yet in that spirit everfixed on deeds of prowess the desire to save his honour won the day. Dread of disaster was blunted by more vehement thirst for glory; hewould not tarnish the unblemished lustre of his fame by timidly skulkingfrom his fate. Also he saw that there is almost as wide a gap between amean life and a noble death as that which is acknowledged between honourand disgrace themselves. 

Yet Amleth was enchained by such great love for Hermutrude, that he wasmore deeply concerned in his mind about her future widowhood than abouthis own death, and cast about very zealously how he could decide onsome second husband for her before the opening of the war. Hermutrude, therefore, declared that she had the courage of a man, and promised thatshe would not forsake him even on the field, saying that the woman whodreaded to be united with her lord in death was abominable. But shekept this rare promise ill; for when Amleth had been slain by Wiglek inbattle in Jutland, she yielded herself up unasked to be the conqueror'sspoil and bride. Thus all vows of woman are loosed by change of fortuneand melted by the shifting of time; the faith of their soul rests on aslippery foothold, and is weakened by casual chances; glib in promises, and as sluggish in performance, all manner of lustful promptings enslaveit, and it bounds away with panting and precipitate desire, forgetfulof old things in the ever hot pursuit after something fresh. So endedAmleth. Had fortune been as kind to him as nature, he would haveequalled the gods in glory, and surpassed the labours of Hercules by hisdeeds of prowess. A plain in Jutland is to be found, famous for his nameand burial-place. Wiglek's administration of the kingdom was long andpeaceful, and he died of disease. 

WERMUND, his son, succeeded him. The long and leisurely tranquillity ofa most prosperous and quiet time flowed by and Wermund in undisturbedsecurity maintained a prolonged and steady peace at home. He had nochildren during the prime of his life, but in his old age, by a belatedgift of fortune, he begat a son, Uffe, though all the years which hadglided by had raised him up no offspring. This Uffe surpassed all of hisage in stature, but in his early youth was supposed to have so dull andfoolish a spirit as to be useless for all affairs public or private. For from his first years he never used to play or make merry, but was sovoid of all human pleasure that he kept his lips sealed in a perennialsilence, and utterly restrained his austere visage from the business oflaughter. But though through the years of his youth he was reputedfor an utter fool, he afterwards left that despised estate and becamefamous, turning out as great a pattern of wisdom and hardihood as he hadbeen a picture of stagnation. His father, seeing him such a simpleton, got him for a wife the daughter of Frowin, the governor of the men ofSleswik; thinking that by his alliance with so famous a man Uffe wouldreceive help which would serve him well in administering the realm. Frowin had two sons, Ket and Wig, who were youths of most brilliantparts, and their excellence, not less than that of Frowin, Wermunddestined to the future advantage of his son. 

At this time the King of Sweden was Athisl, a man of notable fame andenergy. After defeating his neighbours far around, he was loth to leavethe renown won by his prowess to be tarnished in slothful ease, and byconstant and zealous practice brought many novel exercises into vogue. For one thing he had a daily habit of walking alone girt with splendidarmour: in part because he knew that nothing was more excellent inwarfare than the continual practice of arms; and in part that he mightswell his glory by ever following this pursuit. Self-confidence claimedas large a place in this man as thirst for fame. Nothing, he thought, could be so terrible as to make him afraid that it would daunt hisstout heart by its opposition. He carried his arms into Denmark, andchallenged Frowin to battle near Sleswik. The armies routed one anotherwith vast slaughter, and it happened that the generals came to engage inperson, so that they conducted the affair like a duel; and, in additionto the public issues of the war, the fight was like a personal conflict. For both of them longed with equal earnestness for an issue of thecombat by which they might exhibit their valour, not by the help oftheir respective sides, but by a trial of personal strength. The end wasthat, though the blows rained thick on either side, Athisl prevailed andoverthrew Frowin, and won a public victory as well as a duel, breakingup and shattering the Danish ranks in all directions. When he returnedto Sweden, he not only counted the slaying of Frowin among the trophiesof his valour, but even bragged of it past measure, so ruining the gloryof the deed by his wantonness of tongue. For it is sometimes handsomerfor deeds of valour to be shrouded in the modesty of silence than to beblazoned in wanton talk. 

Wermund raised the sons of Frowin to honours of the same rank as theirfather's, a kindness which was only due to the children of his friendwho had died for the country. This prompted Athisl to carry the waragain into Denmark. Emboldened therefore by his previous battle, hecalled back, bringing with him not only no slender and feeble force, but all the flower of the valour of Sweden, thinking he would seize thesupremacy of all Denmark. Ket, the son of Frowin, sent Folk, his chiefofficer, to take this news to Wermund, who then chanced to be in hishouse Jellinge. (1) Folk found the king feasting with his friends, anddid his errand, admonishing him that here was the long-wished-for chanceof war at hand, and pressing itself upon the wishes of Wermund, to whomwas give an immediate chance of victory and the free choice of a speedyand honourable triumph. Great and unexpected were the sweets of goodfortune, so long sighed for, and now granted to him by this lucky event. For Athisl had come encompassed with countless forces of the Swedes, just as though in his firm assurance he had made sure of victory; andsince the enemy who was going to fight would doubtless prefer death toflight, this chance of war gave them a fortunate opportunity to takevengeance for their late disaster. 

Wermund, declaring that he had performed his mission nobly and bravely, ordered that he should take some little refreshment of the banquet, since "far-faring ever hurt fasters. " When Folk said that he had no kindof leisure to take food, he begged him to take a draught to quench histhirst. This was given him; and Wermund also bade him keep the cup, which was of gold, saying that men who were weary with the heat ofwayfaring found it handier to take up the water in a goblet than in thepalms, and that it was better to use a cup for drinking than the hand. When the king accompanied his great gift with such gracious words, theyoung man, overjoyed at both, promised that, before the king should seehim turn and flee, he would take a draught of his own blood to the fullmeasure of the liquor he had drunk. 

With this doughty vow Wermund accounted himself well repaid, and gotsomewhat more joy from giving the boon than the soldier had from gainingit. Nor did he find that Folk's talk was braver than his fighting. 

For, when battle had begun, it came to pass that amidst divers chargesof the troops Folk and Athisl met and fought a long while together; andthat the host of the Swedes, following the fate of their captain, tookto flight, and Athisl also was wounded and fled from the battle to hisships. And when Folk, dazed with wounds and toils, and moreover steepedalike in heat and toil and thirst, had ceased to follow the rout of theenemy, then, in order to refresh himself, he caught his own blood inhis helmet, and put it to his lips to drain: by which deed he gloriouslyrequited the king's gift of the cup. Wermund, who chanced to see this, praised him warmly for fulfilling his vow. Folk answered, that a noblevow ought to be strictly performed to the end: a speech wherein heshowed no less approval of his own deed than Wermund. 

Now, while the conquerors had laid down their arms, and, as is usualafter battle, were exchanging diverse talk with one another, Ket, thegovernor of the men of Sleswik, declared that it was a matter of greatmarvel to him how it was that Athisl, though difficulties strewed hispath, had contrived an opportunity to escape, especially as he had beenthe first and foremost in the battle, but last of all in the retreat;and though there had not been one of the enemy whose fall was sovehemently desired by the Danes. Wermund rejoined that he should knowthat there were four kinds of warrior to be distinguished in every army. The fighters of the first order were those who, tempering valour withforbearance, were keen to slay those who resisted, but were ashamed tobear hard on fugitives. For these were the men who had won undoubtedproofs of prowess by veteran experience in arms, and who found theirglory not in the flight of the conquered, but in overcoming those whomthey had to conquer. Then there was a second kind of warriors, who wereendowed with stout frame and spirit, but with no jot of compassion, andwho raged with savage and indiscriminate carnage against the backs aswell as the breasts of their foes. Now of this sort were the men carriedaway by hot and youthful blood, and striving to grace their firstcampaign with good auguries of warfare. They burned as hotly with theglow of youth as with the glow for glory, and thus rushed headlong intoright or wrong with equal recklessness. There was also the third kind, who, wavering betwixt shame and fear, could not go forward for terror, while shame barred retreat. Of distinguished blood, but only notable fortheir useless stature, they crowded the ranks with numbers and not withstrength, smote the foe more with their shadows than with their arms, and were only counted among the throng of warriors as so many bodiesto be seen. These men were lords of great riches, but excelled more inbirth than bravery; hungry for life because owning great possessions, they were forced to yield to the sway of cowardice rather thannobleness. There were others, again, who brought show to the war, andnot substance, and who, foisting themselves into the rear of theircomrades, were the first to fly and the last to fight. One sure tokenof fear betrayed their feebleness; for they always deliberately soughtexcuses to shirk, and followed with timid and sluggish advance in therear of the fighters. It must be supposed, therefore, that these werethe reasons why the king had escaped safely; for when he fled he was notpursued pertinaciously by the men of the front rank; since these made ittheir business to preserve the victory, not to arrest the conquered, andmassed their wedges, in order that the fresh-won victory might be dulyand sufficiently guarded, and attain the fulness of triumph. 

Now the second class of fighters, whose desire was to cut downeverything in their way, had left Athisl unscathed, from lack not ofwill but of opportunity; for they had lacked the chance to hurt himrather than the daring. Moreover, though the men of the third kind, whofrittered away the very hour of battle by wandering about in a flurriedfashion, and also hampered the success of their own side, had had theirchance of harming the king, they yet lacked courage to assail him. Inthis way Wermund satisfied the dull amazement of Ket, and declaredthat he had set forth and expounded the true reasons of the king's safeescape. 

After this Athisl fled back to Sweden, still wantonly bragging of theslaughter of Frowin, and constantly boasting the memory of his exploitwith prolix recital of his deeds; not that he bore calmly the shame ofhis defeat, but that he might salve the wound of his recent flight bythe honours of his ancient victory. This naturally much angered Ket andWig, and they swore a vow to unite in avenging their father. Thinkingthat they could hardly accomplish this in open war, they took anequipment of lighter armament, and went to Sweden alone. Then, enteringa wood in which they had learnt by report that the king used to take hiswalks unaccompanied, they hid their weapons. Then they talked long withAthisl, giving themselves out as deserters; and when he asked them whatwas their native country, they said they were men of Sleswik, and hadleft their land "for manslaughter". The king thought that this statementreferred not to their vow to commit the crime, but to the guilt of somecrime already committed. For they desired by this deceit to foil hisinquisitiveness, so that the truthfulness of the statement mightbaffle the wit of the questioner, and their true answer, being covertlyshadowed forth in a fiction, might inspire in him a belief that it wasfalse. For famous men of old thought lying a most shameful thing. ThenAthisl said he would like to know whom the Danes believed to be theslayer of Frowin. Ket replied that there was a doubt as to who oughtto claim so illustrious a deed, especially as the general testimony wasthat he had perished on the field of battle. Athisl answered that it wasidle to credit others with the death of Frowin, which he, and he alone, had accomplished in mutual combat. Soon he asked whether Frowin had leftany children. Ket answering that two sons of his were alive, said thathe would be very glad to learn their age and stature. Ket replied thatthey were almost of the same size as themselves in body, alike in years, and much resembling them in tallness. Then Athisl said: "If the mind andthe valour of their sire were theirs, a bitter tempest would break uponme. " Then he asked whether those men constantly spoke of the slaying oftheir father. Ket rejoined that it was idle to go on talking and talkingabout a thing that could not be softened by any remedy, and declaredthat it was no good to harp with constant vexation on an inexpiable ill. By saying this he showed that threats ought not to anticipate vengeance. 

When Ket saw that the king regularly walked apart alone in order totrain his strength, he took up his arms, and with his brother followedthe king as he walked in front of them. Athisl, when he saw them, stoodhis ground on the sand, thinking it shameful to avoid threateners. Thenthey said that they would take vengeance for his slaying of Frowin, especially as he avowed with so many arrogant vaunts that he alone washis slayer. But he told them to take heed lest while they sought tocompass their revenge, they should be so foolhardy as to engage him withtheir feeble and powerless hand, and while desiring the destruction ofanother, should find they had fallen themselves. Thus they would cut offtheir goodly promise of overhasty thirst for glory. Let them then savetheir youth and spare their promise; let them not be seized so lightlywith a desire to perish. Therefore, let them suffer him to requite withmoney the trespass done them in their father's death, and account itgreat honour that they would be credited with forcing so mighty a chiefto pay a fine, and in a manner with shaking him with overmastering fear. Yet he said he advised them thus, not because he was really terrified, but because he was moved with compassion for their youth. Ket repliedthat it was idle to waste time in beating so much about the bush andtrying to sap their righteous longing for revenge by an offer of pelf. So he bade him come forward and make trial with him in single combatof whatever strength he had. He himself would do without the aid of hisbrother, and would fight with his own strength, lest it should appear ashameful and unequal combat, for the ancients held it to be unfair, andalso infamous, for two men to fight against one; and a victory gained bythis kind of fighting they did not account honourable, but more like adisgrace than a glory. Indeed, it was considered not only a poor, but amost shameful exploit for two men to overpower one. 

But Athisl was filled with such assurance that he bade them both assailhim at once, declaring that if he could not cure them of the desire tofight, he would at least give them the chance of fighting more safely. But Ket shrank so much from this favour that he swore he would acceptdeath sooner: for he thought that the terms of battle thus offered wouldbe turned into a reproach to himself. So he engaged hotly with Athisl, who desirous to fight him in a forbearing fashion, merely thrust lightlywith his blade and struck upon his shield; thus guarding his own safetywith more hardihood than success. When he had done this some while, headvised him to take his brother to share in his enterprise, and not beashamed to ask for the help of another hand, since his unaided effortswere useless. If he refused, said Athisl, he should not be spared; thenmaking good his threats, he assailed him with all his might. But Ketreceived him with so sturdy a stroke of his sword, that it split thehelmet and forced its way down upon the head. Stung by the wound (for astream of blood flowed from his poll), he attacked Ket with a shower ofnimble blows, and drove him to his knees. Wig, leaning more to personallove than to general usage, (2) could not bear the sight, but madeaffection conquer shame, and attacking Athisl, chose rather to defendthe weakness of his brother than to look on at it. But he won moreinfamy than glory by the deed. In helping his brother he had violatedthe appointed conditions of the duel; and the help that he gave him wasthought more useful than honourable. For on the one scale he inclined tothe side of disgrace, and on the other to that of affection. Thereuponthey perceived themselves that their killing of Athisl had been moreswift than glorious. Yet, not to hide the deed from the common people, they cut off his head, slung his body on a horse, took it out of thewood, and handed it over to the dwellers in a village near, announcingthat the sons of Frowin had taken vengeance upon Athisl, King of theSwedes, for the slaying of their father. Boasting of such a victory asthis, they were received by Wermund with the highest honours; for hethought they had done a most useful deed, and he preferred to regardthe glory of being rid of a rival with more attention than the infamy ofcommitting an outrage. Nor did he judge that the killing of a tyrant wasin any wise akin to shame. It passed into a proverb among foreigners, that the death of the king had broken down the ancient principle ofcombat. 

When Wermund was losing his sight by infirmity of age, the King ofSaxony, thinking that Denmark lacked a leader, sent envoys ordering himto surrender to his charge the kingdom which he held beyond the due termof life; lest, if he thirsted to hold sway too long, he should strip hiscountry of laws and defence. For how could he be reckoned a king, whosespirit was darkened with age, and his eyes with blindness not less blackand awful? If he refused, but yet had a son who would dare to accept achallenge and fight with his son, let him agree that the victor shouldpossess the realm. But if he approved neither offer, let him learn thathe must be dealt with by weapons and not by warnings; and in the endhe must unwillingly surrender what he was too proud at first to yielduncompelled. Wermund, shaken by deep sighs, answered that it was tooinsolent to sting him with these taunts upon his years; for he hadpassed no timorous youth, nor shrunk from battle, that age should bringhim to this extreme misery. It was equally unfitting to cast in histeeth the infirmity of his blindness: for it was common for a lossof this kind to accompany such a time of life as his, and it seemed acalamity fitter for sympathy than for taunts. It were juster to fixthe blame on the impatience of the King of Saxony, whom it would havebeseemed to wait for the old man's death, and not demand his throne; forit was somewhat better to succeed to the dead than to rob the living. Yet, that he might not be thought to make over the honours of hisancient freedom, like a madman, to the possession of another, he wouldaccept the challenge with his own hand. The envoys answered that theyknew that their king would shrink from the mockery of fighting a blindman, for such an absurd mode of combat was thought more shameful thanhonourable. It would surely be better to settle the affair by means oftheir offspring on either side. The Danes were in consternation, and ata sudden loss for a reply: but Uffe, who happened to be there with therest, craved his father's leave to answer; and suddenly the dumb as itwere spake. When Wermund asked who had thus begged leave to speak, andthe attendants said that it was Uffe, he declared that it was enoughthat the insolent foreigner should jeer at the pangs of his misery, without those of his own household vexing him with the same wantoneffrontery. But the courtiers persistently averred that this man wasUffe; and the king said: "He is free, whosoever he be, to say out whathe thinks. " Then said Uffe, "that it was idle for their king to coveta realm which could rely not only on the service of its own ruler, butalso on the arms and wisdom of most valiant nobles. Moreover, the kingdid not lack a son nor the kingdom an heir; and they were to know thathe had made up his mind to fight not only the son of their king, butalso, at the same time, whatsoever man the prince should elect as hiscomrade out of the bravest of their nation. "

The envoys laughed when they beard this, thinking it idle lip-courage. Instantly the ground for the battle was agreed on, and a fixed timeappointed. But the bystanders were so amazed by the strangeness ofUffe's speaking and challenging, that one can scarce say if they weremore astonished at his words or at his assurance. 

But on the departure of the envoys Wermund praised him who had madethe answer, because he had proved his confidence in his own valour bychallenging not one only, but two; and said that he would sooner quithis kingdom for him, whoever he was, than for an insolent foe. But whenone and all testified that he who with lofty self-confidence had spurnedthe arrogance of the envoys was his own son, he bade him come nearerto him, wishing to test with his hands what he could not with his eyes. Then he carefully felt his body, and found by the size of his limbs andby his features that he was his son; and then began to believe theirassertions, and to ask him why he had taken pains to hide so sweet aneloquence with such careful dissembling, and had borne to live throughso long a span of life without utterance or any intercourse of talk, soas to let men think him utterly incapable of speech, and a born mute. Hereplied that he had been hitherto satisfied with the protection of hisfather, that he had not needed the use of his own voice, until he sawthe wisdom of his own land hard pressed by the glibness of a foreigner. The king also asked him why he had chosen to challenge two rather thanone. He said he had desired this mode of combat in order that the deathof King Athisl, which, having been caused by two men, was a standingreproach to the Danes, might be balanced by the exploit of one, andthat a new ensample of valour might erase the ancient record of theirdisgrace. Fresh honour, he said, would thus obliterate the guilt oftheir old dishonour. 

Wermund said that his son had judged all things rightly, and bade himfirst learn the use of arms, since he had been little accustomed tothem. When they were offered to Uffe, he split the narrow links of themail-coats by the mighty girth of his chest, nor could any be foundlarge enough to hold him properly. For he was too hugely built to beable to use the arms of any other man. At last, when he was burstingeven his father's coat of mail by the violent compression of his body, Wermund ordered it to be cut away on the left side and patched with abuckle; thinking it mattered little if the side guarded by the shieldwere exposed to the sword. He also told him to be most careful in fixingon a sword which he could use safely. Several were offered him; butUffe, grasping the hilt, shattered them one after the other intoflinders by shaking them, and not a single blade was of so hard a temperbut at the first blow he broke it into many pieces. But the king had asword of extraordinary sharpness, called "Skrep", which at a single blowof the smiter struck straight through and cleft asunder any obstaclewhatsoever; nor would aught be hard enough to check its edge when drivenhome. The king, loth to leave this for the benefit of posterity, andgreatly grudging others the use of it, had buried it deep in the earth, meaning, since he had no hopes of his son's improvement, to debareveryone else from using it. But when he was now asked whether he had asword worthy of the strength of Uffe, he said that he had one which, ifhe could recognize the lie of the ground and find what he had consignedlong ago to earth, he could offer him as worthy of his bodily strength. Then he bade them lead him into a field, and kept questioning hiscompanions over all the ground. At last he recognised the tokens, foundthe spot where he had buried the sword, drew it out of its hole, andhanded it to his son. Uffe saw it was frail with great age and rustedaway; and, not daring to strike with it, asked if he must prove thisone also like the rest, declaring that he must try its temper beforethe battle ought to be fought. Wermund replied that if this sword wereshattered by mere brandishing, there was nothing left which could servefor such strength as his. He must, therefore, forbear from the act, whose issue remained so doubtful. 

So they repaired to the field of battle as agreed. It is fastencompassed by the waters of the river Eider, which roll between, andforbid any approach save by ship. Hither Uffe went unattended, whilethe Prince of Saxony was followed by a champion famous for his strength. Dense crowds on either side, eager to see, thronged each winding bank, and all bent their eyes upon this scene. Wermund planted himself on theend of the bridge, determined to perish in the waters if defeat werethe lot of his son: he would rather share the fall of his own flesh andblood than behold, with heart full of anguish, the destruction of hisown country. Both the warriors assaulted Uffe; but, distrusting hissword, he parried the blows of both with his shield, being determinedto wait patiently and see which of the two he must beware of mostheedfully, so that he might reach that one at all events with a singlestroke of his blade. Wermund, thinking that his feebleness was at fault, that he took the blows so patiently, dragged himself little by little, in his longing for death, forward to the western edge of the bridge, meaning to fling himself down and perish, should all be over with hisson. 

Fortune shielded the old father, for Uffe told the prince to engage withhim more briskly, and to do some deed of prowess worthy of his famousrace; lest the lowborn squire should seem braver than the prince. Then, in order to try the bravery of the champion, he bade him not skulktimorously at his master's heels, but requite by noble deeds of combatthe trust placed in him by his prince, who had chosen him to be hissingle partner in the battle. The other complied, and when shame drovehim to fight at close quarters, Uffe clove him through with the firststroke of his blade. The sound revived Wermund, who said that he heardthe sword of his son, and asked "on what particular part he had dealtthe blow?" Then the retainers answered that it had gone through no onelimb, but the man's whole frame; whereat Wermund drew back from theprecipice and came on the bridge, longing now as passionately to live ashe had just wished to die. Then Uffe, wishing to destroy his remainingfoe after the fashion of the first, incited the prince with vehementwords to offer some sacrifice by way of requital to the shade of theservant slain in his cause. Drawing him by those appeals, and warilynoting the right spot to plant his blow, he turned the other edge ofhis sword to the front, fearing that the thin side of his blade was toofrail for his strength, and smote with a piercing stroke through theprince's body. When Wermund heard it, he said that the sound of hissword "Skrep" had reached his ear for the second time. Then, when thejudges announced that his son had killed both enemies, he burst intotears from excess of joy. Thus gladness bedewed the cheeks which sorrowcould not moisten. So while the Saxons, sad and shamefaced, bore theirchampions to burial with bitter shame, the Danes welcomed Uffe andbounded for joy. Then no more was heard of the disgrace of the murder ofAthisl, and there was an end of the taunts of the Saxons. 

Thus the realm of Saxony was transferred to the Danes, and Uffe, afterhis father, undertook its government; and he, who had not been thoughtequal to administering a single kingdom properly, was now appointed tomanage both. Most men have called him Olaf, and he has won the nameof "the Gentle" for his forbearing spirit. His later deeds, lost inantiquity, have lacked formal record. But it may well be supposed thatwhen their beginnings were so notable, their sequel was glorious. I amso brief in considering his doings, because the lustre of the famousmen of our nation has been lost to memory and praise by the lack ofwritings. But if by good luck our land had in old time been endowed withthe Latin tongue, there would have been countless volumes to read of theexploits of the Danes. 

Uffe was succeeded by his son DAN, who carried his arms againstforeigners, and increased his sovereignty with many a trophy; but hetarnished the brightness of the glory he had won by foul and abominablepresumption; falling so far away from the honour of his famous father, who surpassed all others in modesty, that he contrariwise was puffed upand proudly exalted in spirit, so that he scorned all other men. Healso squandered the goods of his father on infamies, as well as hisown winnings from the spoils of foreign nations; and he devoured inexpenditure on luxuries the wealth which should have ministered to hisroyal estate. Thus do sons sometimes, like monstrous births, degeneratefrom their ancestors. 

After this HUGLEIK was king, who is said to have defeated in battle atsea Homod and Hogrim, the despots of Sweden. 

To him succeeded FRODE, surnamed the Vigorous, who bore out his name bythe strength of his body and mind. He destroyed in war ten captains ofNorway, and finally approached the island which afterwards had its namefrom him, meaning to attack the king himself last of all. This king, Froger, was in two ways very distinguished, being notable in arms noless than in wealth; and graced his sovereignty with the deeds of achampion, being as rich in prizes for bodily feats as in the honours ofrank. According to some, he was the son of Odin, and when he begged theimmortal gods to grant him a boon, received the privilege that no manshould conquer him, save he who at the time of the conflict could catchup in his hand the dust lying beneath Froger's feet. When Frode foundthat Heaven had endowed this king with such might, he challenged him toa duel, meaning to try to outwit the favour of the gods. So at first, feigning inexperience, he besought the king for a lesson in fighting, knowing (he said) his skill and experience in the same. The other, rejoicing that his enemy not only yielded to his pretensions, but evenmade him a request, said that he was wise to submit his youthful mind toan old man's wisdom; for his unscarred face and his brow, ploughed byno marks of battle, showed that his knowledge of such matters was butslender. So he marked off on the ground two square spaces with sidesan ell long, opposite one another, meaning to begin by instructing himabout the use of these plots. When they had been marked off, each tookthe side assigned to him. Then Frode asked Froger to exchange arms andground with him, and the request was readily granted. For Froger wasexcited with the dashing of his enemy's arms, because Frode wore agold-hilted sword, a breastplate equally bright, and a headpiece mostbrilliantly adorned in the same manner. So Frode caught up some dustfrom the ground whence Froger had gone, and thought that he had beengranted an omen of victory. Nor was he deceived in his presage; for hestraightway slew Froger, and by this petty trick won the greatest namefor bravery; for he gained by craft what had been permitted to no man'sstrength before. 

After him DAN came to the throne. When he was in the twelfth year of hisage, he was wearied by the insolence of the embassies, which commandedhim either to fight the Saxons or to pay them tribute. Ashamed, hepreferred fighting to payment and was moved to die stoutly rather thanlive a coward. So he elected to fight; and the warriors of the Danesfilled the Elbe with such a throng of vessels, that the decks of theships lashed together made it quite easy to cross, as though along acontinuous bridge. The end was that the King of Saxony had to accept thevery terms he was demanding from the Danes. 

After Dan, FRIDLEIF, surnamed the Swift, assumed the sovereignty. Duringhis reign, Huyrwil, the lord of Oland, made a league with the Danes andattacked Norway. No small fame was added to his deeds by the defeatof the amazon Rusila, who aspired with military ardour to prowess inbattle: but he gained manly glory over a female foe. Also he took intohis alliance, on account of their deeds of prowess, her five partners, the children of Finn, named Brodd, Bild, Bug, Fanning, and Gunholm. Their confederacy emboldened him to break the treaty which he madewith the Danes; and the treachery of the violation made it all themore injurious, for the Danes could not believe that he could turnso suddenly from a friend into an enemy; so easily can some veer fromgoodwill into hate. I suppose that this man inaugurated the morals ofour own day, for we do not account lying and treachery as sinful andsordid. When Huyrwil attacked the southern side of Zealand, Fridleifassailed him in the harbour which was afterwards called by Huyrwil'sname. In this battle the soldiers, in their rivalry for glory, engagedwith such bravery that very few fled to escape peril, and both armieswere utterly destroyed; nor did the victory fall to either side, whereboth were enveloped in an equal ruin. So much more desirous were theyall of glory than of life. So the survivors of Huyrwil's army, in orderto keep united, had the remnants of their fleet lashed together atnight. But, in the same night, Bild and Brodd cut the cables with whichthe ships were joined, and stealthily severed their own vessels from therest, thus yielding to their own terrors by deserting their brethren, and obeying the impulses of fear rather than fraternal love. Whendaylight returned, Fridleif, finding that after the great massacreof their friends only Huyrwil, Gunholm, Bug, and Fanning were left, determined to fight them all single-handed, so that the mangled relicsof his fleet might not again have to be imperilled. Besides his innatecourage, a shirt of steel-defying mail gave him confidence; a garb whichhe used to wear in all public battles and in duels, as a preservative ofhis life. He accomplished his end with as much fortune as courage, andended the battle successfully. For, after slaying Huyrwil, Bug, andFanning, he killed Gunholm, who was accustomed to blunt the blade ofan enemy with spells, by a shower of blows from his hilt. But whilehe gripped the blade too eagerly, the sinews, being cut and disabled, contracted the fingers upon the palm, and cramped them with life-longcurvature. 

While Fridleif was besieging Dublin, a town in Ireland, and saw fromthe strength of the walls that there was no chance of storming them, heimitated the shrewd wit of Hadding, and ordered fire to be shut up inwicks and fastened to the wings of swallows. When the birds got back intheir own nesting-place, the dwellings suddenly flared up; and while thecitizens all ran up to quench them, and paid more heed to abating thefire than to looking after the enemy, Fridleif took Dublin. After thishe lost his soldiers in Britain, and, thinking that he would findit hard to get back to the coast, he set up the corpses of the slain(Amleth's device) and stationed them in line, thus producing so nearlythe look of his original host that its great reverse seemed not to havelessened the show of it a whit. By this deed he not only took out of theenemy all heart for fighting, but inspired them with the desire to maketheir escape. 

 ENDNOTES: (1) Jellinge. Lat. "Ialunga", Icel. "Jalangr". (2) General usage. "publicus consuetudini": namely, the rule of combat that two should not fight against one. 

BOOK FIVE. 

After the death of Fridleif, his son FRODE, aged seven, was electedin his stead by the unanimous decision of the Danes. But they held anassembly first, and judged that the minority of the king should be takenin charge by guardians, lest the sovereignty should pass away owing tothe boyishness of the ruler. For one and all paid such respect to thename and memory of Fridleif, that the royalty was bestowed on his sondespite his tender years. So a selection was made, and the brothersWestmar and Koll were summoned to the charge of bringing up the king. Isulf, also, and Agg and eight other men of mark were not only entrustedwith the guardianship of the king, but also granted authority toadminister the realm under him. These men were rich in strength andcourage, and endowed with ample gifts of mind as well as of body. Thusthe state of the Danes was governed with the aid of regents until thetime when the king should be a man. 

The wife of Koll was Gotwar, who used to paralyse the most eloquent andfluent men by her glib and extraordinary insolence; for she was potentin wrangling, and full of resource in all kinds of disputation. Wordswere her weapons; and she not only trusted in questions, but was armedwith stubborn answers. No man could subdue this woman, who could notfight, but who found darts in her tongue instead. Some she would arguedown with a flood of impudent words, while others she seemed toentangle in the meshes of her quibbles, and strangle in the noose ofher sophistries; so nimble a wit had the woman. Moreover, she was verystrong, either in making or cancelling a bargain, and the sting ofher tongue was the secret of her power in both. She was clever both atmaking and at breaking leagues; thus she had two sides to her tongue, and used it for either purpose. 

Westmar had twelve sons, three of whom had the same name--Grep incommon. These three men were conceived at once and delivered at onebirth, and their common name declared their simultaneous origin. Theywere exceedingly skillful swordsmen and boxers. Frode had also given thesupremacy of the sea to Odd; who was very closely related to the king. Koll rejoiced in an offspring of three sons. At this time a certainson of Frode's brother held the chief command of naval affairs for theprotection of the country, Now the king had a sister, Gunwar, surnamedthe Fair because of her surpassing beauty. The sons of Westmar and Koll, being ungrown in years and bold in spirit, let their courage becomerecklessness and devoted their guilt-stained minds to foul and degradedorgies. 

Their behaviour was so outrageous and uncontrollable that they ravishedother men's brides and daughters, and seemed to have outlawed chastityand banished it to the stews. Nay, they defiled the couches of matrons, and did not even refrain from the bed of virgins. A man's own chamberwas no safety to him: there was scarce a spot in the land but boretraces of their lust. Husbands were vexed with fear, and wives withinsult to their persons: and to these wrongs folk bowed. No tieswere respected, and forced embraces became a common thing. Love wasprostituted, all reverence for marriage ties died out, and lust wasgreedily run after. And the reason of all this was the peace; for men'sbodies lacked exercise and were enervated in the ease so propitious tovices. At last the eldest of those who shared the name of Grep, wishingto regulate and steady his promiscuous wantonness, ventured to seek ahaven for his vagrant amours in the love of the king's sister. Yethe did amiss. For though it was right that his vagabond and strayingdelights should be bridled by modesty, yet it was audacious for a man ofthe people to covet the child of a king. She, much fearing the impudenceof her wooer, and wishing to be safer from outrage, went into afortified building. Thirty attendants were given to her, to keep guardand constant watch over her person. 

Now the comrades of Frode, sadly lacking the help of women in the matterof the wear of their garments, inasmuch as they had no means of patchingor of repairing rents, advised and urged the king to marry. At firsthe alleged his tender years as an excuse, but in the end yielded to thepersistent requests of his people. And when he carefully inquired of hisadvisers who would be a fit wife for him, they all praised the daughterof the King of the Huns beyond the rest. When the question was pushed, what reason Frode had for objecting to her, he replied that he had heardfrom his father that it was not expedient for kings to seek alliance farafield, or to demand love save from neighbours. When Gotwar heard thisshe knew that the king's resistance to his friends was wily. Wishingto establish his wavering spirit, and strengthen the courage of hisweakling soul, she said: "Bridals are for young men, but the tomb awaitsthe old. The steps of youth go forward in desires and in fortune; butold age declines helpless to the sepulchre. Hope attends youth; age isbowed with hopeless decay. The fortune of young men increases; it willnever leave unfinished what it begins. " Respecting her words, he beggedher to undertake the management of the suit. But she refused, pleadingher age as her pretext, and declaring herself too stricken in years tobear so difficult a commission. The king saw that a bribe was wanted, and, proffering a golden necklace, promised it as the reward of herembassy. For the necklace had links consisting of studs, and figures ofkings interspersed in bas-relief, which could be now separated and nowdrawn together by pulling a thread inside; a gewgaw devised more forluxury than use. Frode also ordered that Westmar and Koll, with theirsons, should be summoned to go on the same embassy, thinking that theircunning would avoid the shame of a rebuff. 

They went with Gotwar, and were entertained by the King of the Huns at athree days' banquet, ere they uttered the purpose of their embassy. Forit was customary of old thus to welcome guests. When the feast had beenprolonged three days, the princess came forth to make herself pleasantto the envoys with a most courteous address, and her blithe presenceadded not a little to the festal delights of the banqueters. And as thedrink went faster Westmar revealed his purpose in due course, in a verymerry declaration, wishing to sound the mind of the maiden in talk ofa friendly sort. And, in order not to inflict on himself a rebuff, he spoke in a mirthful vein, and broke the ground of his mission, by venturing to make up a sportive speech amid the applause of therevellers. The princess said that she disdained Frode because he lackedhonour and glory. For in days of old no men were thought fit for thehand of high-born women but those who had won some great prize of gloryby the lustre of their admirable deeds. Sloth was the worst of vices ina suitor, and nothing was more of a reproach in one who sought marriagethan the lack of fame. A harvest of glory, and that alone, could bringwealth in everything else. Maidens admired in their wooers not so muchgood looks as deeds nobly done. So the envoys, flagging and despairingof their wish, left the further conduct of the affair to the wisdomof Gotwar, who tried to subdue the maiden not only with words but withlove-philtres, and began to declare that Frode used his left hand aswell as his right, and was a quick and skillful swimmer and fighter. Also by the drink which she gave she changed the strictness of themaiden to desire, and replaced her vanished anger with love and delight. Then she bade Westmar, Koll, and their sons go to the king and urgetheir mission afresh; and finally, should they find him froward, toanticipate a rebuff by a challenge to fight. 

So Westmar entered the palace with his men-at-arms, and said: "Now thoumust needs either consent to our entreaties, or meet in battle us whoentreat thee. We would rather die nobly than go back with our missionunperformed; lest, foully repulsed and foiled of our purpose, we shouldtake home disgrace where we hoped to will honour. If thou refuse thydaughter, consent to fight: thou must needs grant one thing orthe other. We wish either to die or to have our prayers beard. Something--sorrow if not joy--we will get from thee. Frode will bebetter pleased to hear of our slaughter than of our repulse. " Withoutanother word, he threatened to aim a blow at the king's throat with hissword. The king replied that it was unseemly for the royal majestyto meet an inferior in rank in level combat, and unfit that those ofunequal station should fight as equals. But when Westmar persisted inurging him to fight, he at last bade him find out what the real mind ofthe maiden was; for in old time men gave women who were to marry, freechoice of a husband. For the king was embarrassed, and hung vacillatingbetwixt shame and fear of battle. Thus Westmar, having been referredto the thoughts of the girl's heart, and knowing that every woman is aschangeable in purpose as she is fickle in soul, proceeded to fulfil histask all the more confidently because he knew how mutable the wishes ofmaidens were. His confidence in his charge was increased and his zealencouraged, because she had both a maiden's simplicity, which was leftto its own counsels, and a woman's freedom of choice, which must bewheedled with the most delicate and mollifying flatteries; and thus shewould be not only easy to lead away, but even hasty in compliance. Buther father went after the envoys, that he might see more surely into hisdaughter's mind. She had already been drawn by the stealthy working ofthe draught to love her suitor, and answered that the promise of Frode, rather than his present renown, had made her expect much of his nature:since he was sprung from so famous a father, and every nature commonlyanswered to its origin. The youth therefore had pleased her by herregard of his future, rather than his present, glory. These words amazedthe father; but neither could he bear to revoke the freedom he hadgranted her, and he promised her in marriage to Frode. Then, havinglaid in ample stores, he took her away with the most splendid pomp, and, followed by the envoys, hastened to Denmark, knowing that a father wasthe best person to give away a daughter in marriage. Frode welcomedhis bride most joyfully, and also bestowed the highest honours uponhis future royal father-in-law; and when the marriage rites were over, dismissed him with a large gift of gold and silver. 

And so with Hanund, the daughter of the King of the Huns, for his wife, he passed three years in the most prosperous peace. But idleness broughtwantonness among his courtiers, and peace begot lewdness, which theydisplayed in the most abominable crimes. For they would draw some menup in the air on ropes, and torment them, pushing their bodies as theyhung, like a ball that is tossed; or they would put a kid's hide underthe feet of others as they walked, and, by stealthily pulling a rope, trip their unwary steps on the slippery skill in their path; others theywould strip of their clothes, and lash with sundry tortures of stripes;others they fastened to pegs, as with a noose, and punished withmock-hanging. They scorched off the beard and hair with tapers; ofothers they burned the hair of the groin with a brand. Only thosemaidens might marry whose chastity they had first deflowered. Strangersthey battered with bones; others they compelled to drunkenness withimmoderate draughts, and made them burst. No man might give his daughterto wife unless he had first bought their favour and goodwill. None mightcontract any marriage without first purchasing their consent with abribe. Moreover, they extended their abominable and abandoned lust notonly to virgins, but to the multitude of matrons indiscriminately. Thusa twofold madness incited this mixture of wantonness and frenzy. Guestsand strangers were proffered not shelter but revilings. All thesemaddening mockeries did this insolent and wanton crew devise, and thusunder a boy-king freedom fostered licence. For nothing prolongs recklesssin like the procrastination of punishment and vengeance. This unbridledimpudence of the soldiers ended by making the king detested, not only byforeigners, but even by his own people, for the Danes resented such anarrogant and cruel rule. But Grep was contented with no humble loves;he broke out so outrageously that he was guilty of intercourse with thequeen, and proved as false to the king as he was violent to all othermen. Then by degrees the scandal grew, and the suspicion of his guiltcrept on with silent step. The common people found it out before theking. For Grep, by always punishing all who alluded in the least to thiscircumstance, had made it dangerous to accuse him. But the rumour of hiscrime, which at first was kept alive in whispers, was next passed on inpublic reports; for it is hard for men to hide another's guilt if theyare aware of it. Gunwar had many suitors; and accordingly Grep, tryingto take revenge for his rebuff by stealthy wiles, demanded the rightof judging the suitors, declaring that the princess ought to make thechoicest match. But he disguised his anger, lest he should seem to havesought the office from hatred of the maiden. At his request the kinggranted him leave to examine the merits of the young men. So he firstgathered all the wooers of Gunwar together on the pretence of a banquet, and then lined the customary room of the princess with their heads--agruesome spectacle for all the rest. Yet he forfeited none of his favourwith Frode, nor abated his old intimacy with him. For he decided thatany opportunity of an interview with the king must be paid for, and gaveout that no one should have any conversation with him who brought nopresents. Access, he announced, to so great a general must be gainedby no stale or usual method, but by making interest most zealously. He wished to lighten the scandal of his cruelty by the pretenceof affection to his king. The people, thus tormented, vented theircomplaint of their trouble in silent groans. None had the spirit to liftup his voice in public against this season of misery. No one had becomeso bold as to complain openly of the affliction that was falling uponthem. Inward resentment vexed the hearts of men, secretly indeed, butall the more bitterly. 

When Gotar, the King of Norway, heard this, he assembled his soldiers, and said that the Danes were disgusted with their own king, and longedfor another if they could get the opportunity; that he had himselfresolved to lead an army thither, and that Denmark would be easy toseize if attacked. Frode's government of his country was as covetous asit was cruel. Then Erik rose up and gainsaid the project with contraryreasons. "We remember, " he said, "how often coveters of other men'sgoods lose their own. He who snatches at both has oft lost both. It mustbe a very strong bird that can wrest the prey from the claws of another. It is idle for thee to be encouraged by the internal jealousies of thecountry, for these are oft blown away by the approach of an enemy. Forthough the Danes now seem divided in counsel, yet they will soon be ofone mind to meet the foe. The wolves have often made peace betweenthe quarrelling swine. Every man prefers a leader of his own land to aforeigner, and every province is warmer in loyalty to a native than to astranger king. For Frode will not await thee at home, but will interceptthee abroad as thou comest. Eagles claw each other with their talons, and fowls fight fronting. Thou thyself knowest that the keen sight ofthe wise man must leave no cause for repentance. Thou hast an ampleguard of nobles. Keep thou quiet as thou art; indeed thou wilt almost beable to find out by means of others what are thy resources for war. Letthe soldiers first try the fortunes of their king. Provide in peace forthine own safety, and risk others if thou dost undertake the enterprise:better that the slave should perish than the master. Let thy servantdo for thee what the tongs do for the smith, who by the aid of his irontool guards his hand from scorching, and saves his fingers from burning. Learn thou also, by using thy men, to spare and take thought forthyself. "

So spake Erik, and Gotar, who had hitherto held him a man of no parts, now marvelled that he had graced his answer with sentences so choiceand weighty, and gave him the name of Shrewd-spoken, thinking that hisadmirable wisdom deserved some title. For the young man's reputationhad been kept in the shade by the exceeding brilliancy of his brotherRoller. Erik begged that some substantial gift should be added to thename, declaring that the bestowal of the title ought to be graced bya present besides. The king gave him a ship, and the oarsmen called it"Skroter. " Now Erik and Roller were the sons of Ragnar, the champion, and children of one father by different mothers; Roller's mother andErik's stepmother was named Kraka. 

And so, by leave of Gotar, the task of making a raid on the Danesfell to one Hrafn. He was encountered by Odd, who had at that time thegreatest prestige among the Danes as a rover, for he was such a skilledmagician that he could range over the sea without a ship, and couldoften raise tempests by his spells, and wreck the vessels of the enemy. Accordingly, that he might not have to condescend to pit his sea-forcesagainst the rovers, he used to ruffle the waters by enchantment, andcause them to shipwreck his foes. To traders this man was ruthless, but to tillers of the soil he was merciful, for he thought less ofmerchandise than of the plough-handle, but rated the clean businessof the country higher than the toil for filthy lucre. When he began tofight with the Northmen he so dulled the sight of the enemy by the powerof his spells that they thought the drawn swords of the Danes cast theirbeams from afar off, and sparkled as if aflame. Moreover, their visionwas so blunted that they could not so much as look upon the swordwhen it was drawn from the sheath: the dazzle was too much for theireyesight, which could not endure the glittering mirage. So Hrafn andmany of his men were slain, and only six vessels slipped back to Norwayto teach the king that it was not so easy to crush the Danes. Thesurvivors also spread the news that Frode trusted only in the help ofhis champions, and reigned against the will of his people, for his rulehad become a tyranny. 

In order to examine this rumour, Roller, who was a great travellerabroad, and eager to visit unknown parts, made a vow that he would getinto the company of Frode. But Erik declared that, splendid as were hisbodily parts, he had been rash in pronouncing the vow. At last, seeinghim persisting stubbornly in his purpose, Erik bound himself under asimilar vow; and the king promised them that he would give them forcompanions whomsoever they approved by their choice. The brethren, therefore, first resolved to visit their father and beg for the storesand the necessaries that were wanted for so long a journey. He welcomedthem paternally, and on the morrow took them to the forest to inspectthe herd, for the old man was wealthy in cattle. Also he revealed tothem treasures which had long lain hid in caverns of the earth; and theywere suffered to gather up whatsoever of these they would. The boon wasaccepted as heartily as it was offered: so they took the riches out ofthe ground, and bore away what pleased them. 

Their rowers meanwhile were either refreshing themselves or exercisingtheir skill with casting weights. Some sped leaping, some running;others tried their strength by sturdily hurling stones; others testedtheir archery by drawing the bow. Thus they essayed to strengthenthemselves with divers exercises. Some again tried to drink themselvesinto a drowse. Roller was sent by his father to find out what had passedat home in the meanwhile. And when he saw smoke coming from his mother'shut he went up outside, and, stealthily applying his eye, saw throughthe little chink and into the house, where he perceived his motherstirring a cooked mess in an ugly-looking pot. Also he looked up atthree snakes hanging from above by a thin cord, from whose mouths floweda slaver which dribbled drops of moisture on the meal. Now two of thesewere pitchy of hue, while the third seemed to have whitish scales, andwas hung somewhat higher than the others. This last had a fasteningon its tail, while the others were held by a cord round their bellies. Roller thought the affair looked like magic, but was silent on whathe had seen, that he might not be thought to charge his mother withsorcery. For he did not know that the snakes were naturally harmless, orhow much strength was being brewed for that meal. Then Ragnar and Erikcame up, and, when they saw the smoke issuing from the cottage, enteredand went to sit at meat. When they were at table, and Kraka's son andstepson were about to eat together, she put before them a small dishcontaining a piebald mess, part looking pitchy, but spotted with specksof yellow, while part was whitish: the pottage having taken a differenthue answering to the different appearance of the snakes. And when eachhad tasted a single morsel, Erik, judging the feast not by the coloursbut by the inward strengthening effected, turned the dish aroundvery quickly, and transferred to himself the part which was black butcompounded of stronger juices; and, putting over to Roller the whitishpart which had first been set before himself, throve more on his supper. And, to avoid showing that the exchange was made on purpose, he said, "Thus does prow become stern when the sea boils up. " The man had nolittle shrewdness, thus to use the ways of a ship to dissemble hiscunning act. 

So Erik, now refreshed by this lucky meal, attained by its inwardworking to the highest pitch of human wisdom. For the potency of themeal bred in him the fulness of all kinds of knowledge to an incredibledegree, so that he had cunning to interpret even the utterances of wildbeasts and cattle. For he was not only well versed in all the affairsof men, but he could interpret the particular feelings which brutesexperienced from the sounds which expressed them. He was also giftedwith an eloquence so courteous and graceful, that he adorned whatsoeverhe desired to expound with a flow of witty adages. But when Kraka cameup, and found that the dish had been turned round, and that Erik hadeaten the stronger share of the meal, she lamented that the good luckshe had bred for her son should have passed to her stepson. Soon shebegan to sigh, and entreat Eric that he should never fail to help hisbrother, whose mother had heaped on him fortune so rich and strange: forby tasting a single savoury meal he had clearly attained sovereign witand eloquence, besides the promise of success in combat. She added also, that Roller was almost as capable of good counsel, and that he shouldnot utterly miss the dainty that had been intended for him. She alsotold him that in case of extreme and violent need, he could find speedyhelp by calling on her name; declaring that she trusted partially in herdivine attributes, and that, consorting as she did in a manner with thegods, she wielded an innate and heavenly power. Erik said that he wasnaturally drawn to stand by his brother, and that the bird wasinfamous which fouled its own nest. But Kraka was more vexed by her owncarelessness than weighed down by her son's ill-fortune: for in oldtime it made a craftsman bitterly ashamed to be outwitted by his owncleverness. 

Then Kraka, accompanied by her husband, took away the brothers on theirjourney to the sea. They embarked in a single ship, but soon attachedtwo others. They had already reached the coast of Denmark, when, reconnoitering, they learned that seven ships had come up at no greatdistance. Then Erik bade two men who could speak the Danish tongue well, to go to them unclothed, and, in order to spy better, to complain to Oddof their nakedness, as if Erik had caused it, and to report when theyhad made careful scrutiny. These men were received as friends by Odd, and hunted for every plan of the general with their sharp ears. Hehad determined to attack the enemy unawares at daybreak, that he mightmassacre them the more speedily while they were swathed in their nightgarments: for he said that men's bodies were wont to be most dull andheavy at that hour of dawn. He also told them, thereby hastening whatwas to prove his own destruction, that his ships were laden with stonesfit for throwing. The spies slipped off in the first sleep of the night, reported that Odd had filled all his vessels with pebbles, and also toldeverything else they had heard. Erik now quite understood the case, and, when he considered the smallness of his own fleet, thought that he mustcall the waters to destroy the enemy, and win their aid for himself. 

So he got into a boat and rowed, pulling silently, close up to thekeels of the enemy; and gradually, by screwing in an auger, he bored theplanks (a device practiced by Hadding and also by Frode), nearest to thewater, and soon made good his return, the oar-beat being scarce audible. Now he bore himself so warily, that not one of the watchers noted hisapproach or departure. As he rowed off, the water got in throughthe chinks of Odd's vessels, and sank them, so that they were seendisappearing in the deep, as the water flooded them more and morewithin. The weight of the stones inside helped them mightily to sink. The billows were washing away the thwarts, and the sea was flush withthe decks, when Odd, seeing the vessels almost on a level with thewaves, ordered the heavy seas that had been shipped to be baled out withpitchers. And so, while the crews were toiling on to protect the sinkingparts of the vessels from the flood of waters, the enemy hove close up. Thus, as they fell to their arms, the flood came upon them harder, andas they prepared to fight, they found they must swim for it. Waves, notweapons, fought for Erik, and the sea, which he had himself Enabled toapproach and do harm, battled for him. Thus Erik made better use of thebillow than of the steel, and by the effectual aid of the waters seemedto fight in his own absence, the ocean lending him defence. The victorywas given to his craft; for a flooded ship could not endure a battle. Thus was Odd slain with all his crew; the look-outs were captured, andit was found that no man escaped to tell the tale of the disaster. 

Erik, when the massacre was accomplished, made a rapid retreat, and putin at the isle Lesso. Finding nothing there to appease his hunger, hesent the spoil homeward on two ships, which were to bring back suppliesfor another year. He tried to go by himself to the king in a singleship. So he put in to Zealand, and the sailors ran about over the shore, and began to cut down the cattle: for they must either ease their hungeror perish of famine. So they killed the herd, skinned the carcases, andcast them on board. When the owners of the cattle found this out, theyhastily pursued the free-booters with a fleet. And when Erik found thathe was being attacked by the owners of the cattle, he took care that thecarcases of the slaughtered cows should be tied with marked ropes andhidden under water. Then, when the Zealanders came up, he gave themleave to look about and see if any of the carcases they were seekingwere in his hands; saying that a ship's corners were too narrow to hidethings. Unable to find a carcase anywhere, they turned their suspicionson others, and thought the real criminals were guiltless of the plunder. Since no traces of free-booting were to be seen, they fancied thatothers had injured them, and pardoned the culprits. As they sailed off, Erik lifted the carcase out of the water and took it in. 

Meantime Frode learnt that Odd and his men had gone down. For awidespread rumour of the massacre had got wind, though the author of thedeed was unknown. There were men, however, who told how they had seenthree sails putting in to shore, and departing again northwards. ThenErik went to the harbour, not far from which Frode was tarrying, and, the moment that he stepped out of the ship, tripped inadvertently, andcame tumbling to the ground. He found in the slip a presage of a luckyissue, and forecast better results from this mean beginning. When Grepheard of his coming, he hastened down to the sea, intending toassail with chosen and pointed phrases the man whom he had heard wasbetter-spoken than all other folk. Grep's eloquence was not so muchexcellent as impudent, for he surpassed all in stubbornness of speech. So he began the dispute with reviling, and assailed Erik as follows:

Grep: "Fool, who art thou? What idle quest is thine? Tell me, whence orwhither dost thou journey? What is thy road? What thy desire? Who thyfather? What thy lineage? Those have strength beyond others who havenever left their own homes, and the Luck of kings is their houseluck. For the things of a vile man are acceptable unto few, and seldom are thedeeds of the hated pleasing. "

Erik: "Ragnar is my father; eloquence clothes my tongue; I have everloved virtue only. Wisdom hath been my one desire; I have travelled manyways over the world, and seen the different manners of men. The mind ofthe fool can keep no bounds in aught: it is base and cannot control itsfeelings. The use of sails is better than being drawn by the oar; thegale troubles the waters, a drearier gust the land. For rowing goesthrough the seas and lying the lands; and it is certain that the landsare ruled with the lips, but the seas with the hand. "

Grep: "Thou art thought to be as full of quibbling as a cock of dirt. Thou stinkest heavy with filth, and reekest of nought but sin. There isno need to lengthen the plea against a buffoon, whose strength is in anempty and voluble tongue. "

Erik: "By Hercules, if I mistake not, the coward word is wont to comeback to the utterer. The gods with righteous endeavour bring home tothe speaker words cast forth without knowledge. As soon as we espy thesinister ears of the wolf, we believe that the wolf himself is near. Menthink no credit due to him that hath no credit, whom report accuses oftreachery. "

Grep: "Shameless boy, owl astray from the path, night-owl in thedarkness, thou shalt pay for thy reckless words. Thou shalt be sorry forthe words thou now belchest forth madly, and shalt pay with thy deathfor thy unhallowed speech. Lifeless thou shalt pasture crows on thybloodless corpse, to be a morsel for beasts, a prey to the ravenousbird. "

Erik: "The boding of the coward, and the will that is trained to evil, have never kept themselves within due measure. He who betrays his lord, he who conceives foul devices, will be as great a snare to himself asto his friends. Whoso fosters a wolf in his house is thought to feed athief and a pest for his own hearth. "

Grep: "I did not, as thou thinkest, beguile the queen, but I was theguardian of her tender estate. She increased my fortunes, and her favourfirst brought me gifts and strength, and wealth and counsel. "

Erik: "Lo, thy guilty disquiet lies heavy on thee; that man's freedom issafest whose mind remains untainted. Whoso asks a slave to be a friend, is deceived; often the henchman hurts his master. "

At this Grep, shorn of his glibness of rejoinder, set spurs to hishorse and rode away. Now when he reached home, he filled the palace withuproarious and vehement clamour; and shouting that he had been worstedin words, roused all his soldiers to fight, as though he would avenge bymain force his luckless warfare of tongues. For he swore that he wouldlay the host of the foreigners under the claws of eagles. But the kingwarned him that he should give his frenzy pause for counsel, that blindplans were commonly hurtful; that nothing could be done both cautiouslyand quickly at once; that headstrong efforts were the worst obstacle;and lastly, that it was unseemly to attack a handful with a host. Also, said he, the sagacious man was he who could bridle a raging spirit, andstop his frantic empetuosity in time. Thus the king forced the headlongrage of the young man to yield to reflection. But he could not whollyrecall to self-control the frenzy of his heated mind, or prevent thechampion of wrangles, abashed by his hapless debate, and finding armedvengeance refused him, from asking leave at least to try his sorceriesby way of revenge. He gained his request, and prepared to go back tothe shore with a chosen troop of wizards. So he first put on a polethe severed head of a horse that had been sacrificed to the gods, andsetting sticks beneath displayed the jaws grinning agape; hoping thathe would foil the first efforts of Erik by the horror of this wildspectacle. For he supposed that the silly souls of the barbarians wouldgive away at the bogey of a protruding neck. 

Erik was already on his road to meet them, and saw the head from afaroff, and, understanding the whole foul contrivance, he bade his men keepsilent and behave warily; no man was to be rash or hasty of speech, lestby some careless outburst they might give some opening to the sorceries;adding that if talking happened to be needed, he would speak for all. And they were now parted by a river; when the wizards, in order todislodge Erik from the approach to the bridge, set up close to theriver, on their own side, the pole on which they had fixed the horse'shead. Nevertheless Erik made dauntlessly for the bridge, and said: "Onthe bearer fall the ill-luck of what he bears! May a better issue attendour steps! Evil befall the evil-workers! Let the weight of the ominousburden crush the carrier! Let the better auguries bring us safety!" Andit happened according to his prayer. For straightway the head was shakenoff, the stick fell and crushed the bearer. And so all that arrayof sorceries was baffled at the bidding of a single curse, andextinguished. 

Then, as Erik advanced a little, it came into his mind that strangersought to fix on gifts for the king. So he carefully wrapped up in hisrobe a piece of ice which he happened to find, and managed to take it tothe king by way of a present. But when they reached the palace he soughtentrance first, and bade his brother follow close behind. Already theslaves of the king, in order to receive him with mockery as he entered, had laid a slippery hide on the threshold; and when Erik stepped uponit, they suddenly jerked it away by dragging a rope, and would havetripped him as he stood upon it, had not Roller, following behind, caught his brother on his breast as he tottered. So Erik, having halffallen, said that "bare was the back of the brotherless. " And whenGunwar said that such a trick ought not to be permitted by a king, the king condemned the folly of the messenger who took no heed againsttreachery. And thus he excused his flout by the heedlessness of the manhe flouted. 

Within the palace was blazing a fire, which the aspect of the seasonrequired: for it was now gone midwinter. By it, in different groups, satthe king on one side and the champions on the other. These latter, whenErik joined them, uttered gruesome sounds like things howling. The kingstopped the clamour, telling them that the noises of wild beasts oughtnot to be in the breasts of men. Erik added, that it was the way ofdogs, for all the others to set up barking when one started it; for allfolk by their bearing betrayed their birth and revealed their race. Butwhen Koll, who was the keeper of the gifts offered to the king, askedhim whether he had brought any presents with him, he produced the icewhich he had hidden in his breast. And when he had handed it to Kollacross the hearth, he purposely let it go into the fire, as though ithad slipped from the hand of the receiver. All present saw the shiningfragment, and it seemed as though molten metal had fallen into the fire. Erik, maintaining that it had been jerked away by the carelessness ofhim who took it, asked what punishment was due to the loser of the gift. 

The king consulted the opinion of the queen, who advised him not torelax the statute of the law which he had passed, whereby he gavewarning that all who lost presents that were transmitted to him shouldbe punished with death. Everyone else also said that the penalty by lawappointed ought not to be remitted. And so the king, being counselled toallow the punishment as inevitable, gave leave for Koll to be hanged. 

Then Frode began to accost Erik thus: "O thou, wantoning in insolentphrase, in boastful and bedizened speech, whence dost thou say that thouhast come hither, and why?"

Erik answered: "I came from Rennes Isle, and I took my seat by a stone. "

Frode rejoined: "I ask, whither thou wentest next?"

Erik answered. "I went off from the stone riding on a beam, and oftenagain took station by a stone. "

Frode replied: "I ask thee whither thou next didst bend thy course, orwhere the evening found thee?"

Then said Erik: "Leaving a crag, I came to a rock, and likewise lay by astone. "

Frode said: "The boulders lay thick in those parts. "

Erik answered: "Yet thicker lies the sand, plain to see. "

Frode said: "Tell what thy business was, and whither thou struckest offthence. "

Then said Erik: "Leaving the rock, as my ship ran on, I found adolphin. "

Frode said: "Now thou hast said something fresh, though both thesethings are common in the sea: but I would know what path took thee afterthat?"

Erik answered: "After a dolphin I went to a dolphin. "

Frode said: "The herd of dolphins is somewhat common. "

Then said Erik: "It does swim somewhat commonly on the waters. "

Frode said: "I would fain blow whither thou wert borne on thy toilsomejourney after leaving the dolphins?"

Erik answered: "I soon came upon the trunk of a tree. "

Frode rejoined: "Whither didst thou next pass on thy journey?"

Then said Erik: "From a trunk I passed on to a log. "

Frode said: "That spot must be thick with trees, since thou art alwayscalling the abodes of thy hosts by the name of trunks. "

Erik replied: "There is a thicker place in the woods. "

Frode went on: "Relate whither thou next didst bear thy steps. "

Erik answered: "Oft again I made my way to the lopped timbers of thewoods; but, as I rested there, wolves that were sated on human carcaseslicked the points of the spears. There a lance-head was shaken from theshaft of the king, and it was the grandson of Fridleif. "

Frode said: "I am bewildered, and know not what to think about thedispute: for thou hast beguiled my mind with very dark riddling. "

Erik answered: "Thou owest me the prize for this contest that isfinished: for under a veil I have declared to thee certain things thouhast ill understood. For under the name I gave before of `spear-point' Isignified Odd, whom my hand had slain. "

And when the queen also had awarded him the palm of eloquence and theprize for flow of speech, the king straightway took a bracelet from hisarm, and gave it to him as the appointed reward, adding: "I would fainlearn from thyself thy debate with Grep, wherein he was not ashamedopenly to avow himself vanquished. "

Then said Erik: "He was smitten with shame for the adultery wherewith hewas taxed; for since he could bring no defence, he confessed that he hadcommitted it with thy wife. "

The king turned to Hanund and asked her in what spirit she receivedthe charge; and she not only confessed her guilt by a cry, but also putforth in her face a blushing signal of her sin, and gave manifest tokenof her fault. The king, observing not only her words, but also the signsof her countenance, but doubting with what sentence he should punish thecriminal, let the queen settle by her own choice the punishment whichher crime deserved. When she learnt that the sentence committed toher concerned her own guilt, she wavered awhile as she pondered howto appraise her transgression; but Grep sprang up and ran forward totransfix Erik with a spear, wishing to buy off his own death by slayingthe accuser. But Roller fell on him with drawn sword, and dealt himfirst the doom he had himself purposed. 

Erik said: "The service of kin is best for the helpless. "

And Roller said: "In sore needs good men should be dutifully summoned. "

Then Frode said: "I think it will happen to you according to the commonsaying, `that the striker sometimes has short joy of his stroke', and`that the hand is seldom long glad of the smiting'. "

Erik answered: "The man must not be impeached whose deed justiceexcuses. For my work is as far as from that of Grep, as an act ofself-defence is from an attack upon another. "

Then the brethren of Grep began to spring up and clamour and swear thatthey would either bring avengers upon the whole fleet of Erik, or wouldfight him and ten champions with him. 

Erik said to them: "Sick men have to devise by craft some provision fortheir journey. He whose sword-point is dull should only probe thingsthat are soft and tender. He who has a blunt knife must search out theways to cut joint by joint. Since, therefore, it is best for a man indistress to delay the evil, and nothing is more fortunate in troublethan to stave off hard necessity, I ask three days' space to get ready, provided that I may obtain from the king the skill of a freshly slainox. "

Frode answered: "He who fell on a hide deserves a hide"; thus openlytaunting the asker with his previous fall. But Erik, when the hide wasgiven him, made some sandals, which he smeared with a mixture of tar andsand, in order to plant his steps the more firmly, and fitted them on tothe feet of himself and his people. At last, having meditated what spothe should choose for the fight--for he said that he was unskilled incombat by land and in all warfare--he demanded it should be on thefrozen sea. To this both sides agreed. The king granted a truce forpreparations, and bade the sons of Westmar withdraw, saying that it wasamiss that a guest, even if he had deserved ill should be drivenfrom his lodging. Then he went back to examine into the manner of thepunishment, which he had left to the queen's own choice to exact. Forshe forebore to give judgment, and begged pardon for her slip. Erikadded, that woman's errors must often be forgiven, and that punishmentought not to be inflicted, unless amendment were unable to get rid ofher fault. So the king pardoned Hanund. As twilight drew near, Eriksaid: "With Gotar, not only are rooms provided when the soldiers arecoming to feast at the banquet, but each is appointed a separate placeand seat where he is to lie. " Then the king gave up for their occupationthe places where his own champions had sat; and next the servantsbrought the banquet. But Erik, knowing well the courtesy of the king, which made him forbid them to use up any of the meal that was left, cast away the piece of which he had tasted very little, calling wholeportions broken bits of food. And so, as the dishes dwindled, theservants brought up fresh ones to the lacking and shamefaced guests, thus spending on a little supper what might have served for a greatbanquet. 

So the king said: "Are the soldiers of Gotar wont to squander the meatafter once touching it, as if it were so many pared-off crusts? And tospurn the first dishes as if they were the last morsels?"

Erik said: "Uncouthness claims no place in the manners of Gotar, neitherdoes any disorderly habit feign there. "

But Frode said: "Then thy manners are not those of thy lord, and thouhast proved that thou hast not taken all wisdom to heart. For he whogoes against the example of his elders shows himself a deserter and arenegade. "

Then said Erik: "The wise man must be taught by the wiser. For knowledgegrows by learning, and instruction is advanced by doctrine. "

Frode rejoined: "This affectation of thine of superfluous words, whatexemplary lesson will it teach me?"

Erik said: "A loyal few are a safer defence for a king than manytraitors. "

Frode said to him: "Wilt thou then show us closer allegiance than therest?"

Erik answered: "No man ties the unborn (horse) to the crib, or theunbegotten to the stall. For thou hast not yet experienced all things. Besides, with Gotar there is always a mixture of drinking withfeasting; liquor, over and above, and as well as meat, is the joy of thereveller. "

Frode said: "Never have I found a more shameless beggar of meat anddrink. "

Erik replied: "Few reckon the need of the silent, or measure the wantsof him who holds his peace. "

Then the king bade his sister bring forth the drink in a great goblet. Erik caught hold of her right hand and of the goblet she offered at thesame time, and said: "Noblest of kings, hath thy benignity granted methis present? Dost thou assure me that what I hold shall be mine as anirrevocable gift?"

The king, thinking that he was only asking for the cup, declared it wasa gift. But Erik drew the maiden to him, as if she was given with thecup. When the king saw it, he said: "A fool is shown by his deed; withus freedom of maidens is ever held inviolate. "

Then Erik, feigning that he would cut off the girl's hand with hissword, as though it had been granted under the name of the cup, said:"If I have taken more than thou gavest, or if I am rash to keep thewhole, let me at least get some. " The king saw his mistake in hispromise, and gave him the maiden, being loth to undo his heedlessnessby fickleness, and that the weight of his pledge might seem the greater;though it is held an act more of ripe judgment than of unsteadfastnessto take back a foolish promise. 

Then, taking from Erik security that he would return, he sent him to theships; for the time appointed for the battle was at hand. Erik and hismen went on to the sea, then covered near with ice; and, thanks to thestability of their sandals, felled the enemy, whose footing was slipperyand unsteady. For Frode had decreed that no man should help either sideif it wavered or were distressed. Then he went back in triumph to theking. So Gotwar, sorrowing at the destruction of her children who hadmiserably perished, and eager to avenge them, announced that it wouldplease her to have a flyting with Erik, on condition that she shouldgage a heavy necklace and he his life; so that if he conquered he shouldwin gold, but if he gave in, death. Erik agreed to the contest, and thegage was deposited with Gunwar. So Gotwar began thus:

 "Quando tuam limas admissa cote bipennem, Nonne terit tremulas mentula quassa nates?"

Erik rejoined:

 "Ut cuivis natura pilos in corpore sevit, Omnis nempe suo barba ferenda loco est. Re Veneris homines artus agitare necesse est; Motus quippe suos nam labor omnis habet. Cum natis excipitur nate, vel cum subdita penem Vulva capit, quid ad haec addere mas renuit?"

Powerless to answer this, Gotwar had to give the gold to the manwhom she had meant to kill, and thus wasted a lordly gift instead ofpunishing the slayer of her son. For her ill fate was crowned, insteadof her ill-will being avenged. First bereaved, and then silencedby furious words, she lost at once her wealth and all reward of hereloquence. She made the man blest who had taken away her children, andenriched her bereaver with a present: and took away nothing to make upthe slaughter of her sons save the reproach of ignorance and the loss ofgoods. Westmar, when he saw this, determined to attack the man by force, since he was the stronger of tongue, and laid down the condition thatthe reward of the conqueror should be the death of the conquered, sothat the life of both parties was plainly at stake. Erik, unwilling tobe thought quicker of tongue than of hand, did not refuse the terms. 

Now the manner of combat was as follows. A ring, plaited of withy orrope, used to be offered to the combatants for them to drag away bywrenching it with a great effort of foot and hand; and the prize went tothe stronger, for if either of the combatants could wrench it from theother, he was awarded the victory. Erik struggled in this manner, and, grasping the rope sharply, wrested it out of the hands of his opponent. When Erode saw this, he said: "I think it is hard to tug at a rope witha strong man. "

And Erik said: "Hard, at any rate, when a tumour is in the body or ahunch sits on the back. "

And straightway, thrusting his foot forth, he broke the infirm neck andback of the old man, and crushed him. And so Westmar failed to compasshis revenge: zealous to retaliate, he fell into the portion of those whoneed revenging; being smitten down even as those whose slaughter he haddesired to punish. 

Now Frode intended to pierce Erik by throwing a dagger at him. ButGunwar knew her brother's purpose, and said, in order to warnher betrothed of his peril, that no man could be wise who took noforethought for himself. This speech warned Erik to ward off thetreachery, and he shrewdly understood the counsel of caution. For atonce he sprang up and said that the glory of the wise man would bevictorious, but that guile was its own punishment; thus censuring histreacherous intent in very gentle terms. But the king suddenly flung hisknife at him, yet was too late to hit him; for he sprang aside, and thesteel missed its mark and ran into the wall opposite. Then said Erik:"Gifts should be handed to friends, and not thrown; thou hadst madethe present acceptable if thou hadst given the sheath to keep the bladecompany. "

On this request the king at once took the sheath from his girdle andgave it to him, being forced to abate his hatred by the self-control ofhis foe. Thus he was mollified by the prudent feigning of the other, andwith goodwill gave him for his own the weapon which he had cast withill will. And thus Erik, by taking the wrong done him in a dissemblingmanner, turned it into a favour, accepting as a splendid gift the steelwhich had been meant to slay him. For he put a generous complexion onwhat Frode had done with intent to harm. Then they gave themselves upto rest. In the night Gunwar awoke Erik silently, and pointed out to himthat they ought to fly, saying that it was very expedient to return withsafe chariot ere harm was done. He went with her to the shore, where hehappened to find the king's fleet beached: so, cutting away part ofthe sides, he made it unseaworthy, and by again replacing some laths hepatched it so that the damage might be unnoticed by those who looked atit. Then he caused the vessel whither he and his company had retired toput off a little from the shore. 

The king prepared to give them chase with his mutilated ships, but soonthe waves broke through; and though he was very heavily laden with hisarmour, he began to swim off among the rest, having become more anxiousto save his own life than to attack that of others. The bows plungedover into the sea, the tide flooded in and swept the rowers from theirseats. When Erik and Roller saw this they instantly flung themselvesinto the deep water, spurning danger, and by swimming picked up theking, who was tossing about. Thrice the waves had poured over him andborne him down when Erik caught him by the hair, and lifted him out ofthe sea. The remaining crowd of the wrecked either sank in the waters, or got with trouble to the land. The king was stripped of his drippingattire and swathed round with dry garments, and the water poured infloods from his chest as he kept belching it; his voice also seemedto fail under the exhaustion of continual pantings. At last heat wasrestored to his limbs, which were numbed with cold, and his breathingbecame quicker. He had not fully got back his strength, and could sitbut not rise. Gradually his native force returned. But when he was askedat last whether he sued for life and grace, he put his hand to his eyes, and strove to lift up their downcast gaze. But as, little by little, power came back to his body, and as his voice became more assured, hesaid:

"By this light, which I am loth to look on, by this heaven which Ibehold and drink in with little joy, I beseech and conjure you not topersuade me to use either any more. I wished to die; ye have saved me invain. I was not allowed to perish in the waters; at least I will die bythe sword. I was unconquered before; thine, Erik, was the first wit towhich I yielded: I was all the more unhappy, because I had never beenbeaten by men of note, and now I let a low-born man defeat me. Thisis great cause for a king to be ashamed. This is a good and sufficientreason for a general to die; it is right that he should care for nothingso much as glory. If he want that, then take it that he lacks all else. For nothing about a king is more on men's lips than his repute. I wascredited with the height of understanding and eloquence. But I have beenstripped of both the things wherein I was thought to excel, and am allthe more miserable because I, the conqueror of kings, am seen conqueredby a peasant. Why grant life to him whom thou hast robbed of honour? Ihave lost sister, realm, treasure, household gear, and, what is greaterthan them all, renown: I am luckless in all chances, and in all thygood fortune is confessed. Why am I to be kept to live on for all thisignominy? What freedom can be so happy for me that it can wipe out allthe shame of captivity? What will all the following time bring for me?It can beget nothing but long remorse in my mind, and will savour onlyof past woes. What will prolonging of life avail, if it only brings backthe memory of sorrow? To the stricken nought is pleasanter than death, and that decease is happy which comes at a man's wish, for it cuts notshort any sweetness of his days, but annihilates his disgust at allthings. Life in prosperity, but death in adversity, is best to seek. No hope of better things tempts me to long for life. What hap can quiterepair my shattered fortunes? And by now, had ye not rescued me in myperil, I should have forgotten even these. What though thou shouldstgive me back my realm, restore my sister, and renew my treasure? Thoucanst never repair my renown. Nothing that is patched up can have thelustre of the unimpaired, and rumour will recount for ages thatFrode was taken captive. Moreover, if ye reckon the calamities I haveinflicted on you, I have deserved to die at your hands; if ye recall theharms I have done, ye will repent your kindness. Ye will be ashamed ofhaving aided a foe, if ye consider how savagely he treated you. Why doye spare the guilty? Why do ye stay your hand from the throat of yourpersecutor? It is fitting that the lot which I had prepared for youshould come home to myself. I own that if I had happened to have you inmy power as ye now have me, I should have paid no heed to compassion. But if I am innocent before you in act, I am guilty at least in will. Ipray you, let my wrongful intention, which sometimes is counted to standfor the deed, recoil upon me. If ye refuse me death by the sword I willtake care to kill myself with my own hand. "

Erik rejoined thus: "I pray that the gods may turn thee from the follyof thy purpose; turn thee, I say, that thou mayst not try to end a mostglorious life abominably. Why, surely the gods themselves have forbiddenthat a man who is kind to others should commit unnatural self-murder. Fortune has tried thee to find out with what spirit thou wouldst meetadversity. Destiny has proved thee, not brought thee low. No sorrow hasbeen inflicted on thee which a happier lot cannot efface. Thy prosperityhas not been changed; only a warning has been given thee. No man behaveswith self-control in prosperity who has not learnt to endure adversity. Besides, the whole use of blessings is reaped after misfortunes havebeen graciously acknowledged. Sweeter is the joy which follows on thebitterness of fate. Wilt thou shun thy life because thou hast once had adrenching, and the waters closed over thee? But if the waters can crushthy spirit, when wilt thou with calm courage bear the sword? Who wouldnot reckon swimming away in his armour more to his glory than to hisshame? How many men would think themselves happy were they unhappywith thy fortune? The sovereignty is still thine; thy courage is in itsprime; thy years are ripening; thou canst hope to compass more than thouhast yet achieved. I would not find thee fickle enough to wish, not onlyto shun hardships, but also to fling away thy life, because thou couldstnot bear them. None is so unmanly as he who from fear of adversity losesheart to live. No wise man makes up for his calamities by dying. Wrathagainst another is foolish, but against a man's self it is foolhardy;and it is a coward frenzy which dooms its owner. But if thou gowithout need to thy death for some wrong suffered, or for some pettyperturbation of spirit, whom dost thou leave behind to avenge thee?Who is so mad that he would wish to punish the fickleness of fortune bydestroying himself? What man has lived so prosperously but that illfate has sometimes stricken him? Hast thou enjoyed felicity unbrokenand passed thy days without a shock, and now, upon a slight cloud ofsadness, dost thou prepare to quit thy life, only to save thy anguish?If thou bear trifles so ill, how shalt thou endure the heavier frownsof fortune? Callow is the man who has never tasted of the cup of sorrow;and no man who has not suffered hardships is temperate in enjoying ease. Wilt thou, who shouldst have been a pillar of courage, show a sign of apalsied spirit? Born of a brave sire, wilt thou display utter impotence?Wilt thou fall so far from thy ancestors as to turn softer than women?Hast thou not yet begun thy prime, and art thou already taken withweariness of life? Whoever set such an example before? Shall thegrandson of a famous man, and the child of the unvanquished, be too weakto endure a slight gust of adversity? Thy nature portrays the courage ofthy sires; none has conquered thee, only thine own heedlessness has hurtthee. We snatched thee from peril, we did not subdue thee; wilt thougive us hatred for love, and set our friendship down as wrongdoing? Ourservice should have appeased thee, and not troubled thee. May the godsnever desire thee to go so far in frenzy, as to persist in brandingthy preserver as a traitor! Shall we be guilty before thee in a matterwherein we do thee good? Shall we draw anger on us for our service? Wiltthou account him thy foe whom thou hast to thank for thy life? For thouwert not free when we took thee, but in distress, and we came in time tohelp thee. And, behold, I restore thy treasure, thy wealth, thy goods. If thou thinkest thy sister was betrothed to me over-hastily, let hermarry the man whom thou commandest; for her chastity remains inviolate. Moreover, if thou wilt accept me, I wish to fight for thee. Beware lestthou wrongfully steel thy mind in anger. No loss of power has shatteredthee, none of thy freedom has been forfeited. Thou shalt see that Iam obeying, not commanding thee. I agree to any sentence thou maystpronounce against my life. Be assured that thou art as strong here as-inthy palace; thou hast the same power to rule here as in thy court. Enactconcerning us here whatsoever would have been thy will in the palace: weare ready to obey. " Thus much said Erik. 

Now this speech softened the king towards himself as much as towards hisfoe. Then, everything being arranged and made friendly, they returned tothe shore. The king ordered that Erik and his sailors should be taken incarriages. But when they reached the palace he had an assembly summoned, to which he called Erik, and under the pledge of betrothal gave himhis sister and command over a hundred men. Then he added that the queenwould be a weariness to him, and that the daughter of Gotar had takenhis liking. He must, therefore, have a fresh embassy, and the businesscould best be done by Erik, for whose efforts nothing seemed too hard. He also said that he would stone Gotwar to death for her complicity inconcealing the crime; but Hanund he would restore to her father, that hemight not have a traitress against his life dwelling amongst the Danes. Erik approved his plans, and promised his help to carry out his bidding;except that he declared that it would be better to marry the queen, whenshe had been put away, to Roller, of whom his sovereignty need have nofears. This opinion Frode received reverentially, as though it were somelesson vouchsafed from above. The queen also, that she might not seemto be driven by compulsion, complied, as women will, and declared thatthere was no natural necessity to grieve, and that all distress ofspirit was a creature of fancy: and, moreover, that one ought not tobewail the punishment that befell one's deserts. And so the brethrencelebrated their marriages together, one wedding the sister of the king, and the other his divorced queen. 

Then they sailed back to Norway, taking their wives with them. Forthe women could not be torn from the side of their husbands, either bydistance of journey or by dread of peril, but declared that they wouldstick to their lords like a feather to something shaggy. They found thatRagnar was dead, and that Kraka had already married one Brak. Then theyremembered the father's treasure, dug up the money, and bore it off. But Erik's fame had gone before him, and Gotar had learnt all his goodfortune. Now when Gotar learnt that he had come himself, he feared thathis immense self-confidence would lead him to plan the worst against theNorwegians, and was anxious to take his wife from him and marry him tohis own daughter in her place: for his queen had just died, and he wasanxious to marry the sister of Frode more than anyone. Erik, when helearnt of his purpose, called his men together, and told them that hisfortune had not yet got off from the reefs. Also he said that he saw, that as a bundle that was not tied by a band fell to pieces, so likewisethe heaviest punishment that was not constrained on a man by his ownfault suddenly collapsed. They had experienced this of late with Frode;for they saw how at the hardest pass their innocence had been protectedby the help of the gods; and if they continued to preserve it theyshould hope for like aid in their adversity. Next, they must pretendflight for a little while, if they were attacked by Gotar, for so theywould have a juster plea for fighting. For they had every right tothrust out the hand in order to shield the head from peril. Seldomcould a man carry to a successful end a battle he had begun against theinnocent; so, to give them a better plea for assaulting the enemy, hemust be provoked to attack them first. 

Erik then turned to Gunwar, and asked her, in order to test herfidelity, whether she had any love for Gotar, telling her it wasunworthy that a maid of royal lineage should be bound to the bed of aman of the people. Then she began to conjure him earnestly by the powerof heaven to tell her whether his purpose was true or reigned? He saidthat he had spoken seriously, and she cried: "And so thou art preparedto bring on me the worst of shame by leaving me a widow, whom thoulovedst dearly as a maid! Common rumour often speaks false, but I havebeen wrong in my opinion of thee. I thought I had married a steadfastman; I hoped his loyalty was past question; but now I find him to bemore fickle than the winds. " Saying this, she wept abundantly. 

Dear to Erik was his wife's fears; presently he embraced her and said:"I wished to know how loyal thou wert to me. Nought but death has theright to sever us, but Gotar means to steal thee away, seeking thy loveby robbery. When he has committed the theft, pretend it is done with thygoodwill; yet put off the wedding till he has given me his daughter inthy place. When she has been granted, Gotar and I will hold ourmarriage on the same day. And take care that thou prepare rooms forour banqueting which have a common party-wall, yet are separate: lestperchance, if I were before thine eyes, thou shouldst ruffle the kingwith thy lukewarm looks at him. For this will be a most effective trickto baffle the wish of the ravisher. " Then he bade Brak (one of hismen), to lie in ambush not far from the palace with a chosen band of hisquickest men, that he might help him at need. 

Then he summoned Roller, and fled in his ship with his wife and all hisgoods, in order to tempt the king out, pretending panic: So, when he sawthat the fleet of Gotar was pressing him hard, he said: "Behold how thebow of guile shooteth the shaft of treachery;" and instantly rousing hissailors with the war-shout, he steered the ship about. Gotar came closeup to him and asked who was the pilot of the ship, and he was told thatit was Erik. He also shouted a question whether he was the same man whoby his marvellous speaking could silence the eloquence of all other men. Erik, when he heard this, replied that he had long since received thesurname of the "Shrewd-spoken", and that he had not won the auspicioustitle for nothing. Then both went back to the nearest shore, whereGotar, when he learnt the mission of Erik, said that he wished for thesister of Frode, but would rather offer his own daughter to Frode'senvoy, that Erik might not repent the passing of his own wife to anotherman. Thus it would not be unfitting for the fruit of the mission to fallto the ambassador. 

Erik, he said, was delightful to him as a son-in-law, if only he couldwin alliance with Frode through Gunwar. 

Erik lauded the kindness of the king and approved his judgment, declaring he could not have expected a greater thing from the immortalgods than what was now offered him unasked. Still, he said, the kingmust first discover Gunwar's own mind and choice. She accepted theflatteries of the king with feigned goodwill, and seemed to consentreadily to his suit, but besought him to suffer Erik's nuptials toprecede hers; because, if Erik's were accomplished first, there would bea better opportunity for the king's; but chiefly on this account, that, if she were to marry again, she might not be disgusted at her newmarriage troth by the memory of the old recurring. She also declaredit inexpedient for two sets of preparations to be confounded in oneceremony. The king was prevailed upon by her answers, and highlyapproved her requests. 

Gotar's constant talks with Erik furnished him with a store of mostfairshapen maxims, wherewith to rejoice and refresh his mind. So, notsatisfied with giving him his daughter in marriage he also made over tohim the district of Lither, thinking that their connection deserved somekindness. Now Kraka, whom Erik, because of her cunning in witchcraft, had brought with him on his travels, feigned weakness of the eyes, andmuffled up her face in her cloak, so that not a single particle of herhead was visible for recognition. When people asked her who she was, she said that she was Gunwar's sister, child of the same mother but adifferent father. 

Now when they came to the dwelling of Gotar, the wedding-feast ofAlfhild (this was his daughter's name) was being held. Erik and the kingsat at meat in different rooms, with a party-wall in common, and alsoentirely covered on the inside with hanging tapestries. Gunwar sat byGotar, but Erik sat close between Kraka on the one side and Alfhild onthe other. Amid the merrymaking, he gradually drew a lath out of thewall, and made an opening large enough to allow the passage of a humanbody; and thus, without the knowledge of the guests, he made a spacewide enough to go through. Then, in the course of the feast, he began toquestion his betrothed closely whether she would rather marry himself orFrode: especially since, if due heed were paid to matches, the daughterof a king ought to go to the arms of one as noble as herself, so thatthe lowliness of one of the pair might not impair the lordliness of theother. She said that she would never marry against the permission of herfather; but he turned her aversion into compliance by promises that sheshould be queen, and that she should be richer than all other women, forshe was captivated by the promise of wealth quite as much as of glory. There is also a tradition that Kraka turned the maiden's inclinations toFrode by a drink which she mixed and gave to her. 

Now Gotar, after the feast, in order to make the marriage-mirth go fastand furious, went to the revel of Erik. As he passed out, Gunwar, asshe had been previously bidden, went through the hole in the party-wallwhere the lath had been removed, and took the seat next to Erik. Gotarmarvelled that she was sitting there by his side, and began to askeagerly how and why she had come there. She said that she was Gunwar'ssister, and that the king was deceived by the likeness of their looks. And when the king, in order to look into the matter, hurried back to theroyal room, Gunwar returned through the back door by which she had comeand sat in her old place in the sight of all. Gotar, when he saw her, could scarcely believe his eyes, and in the utmost doubt whether he hadrecognized her aright, he retraced his steps to Erik; and there he sawbefore him Gunwar, who had got back in her own fashion. And so, as oftenas he changed to go from one hall to the other, he found her whom hesought in either place. By this time the king was tormented by greatwonder at what was no mere likeness, but the very same face in bothplaces. For it seemed flatly impossible that different people shouldlook exactly and undistinguishably alike. At last, when the revel brokeup, he courteously escorted his daughter and Erik as far as their room, as the manner is at weddings, and went back himself to bed elsewhere. 

But Erik suffered Alfhild, who was destined for Frode, to lie apart, andembraced Gunwar as usual, thus outwitting the king. So Gotar passed asleepless night, revolving how he had been apparently deluded witha dazed and wandering mind: for it seemed to him no mere likeness oflooks, but sameness. Thus he was filled with such wavering and doubtfuljudgment, that though he really discerned the truth he thought he musthave been mistaken. At last it flashed across his mind that thewall might have been tampered with. He gave orders that it should becarefully surveyed and examined, but found no traces of a breakage: infact, the entire room seemed to be whole and unimpaired. For Erik, earlyin the night, had patched up the damage of the broken wall, that histrick might not be detected. Then the king sent two men privily intothe bedroom of Erik to learn the truth, and bade them stand behind thehangings and note all things carefully. They further received ordersto kill Erik if they found him with Gunwar. They went secretly into theroom, and, concealing themselves in the curtained corners, beheldErik and Gunwar in bed together with arms entwined. Thinking them onlydrowsy, they waited for their deeper sleep, wishing to stay until aheavier slumber gave them a chance to commit their crime. Erik snoredlustily, and they knew it was a sure sign that he slept soundly; so theystraightway came forth with drawn blades in order to butcher him. Erikwas awakened by their treacherous onset, and seeing their swords hangingover his head, called out the name of his stepmother, (Kraka), to whichlong ago he had been bidden to appeal when in peril, and he found aspeedy help in his need. For his shield, which hung aloft from therafter, instantly fell and covered his unarmed body, and, as if onpurpose, covered it from impalement by the cutthroats. He did not failto make use of his luck, but, snatching his sword, lopped off both feetof the nearest of them. Gunwar, with equal energy, ran a spear throughthe other: she had the body of a woman, but the spirit of a man. 

Thus Erik escaped the trap; whereupon he went back to the sea and madeready to sail off by night. But Roller sounded on his horn the signalfor those who had been bidden to watch close by, to break into thepalace. When the king heard this, he thought it meant that the enemy wasupon them, and made off hastily in a ship. Meanwhile Brak, and those whohad broken in with him, snatched up the goods of the king, and got themon board Erik's ships. Almost half the night was spent in pillaging. In the morning, when the king found that they had fled, he prepared topursue them, but was advised by one of his friends not to plan anythingon a sudden or do it in haste. His friend, indeed, tried to convince himthat he needed a larger equipment, and that it was ill-advised to pursuethe fugitives to Denmark with a handful. But neither could this curbthe king's impetuous spirit; it could not bear the loss; for nothing hadstung him more than this, that his preparations to slay another shouldhave recoiled on his own men. So he sailed to the harbour which is nowcalled Omi. Here the weather began to be bad, provision failed, andthey thought it better, since die they must, to die by the sword thanby famine. And so the sailors turned their hand against one another, andhastened their end by mutual blows. The king with a few men took to thecliffs and escaped. Lofty barrows still mark the scene of the slaughter. Meanwhile Erik ended his voyage fairly, and the wedding of Alfhild andFrode was kept. 

Then came tidings of an inroad of the Sclavs, and Erik was commissionedto suppress it with eight ships, since Frode as yet seemed inexperiencedin war. Erik, loth ever to flinch from any manly undertaking, gladlyundertook the business and did it bravely. Learning that the pirates hadseven ships, he sailed up to them with only one of his own, orderingthe rest to be girt with timber parapets, and covered over with prunedboughs of trees. Then he advanced to observe the number of the enemymore fully, but when the Sclavs pursued closely, he beat a quick retreatto his men. But the enemy, blind to the trap, and as eager to take thefugitives, rowed smiting the waters fast and incessantly. For the shipsof Erik could not be clearly distinguished, looking like a leafywood. The enemy, after venturing into a winding strait, suddenly sawthemselves surrounded by the fleet of Erik. First, confounded by thestrange sight, they thought that a wood was sailing; and then they sawthat guile lurked under the leaves. Therefore, tardily repenting theirrashness, they tried to retrace their incautious voyage: but while theywere trying to steer about, they saw the enemy boarding them; Erik, however, put his ship ashore, and slung stones against the enemyfrom afar. Thus most of the Sclavs were killed, and forty taken, whoafterwards under stress of bonds and famine, and in strait of diverstorments, gave up the ghost. 

Meantime Frode, in order to cross on an expedition into Sclavia, hadmustered a mighty fleet from the Danes, as well as from neighbouringpeoples. The smallest boat of this fleet could carry twelve sailors, andbe rowed by as many oars. Then Erik, bidding his men await him patientlywent to tell Frode the tidings of the defeat he had inflicted. As hesailed along he happened to see a pirate ship aground on some shallows;and being wont to utter weighty words upon chance occurrences, he said, "Obscure is the lot of the base-born, and mean is the fortune of thelowly. " Then he brought his ship up close and destroyed the pirates, whowere trying to get off their own vessel with poles, and busily engrossedin saving her. This accomplished, he made his way back to the king'sfleet; and wishing to cheer Frode with a greeting that heralded hisvictory, he said, "Hail to the maker of a most prosperous peace!" Theking prayed that his word might come true, and declared that the spiritof the wise man was prophetic. Erik answered that he spoke truly, andthat the petty victory brought an omen of a greater one; declaring thata presage of great matters could often be got from trifles. Then theking counselled him to scatter his force, and ordered the horsemen ofJutland to go by the land way, while the rest of the army went bythe short sea-passage. But the sea was covered with such a throng ofvessels, that there were not enough harbours to take them in, nor shoresfor them to encamp on, nor money for their provisions; while the landarmy is said to have been so great that, in order to shorten the way, itlevelled mountains, made marshes passable, filled up pits with material, and the hugest chasms by casting in great boulders. 

Meanwhile Strunik the King of the Sclavs sent envoys to ask for a truce;but Frode refused him time to equip himself, saying that an enemy oughtnot to be furnished with a truce. Moreover, he said, he had hithertopassed his life without experience of war, and now he ought not to delayits beginning by waiting in doubt; for the man that conducted his firstcampaign successfully might hope for as good fortune in the rest. Foreach side would take the augury afforded by the first engagements as apresage of the combat; since the preliminary successes of war wereoften a prophecy of the sequel. Erik commended the wisdom of the reply, declaring that the game ought to be played abroad just as it had beenbegun at home: meaning that the Danes had been challenged by the Sclavs. After these words he fought a furious battle, slew Strunik with thebravest of his race, and received the surrender of the rest. Then Frodecalled the Sclavs together, and proclaimed by a herald that any manamong them who had been trained to theft or plunder should be speedilygiven up; promising that he would reward the character of such men withthe highest honours. He also ordered that all of them, who were versedin evil arts should come forth to have their reward. This offer pleasedthe Sclavs: and some of them, tempted by their hopes of the gift, betrayed themselves with more avarice than judgment, before the otherscould make them known. These were misled by such great covetousness, that they thought less of shame than lucre, and accounted as their glorywhat was really their guilt. When these had given themselves up of theirown will, he said: "Sclavs! This is the pest from which you must clearyour land yourselves. " And straightway he ordered the executioners toseize them, and had them fixed upon the highest gallows by the hand oftheir own countrymen. The punishers looked fewer than the punished. Andthus the shrewd king, by refusing to those who owned their guilt thepardon which he granted to the conquered foe, destroyed almost theentire stock of the Sclavic race. Thus the longing for an undeservedreward was visited with a deserved penalty, and the thirst for anundue wage justly punished. I should think that these men were rightlydelivered to their doom, who brought the peril on their own heads byspeaking, when they could have saved their lives by the protection ofsilence. 

The king, exalted by the honours of his fresh victory, and loth to seemless strong in justice than in battle, resolved to remodel his army bysome new laws, some of which are retained by present usage, while othersmen have chosen to abolish for new ones. (a) For he decreed, when thespoil was divided, that each of the vanguard should receive a greatershare than the rest of the soldiery: while he granted all gold that wastaken to the generals (before whom the standards were always borne inbattle) on account of their rank; wishing the common soldiers tobe content with silver. He ordered that the arms should go to thechampions, but the captured ships should pass to the common people, asthe due of those who had the right of building and equipping vessels. (b) Also he forbade that anyone should venture to lock up his householdgoods, as he would receive double the value of any losses from thetreasury of the king; but if anyone thought fit to keep it in lockedcoffers, he must pay the king a gold mark. He also laid down that anyonewho spared a thief should be punished as a thief. (d) Further, that thefirst man to flee in battle should forfeit all common rights. (e) Butwhen he had returned into Denmark he wished to amend by good measuresany corruption caused by the evil practices of Grep; and thereforegranted women free choice in marriage, so that there might be nocompulsory wedlock. And so he provided by law that women should be heldduly married to those whom they had wedded without consulting theirfathers. (f) But if a free woman agreed to marry a slave, she must fallto his rank, lose the blessing of freedom, and adopt the standing of aslave. (g) He also imposed on men the statute that they must marry anywoman whom they had seduced. (h) He ordained that adulterers should bedeprived of a member by the lawful husbands, so that continence mightnot be destroyed by shameful sins. (I) Also he ordained that if a Daneplundered another Dane, he should repay double, and be held guilty ofa breach of the peace. (k) And if any man were to take to the house ofanother anything which he had got by thieving, his host, if he shut thedoor of his house behind the man, should incur forfeiture of all hisgoods, and should be beaten in full assembly, being regarded as havingmade himself guilty of the same crime. (l) Also, whatsoever exile shouldturn enemy to his country, or bear a shield against his countrymen, should be punished with the loss of life and goods. (m) But if any man, from a contumacious spirit, were slack in fulfilling the orders of theking, he should be punished with exile. For, on all occasion of anysudden and urgent war, an arrow of wood, looking like iron, used to bepassed on everywhere from man to man as a messenger. (n) But if any oneof the commons went in front of the vanguard in battle, he was to risefrom a slave into a freeman, and from a peasant into a nobleman; but ifhe were nobly-born already, he should be created a governor. So greata guerdon did valiant men earn of old; and thus did the ancients thinknoble rank the due of bravery. For it was thought that the luck a manhad should be set down to his valour, and not his valour to his luck. (o) He also enacted that no dispute should be entered on with a promisemade under oath and a gage deposited; but whosoever requested anotherman to deposit a gage against him should pay that man half a gold mark, on pain of severe bodily chastisement. For the king had foreseen thatthe greatest occasions of strife might arise from the depositing ofgages. (p) But he decided that any quarrel whatsoever should be decidedby the sword, thinking a combat of weapons more honourable than one ofwords. But if either of the combatants drew back his foot, and steppedout of the ring of the circle previously marked, he was to considerhimself conquered, and suffer the loss of his case. But a man of thepeople, if he attacked a champion on any score, should be armed to meethim; but the champion should only fight with a truncheon an ell long. (q) Further, he appointed that if an alien killed a Dane, his deathshould be redressed by the slaying of two foreigners. 

Meanwhile, Gotar, in order to punish Erik, equipped his army for war:and Frode, on the other side, equipped a great fleet to go againstNorway. When both alike had put into Rennes-Isle, Gotar, terrified bythe greatness of Frode's name, sent ambassadors to pray for peace. Eriksaid to them, "Shameless is the robber who is the first to seek peace, or ventures to offer it to the good. He who longs to win must struggle:blow must counter blow, malice repel malice. "

Gotar listened attentively to this from a distance, and then said, as loudly as he could: "Each man fights for valour according as heremembers kindness. " Erik said to him: "I have requited thy kindness bygiving thee back counsel. " By this speech he meant that his excellentadvice was worth more than all manner of gifts. And, in order to showthat Gotar was ungrateful for the counsel he had received, he said:"When thou desiredst to take my life and my wife, thou didst mar thelook of thy fair example. Only the sword has the right to decide betweenus. " Then Gotar attacked the fleet of the Danes; he was unsuccessful inthe engagement, and slain. 

Afterwards Roller received his realm from Frode as a gift; it stretchedover seven provinces. Erik likewise presented Roller with the provincewhich Gotar had once bestowed upon him. After these exploits Frodepassed three years in complete and tranquil peace. 

Meanwhile the King of the Huns, when he heard that his daughter had beenput away, allied himself with Olmar, King of the Easterlings, and in twoyears equipped an armament against the Danes. So Frode levied an armynot only of native Danes, but also of Norwegians and Sclavs. Erik, whomhe had sent to spy out the array of the enemy, found Olmar, who hadreceived the command of the fleet, not far from Russia; while the Kingof the Huns led the land forces. He addressed Olmar thus:

"What means, prithee, this strong equipment of war? Or whither dost thouspeed, King Olmar, mighty in thy fleet?"

Olmar. "We are minded to attack the son of Fridleif. And who art thou, whose bold lips ask such questions?"

Erik. "Vain hope of conquering the unconquered hath filled thy heart;over Frode no man can prevail. "

Olmar. "Whatsoever befalls, must once happen for the first time; andoften enough the unexpected comes to pass. "

By this saying he let him know that no man must put too much trust infortune. Then Erik rode up to inspect the army of the Huns. As it passedby him, and he in turn by it, it showed its vanguard to the rising andits rear to the setting sun. So he asked those whom he met, who had thecommand of all those thousands. Hun, the King of the Huns, happened tosee him, and heard that he had undertaken to reconnoitre, and askedwhat was the name of the questioner. Erik said he was the man who cameeverywhere and was found nowhere. Then the king, when an interpreterwas brought, asked what work Frode was about. Erik replied, "Frode neverwaits at home for a hostile army, nor tarries in his house for his foe. For he who covets the pinnacle of another's power must watch and wakeall night. No man has ever won a victory by snoring, and no wolf hasever found a carcase by lying asleep. "

The king, perceiving that he was a cunning speaker of choice maxims, said: "Here, perchance, is that Erik who, as I have heard, accused mydaughter falsely. "

But Erik, when they were bidden to seize him instantly, said that it wasunseemly for one man to be dragged off by really; and by this sayinghe not only appeased the mind of the king, but even inclined him to bewilling to pardon him. But it was clear that this impunity came morefrom cunning than kindness; for the chief reason why he was let go wasthat he might terrify Frode by the report of their vast numbers. When hereturned, Frode bad him relate what he had discovered, and he said thathe had seen six kings each with his fleet; and that each of these fleetscontained five thousand ships, each ship being known to hold threehundred rowers. Each millenary of the whole total he said consisted offour wings; now, since the full number of a wing is three hundred, hemeant that a millenary should be understood to contain twelve hundredmen. When Frode wavered in doubt what he could do against so many, andlooked eagerly round for reinforcements, Erik said: "Boldness helps therighteous; a valiant dog must attack the bear; we want wolf-hounds, andnot little unwarlike birds. " This said, he advised Frode to muster hisfleet. When it was drawn up they sailed off against the enemy; and sothey fought and subdued the islands lying between Denmark and the East;and as they advanced thence, met some ships of the Ruthenian fleet. Frode thought it shameful to attack such a handful, but Erik said:"We must seek food from the gaunt and lean. He who falls shall seldomfatten, nor has that man the power to bite whom the huge sack hasdevoured. " By this warning he cured the king of all shame about makingan assault, and presently induced him to attack a small number with athrong; for he showed him that advantage must be counted before honour. 

After this they went on to meet Olmar, who because of the slowness ofhis multitude preferred awaiting the enemy to attacking it; for thevessels of the Ruthenians seemed disorganized, and, owing to their size, not so well able to row. But not even did the force of his multitudesavail him. For the extraordinary masses of the Ruthenians were strongerin numbers than in bravery, and yielded the victory to the stout handfulof the Danes. 

When Frode tried to return home, his voyage encountered an unheard-ofdifficulty. For the crowds of dead bodies, and likewise the fragments ofshields and spears, bestrewed the entire gulf of the sea, and tossed onthe tide, so that the harbours were not only straitened, but stank. Thevessels stuck, hampered amid the corpses. They could neither thrust offwith oars, nor drive away with poles, the rotting carcases that floatedaround, or prevent, when they had put one away, another rolling up anddriving against the fleet. You would have thought that a war had arisenwith the dead, and there was a strange combat with the lifeless. 

So Frode summoned the nations which he had conquered, and enacted (a)that any father of a family who had fallen in that war should beburied with his horse and all his arms and decorations. And if anybody-snatcher, in his abominable covetousness, made an attempt on him, he was to suffer for it, not only with his life, but also with the lossof burial for his own body; he should have no barrow and no funeral. For he thought it just that he who despoiled another's ashes should begranted no burial, but should repeat in his own person the fate hehad inflicted on another. He appointed that the body of a centurionor governor should receive funeral on a pyre built of his own ship. Heordered that the bodies of every ten pilots should be burnt togetherwith a single ship, but that every earl or king that was killed shouldbe put on his own ship and burnt with it. He wished this nice attentionto be paid in conducting the funerals of the slain, because he wishedto prevent indiscriminate obsequies. By this time all the kings of theRussians except Olmar and Dag had fallen in battle. (b) He also orderedthe Russians to conduct their warfare in imitation of the Danes, and never to marry a wife without buying her. He thought that boughtmarriages would have more security, believing that the troth whichwas sealed with a price was the safest. (d) Moreover, anyone who durstattempt the violation of a virgin was to be punished with the severanceof his bodily parts, or else to requite the wrong of his intercoursewith a thousand talents. (e) He also enacted that any man that appliedhimself to war, who aspired to the title of tried soldier, should attacka single man, should stand the attack of two, should only withdraw hisfoot a little to avoid three, but should not blush to flee from four. (f) He also proclaimed that a new custom concerning the pay of thesoldiers should be observed by the princes under his sway. He orderedthat each native soldier and housecarl should be presented in the winterseason with three marks of silver, a common or hired soldier with two, aprivate soldier who had finished his service with only one. By this lawhe did injustice to valour, reckoning the rank of the soldiers and nottheir courage; and he was open to the charge of error in the matter, because he set familiar acquaintance above desert. 

After this the king asked Erik whether the army of the Huns was as largeas the forces of Olmar, and Erik answered in the following song:

"By Hercules, I came on a countless throng, a throng that neither earthnor wave could hold. Thick flared all their camp-fires, and the wholewood blazed up; the flame betokened a numberless array. The earth sankunder the fraying of the horse-hoofs; creaking waggons rattled swiftly. The wheels rumbled, the driver rode upon the winds, so that the chariotssounded like thunder. The earth hardly bore the throngs of men-at-arms, speeding on confusedly; they trod it, but it could not bear theirweight. I thought that the air crashed and the earth was shaken, somighty was the motion of the stranger army. For I saw fifteen standardsflickering at once; each of them had a hundred lesser standards, andafter each of these could have been seen twenty; and the captains intheir order were equal in number to the standards. "

Now when Frode asked wherewithal he was to resist so many, Erikinstructed him that he must return home and suffer the enemy first toperish of their own hugeness. His counsel was obeyed, the advice beingapproved as heartily as it was uttered. But the Huns went on throughpathless deserts, and, finding provisions nowhere, began to run therisk of general starvation; for it was a huge and swampy district, andnothing could be found to relieve their want. At last, when the beastsof burden had been cut down and eaten, they began to scatter, lackingcarriages as much as food. Now their straying from the road was asperilous to them as their hunger. Neither horses nor asses were spared, nor did they refrain from filthy garbage. At last they did not evenspare dogs: to dying men every abomination was lawful; for there isnothing too hard for the bidding of extreme need. At last when theywere worn out with hunger, there came a general mortality. Bodies werecarried out for burial without end, for all feared to perish, and nonepitied the perishing. Fear indeed had cast out humanity. So first thedivisions deserted from the king little by little; and then the armymelted away by companies. He was also deserted by the prophet Ygg, a manof unknown age, which was prolonged beyond the human span; this manwent as a deserter to Frode, and told him of all the preparations of theHuns. 

Meanwhile Hedin, prince of a considerable tribe of the Norwegians, approached the fleet of Frode with a hundred and fifty vessels. Choosingtwelve out of these, he proceeded to cruise nearer, signalling theapproach of friends by a shield raised on the mast. He thus greatlyaugmented the forces of the king, and was received into his closestfriendship. A mutual love afterwards arose between this man and Hilda, the daughter of Hogni, a chieftain of the Jutes, and a maiden of mosteminent renown. For, though they had not yet seen one another, eachhad been kindled by the other's glory. But when they had a chance ofbeholding one another, neither could look away; so steadfast was thelove that made their eyes linger. 

Meanwhile, Frode distributed his soldiers through the towns, andcarefully gathered in the materials needed for the winter supplies; buteven so he could not maintain his army, with its burden of expense: andplague fell on him almost as great as the destruction that met the Huns. Therefore, to prevent the influx of foreigners, he sent a fleet to theElbe to take care that nothing should cross; the admirals were Reviland Mevil. When the winter broke up, Hedin and Hogni resolved to makea roving-raid together; for Hogni did not know that his partner was inlove with his daughter. Now Hogni was of unusual stature, and stiff intemper; while Hedin was very comely, but short. Also, when Frode sawthat the cost of keeping up his army grew daily harder to bear, hesent Roller to Norway, Olmar to Sweden, King Onef and Glomer, a rovercaptain, to the Orkneys for supplies, each with his own forces. Thirtykings followed Frode, and were his friends or vassals. But when Hunheard that Frode had sent away his forces he mustered another and afresh army. But Hogni betrothed his daughter to Hedin, after they hadsworn to one another that whichever of them should perish by the swordshould be avenged by the other. 

In the autumn, the men in search of supplies came back, but they werericher in trophies than in food. For Roller had made tributary theprovinces Sundmor and Nordmor, after slaying Arthor their king. ButOlmar conquered Thor the Long, the King of the Jemts and the Helsings, with two other captains of no less power, and also took Esthonia andKurland, with Oland, and the isles that fringe Sweden; thus he was amost renowned conqueror of savage lands. So he brought back 700 ships, thus doubling the numbers of those previously taken out. Onef andGlomer, Hedin and Hogni, won victories over the Orkneys, and returnedwith 900 ships. And by this time revenues had been got in from far andwide, and there were ample materials gathered by plunder to recruittheir resources. They had also added twenty kingdoms to the sway ofFrode, whose kings, added to the thirty named before, fought on the sideof the Danes. 

Trusting in their strength, they engaged with the Huns. Such a carnagebroke out on the first day of this combat that the three chief riversof Russia were bestrewn with a kind of bridge of corpses, and could becrossed and passed over. Also the traces of the massacre spread so widethat for the space of three days' ride the ground was to be seen coveredwith human carcases. So, when the battle had been seven days prolonged, King Hun fell; and his brother of the same name, when he saw the line ofthe Huns giving way, without delay surrendered himself and his company. In that war 170 kings, who were either Huns or fighting amongst theHuns, surrendered to the king. This great number Erik had comprised inhis previous description of the standards, when he was giving an accountof the multitude of the Huns in answer to the questions of Frode. SoFrode summoned the kings to assembly, and imposed a rule upon them thatthey should all live under one and the same law. Now he set Olmarover Holmgard; Onef over Conogard; and he bestowed Saxony on Hun, hisprisoner, and gave Revil the Orkneys. To one Dimar he allotted themanagement of the provinces of the Helsings, of the Jarnbers, and theJemts, as well as both Laplands; while on Dag he bestowed the governmentof Esthonia. Each of these men he burdened with fixed conditions oftribute, thus making allegiance a condition of his kindness. So therealms of Frode embraced Russia on the east, and on the west werebounded by the Rhine. 

Meantime, certain slanderous tongues accused Hedin to Hogni of havingtempted and defiled his daughter before the rites of betrothal; whichwas then accounted an enormous crime by all nations. So the credulousears of Hogni drank in this lying report, and with his fleet he attackedHedin, who was collecting the king's dues among the Slavs; there wasan engagement, and Hogni was beaten, and went to Jutland. And thus thepeace instituted by Frode was disturbed by intestine war, and nativeswere the first to disobey the king's law. Frode, therefore, sent men tosummon them both at once, and inquired closely what was the reason oftheir feud. When he had heard it, he gave judgment according to theterms of the law he had enacted; but when he saw that even this couldnot reconcile them (for the father obstinately demanded his daughterback), he decreed that the quarrel should be settled by the sword--itseemed the only remedy for ending the dispute. The fight began, andHedin was grievously wounded; but when he began to lose blood and bodilystrength, he received unexpected mercy from his enemy. For though Hognihad an easy chance of killing him, yet, pitying youth and beauty, heconstrained his cruelty to give way to clemency. And so, loth to cut offa stripling who was panting at his last gasp, he refrained his sword. For of old it was accounted shameful to deprive of his life one who wasungrown or a weakling; so closely did the antique bravery of championstake heed of all that could incline them to modesty. So Hedin, with thehelp of his men, was taken back to his ship, saved by the kindness ofhis foe. 

In the seventh year after, these same men began to fight on Hedin'sisle, and wounded each other so that they died. Hogni would have beenlucky if he had shown severity rather than compassion to Hedin when hehad once conquered him. They say that Hilda longed so ardently for herhusband, that she is believed to have conjured up the spirits of thecombatants by her spells in the night in order to renew the war. 

At the same time came to pass a savage war between Alrik, king of theSwedes, and Gestiblind, king of the Goths. The latter, being the weaker, approached Frode as a suppliant, willing, if he might get his aid, tosurrender his kingdom and himself. He soon received the aid of Skalk, the Skanian, and Erik, and came back with reinforcements. He haddetermined to let loose his attack on Alrik, but Erik thought that heshould first assail his son Gunthion, governor of the men of Wermlandand Solongs, declaring that the storm-weary mariner ought to makefor the nearest shore, and moreover that the rootless trunk seldomburgeoned. So he made an attack, wherein perished Gunthion, whose tombrecords his name. Alrik, when he heard of the destruction of hisson, hastened to avenge him, and when he had observed his enemies, hesummoned Erik, and, in a secret interview, recounted the leagues oftheir fathers, imploring him to refuse to fight for Gestiblind. This Erik steadfastly declined, and Alrik then asked leave to fightGestiblind, thinking that a duel was better than a general engagement. But Erik said that Gestiblind was unfit for arms by reason of old age, pleading his bad health, and above all his years; but offered himselfto fight in his place, explaining that it would be shameful to decline aduel on behalf of the man for whom he had come to make a war. Thenthey fought without delay: Alrik was killed, and Erik was most severelywounded; it was hard to find remedies, and he did not for long timerecover health. Now a false report had come to Frode that Erik hadfallen, and was tormenting the king's mind with sore grief; but Erikdispelled this sadness with his welcome return; indeed, he reported toFrode that by his efforts Sweden, Wermland, Helsingland, and the islandsof the Sun (Soleyar) had been added to his realm. Frode straightwaymade him king of the nations he had subdued, and also granted to himHelsingland with the two Laplands, Finland and Esthonia, under a yearlytribute. None of the Swedish kings before him was called by the name ofErik, but the title passed from him to the rest. 

At the same time Alf was king in Hethmark, and he had a son Asmund. Biorn ruled in the province of Wik, and had a son Aswid. Asmund wasengaged on an unsuccessful hunt, and while he was proceeding either tostalk the game with dogs or to catch it in nets, a mist happened tocome on. By this he was separated from his sharers on a lonely track, wandered over the dreary ridges, and at last, destitute of horse andclothing, ate fungi and mushrooms, and wandered on aimlessly till hecame to the dwelling of King Biorn. Moreover, the son of the king andhe, when they had lived together a short while, swore by every vow, inorder to ratify the friendship which they observed to one another, thatwhichever of them lived longest should be buried with him who died. Fortheir fellowship and love were so strong, that each determined he wouldnot prolong his days when the other was cut off by death. 

After this Frode gathered together a host of all his subject nations, and attacked Norway with his fleet, Erik being bidden to lead the landforce. For, after the fashion of human greed, the more he gained themore he wanted, and would not suffer even the dreariest and most ruggedregion of the world to escape this kind of attack; so much is increaseof wealth wont to encourage covetousness. So the Norwegians, castingaway all hope of self-defence, and losing all confidence in their powerto revolt, began to flee for the most part to Halogaland. The maidenStikla also withdrew from her country to save her chastity, proferringthe occupations of war to those of wedlock. 

Meanwhile Aswid died of an illness, and was consigned with his horseand dog to a cavern in the earth. And Asmund, because of his oath offriendship, had the courage to be buried with him, food being put in forhim to eat. 

Now just at this time Erik, who had crossed the uplands with his army, happened to draw near the barrow of Aswid; and the Swedes, thinkingthat treasures were in it, broke the hill open with mattocks, and sawdisclosed a cave deeper than they had thought. To examine it, a man waswanted, who would lower himself on a hanging rope tied around him. Oneof the quickest of the youths was chosen by lot; and Asmund, when he sawhim let down in a basket following a rope, straightway cast him out andclimbed into the basket. Then he gave the signal to draw him up to thoseabove who were standing by and controlling the rope. They drew in thebasket in the hopes of great treasure; but when they saw the unknownfigure of the man they had taken out, they were scared by hisextraordinary look, and, thinking that the dead had come to life, flungdown the rope and fled all ways. For Asmund looked ghastly and seemed tobe covered as with the corruption of the charnel. He tried to recall thefugitives, and began to clamour that they were wrongfully afraid of aliving man. And when Erik saw him, he marvelled most at the aspect ofhis bloody face: the blood flowing forth and spurting over it. ForAswid had come to life in the nights, and in his continual struggles hadwrenched off his left ear; and there was to be seen the horrid sight ofa raw and unhealed scar. And when the bystanders bade him tell how hehad got such a wound, he began to speak thus:--

"Why stand ye aghast, who see me colourless? Surely every live man fadesamong the dead. Evil to the lonely man, and burdensome to the single, remains every dwelling in the world. Hapless are they whom chance hathbereft of human help. The listless night of the cavern, the darkness ofthe ancient den, have taken all joy from my eyes and soul. The ghastlyground, the crumbling barrow, and the heavy tide of filthy things havemarred the grace of my youthful countenance, and sapped my wonted pithand force. Besides all this, I have fought with the dead, enduring theheavy burden and grievous peril of the wrestle; Aswid rose again andfell on me with rending nails, by hellish might renewing ghastly warfareafter he was ashes. 

"Why stand ye aghast, who see me colourless? Surely every live man fadesamong the dead. 

"By some strange enterprise of the power of hell the spirit of Aswidwas sent up from the nether world, and with cruel tooth eats thefleet-footed (horse), and has given his dog to his abominable jaws. Notsated with devouring the horse or hound, he soon turned his swift nailsupon me, tearing my cheek and taking off my ear. Hence the hideous sightof my slashed countenance, the blood-spurts in the ugly wound. Yet thebringer of horrors did it not unscathed; for soon I cut off his headwith my steel, and impaled his guilty carcase with a stake. 

"Why stand ye aghast who see me colourless? Surely every live man fadesamong the dead. "

Frode had by this taken his fleet over to Halogaland; and here, in orderto learn the numbers of his host, which seemed to surpass all boundsand measure that could be counted, he ordered his soldiers to pile upa hill, one stone being cast upon the heap for each man. The enemy alsopursued the same method of numbering their host, and the hills are stillto be seen to convince the visitor. Here Frode joined battle with theNorwegians, and the day was bloody. At nightfall both sides determinedto retreat. As daybreak drew near, Erik, who had come across the land, came up and advised the king to renew the battle. In this war the Danessuffered such slaughter that out of 3, 000 ships only 170 are supposed tohave survived. The Northmen, however, were exterminated in such a mightymassacre, that (so the story goes) there were not men left to till evena fifth of their villages. 

Frode, now triumphant, wished to renew peace among all nations, thathe might ensure each man's property from the inroads of thieves and nowensure peace to his realms after war. So he hung one bracelet on a cragwhich is called Frode's Rock, and another in the district of Wik, after he had addressed the assembled Norwegians; threatening that thesenecklaces should serve to test the honesty which he had decreed, andthreatening that if they were filched punishment should fall on all thegovernors of the district. And thus, sorely imperilling the officers, there was the gold unguarded, hanging up full in the parting of theroads, and the booty, so easy to plunder, a temptation to all covetousspirits. (a) Frode also enacted that seafarers should freely use oarswherever they found them; while to those who wished to cross a river hegranted free use of the horse which they found nearest to the ford. Hedecreed that they must dismount from this horse when its fore feet onlytouched land and its hind feet were still washed by the waters. For hethought that services such as these should rather be accounted kindnessthan wrongdoing. Moreover, he ordained that whosoever durst try andmake further use of the horse after he had crossed the river shouldbe condemned to death. (b) He also ordered that no man should hold hishouse or his coffer under lock and key, or should keep anything guardedby bolts, promising that all losses should be made good threefold. Also, he appointed that it was lawful to claim as much of another man's foodfor provision as would suffice for a single supper. If anyone exceededthis measure in his takings, he was to be held guilty of theft. Now, athief (so he enacted) was to be hung up with a sword passed through hissinews, with a wolf fastened by his side, so that the wicked man mightlook like the savage beast, both being punished alike. He also had thesame penalty extended to accomplices in thefts. Here he passed sevenmost happy years of peace, begetting a son Alf and a daughter Eyfura. 

It chanced that in these days Arngrim, a champion of Sweden, who hadchallenged, attacked, and slain Skalk the Skanian because he had oncerobbed him of a vessel, came to Frode. Elated beyond measure with hisdeed, he ventured to sue for Frode's daughter; but, finding the kingdeaf to him, he asked Erik, who was ruling Sweden, to help him. Erikadvised him to win Frode's goodwill by some illustrious service, andto fight against Egther, the King of Permland, and Thengil, the King ofFinmark, since they alone seemed to repudiate the Danish rule, while allmen else submitted. Without delay he led his army to that country. Now, the Finns are the uttermost peoples of the North, who have taken aportion of the world that is barely habitable to till and dwell in. Theyare very keen spearmen, and no nation has a readier skill in throwingthe javelin. They fight with large, broad arrows; they are addicted tothe study of spells; they are skilled hunters. Their habitation is notfixed, and their dwellings are migratory; they pitch and settle whereverthey have caught game. Riding on curved boards (skees or snow-skates), they run over ridges thick with snow. These men Arngrim attacked, inorder to win renown, and he crushed them. They fought with ill success;but, as they were scattering in flight, they cast three pebbles behindthem, which they caused to appear to the eyes of the enemy like threemountains. Arngrim's eyes were dazzled and deluded, and he called backhis men from the pursuit of the enemy, fancying that he was checked by abarrier of mighty rocks. Again, when they engaged and were beaten onthe morrow, the Finns cast snow upon the ground and made it look likea mighty river. So the Swedes, whose eyes were utterly deluded, were deceived by their misjudgment, for it seemed the roaring ofan extraordinary mass of waters. Thus, the conqueror dreading theunsubstantial phantom of the waters, the Finns managed to escape. Theyrenewed the war again on the third day; but there was no effectivemeans of escape left any longer, for when they saw that their lines werefalling back, they surrendered to the conqueror. Arngrim imposed on themthe following terms of tribute: that the number of the Finns should becounted, and that, after the lapse of (every) three years, every ten ofthem should pay a carriage-full of deer-skins by way of assessment. Thenhe challenged and slew in single combat Egther, the captain of the menof Permland, imposing on the men of Permland the condition that each ofthem should pay one skin. Enriched with these spoils and trophies, he returned to Erik, who went with him into Denmark, and poured loudpraises of the young warrior into the ear of Frode, declaring that hewho had added the ends of the world to his realms deserved his daughter. Then Frode, considering his splendid deserts, thought it was not amissto take for a son-in-law a man who had won wide-resounding fame by sucha roll of noble deeds. 

Arngrim had twelve sons by Eyfura, whose names I here subjoin: Brand, Biarbe, Brodd, Hiarrande; Tand, Tyrfing, two Haddings; Hiortuar, Hiartuar, Hrane, Anganty. These followed the business of sea-roving fromtheir youth up; and they chanced to sail all in one ship to the islandSamso, where they found lying off the coast two ships belonging toHialmar and Arvarodd (Arrow-Odd) the rovers. These ships they attackedand cleared of rowers; but, not knowing whether they had cut down thecaptains, they fitted the bodies of the slain to their several thwarts, and found that those whom they sought were missing. At this they weresad, knowing that the victory they had won was not worth a straw, andthat their safety would run much greater risk in the battle that was tocome. In fact, Hialmar and Arvarodd, whose ships had been damaged bya storm, which had torn off their rudders, went into a wood to hewanother; and, going round the trunk with their axes, pared down theshapeless timber until the huge stock assumed the form of a marineimplement. This they shouldered, and were bearing it down to the beach, ignorant of the disaster of their friends, when the sons of Eyfura, reeking with the fresh blood of the slain, attacked them, so that theytwo had to fight many; the contest was not even equal, for it was aband of twelve against two. But the victory did not go according to thenumbers. For all the sons of Eyfura were killed; Hialmar was slainby them, but Arvarodd gained the honours of victory, being the onlysurvivor left by fate out of all that band of comrades. He, with anincredible effort, poised the still shapeless hulk of the rudder, anddrove it so strongly against the bodies of his foes that, with a singlethrust of it, he battered and crushed all twelve. And, so, though theywere rid of the general storm of war, the band of rovers did not yetquit the ocean. 

This it was that chiefly led Frode to attack the West, for his onedesire was the spread of peace. So he summoned Erik, and mustered afleet of all the kingdoms that bid him allegiance, and sailed to Britainwith numberless ships. But the king of that island, perceiving that hewas unequal in force (for the ships seemed to cover the sea), wentto Frode, affecting to surrender, and not only began to flatter hisgreatness, but also promised to the Danes, the conquerors of nations, the submission of himself and of his country; proffering taxes, assessment, tribute, what they would. Finally, he gave them a hospitableinvitation. Frode was pleased with the courtesy of the Briton, thoughhis suspicions of treachery were kept by so ready and unconstraineda promise of everything, so speedy a surrender of the enemy beforefighting; such offers being seldom made in good faith. They were alsotroubled with alarm about the banquet, fearing that as drunkenness cameon their sober wits might be entangled in it, and attacked by hiddentreachery. So few guests were bidden, moreover, that it seemed unsafefor them to accept the invitation; and it was further thought foolish totrust their lives to the good faith of an enemy whom they did not know. 

When the king found their minds thus wavering he again approached Frode, and invited him to the banquet with 2, 400 men; having before biddenhim to come to the feast with 1, 200 nobles. Frode was encouraged by theincrease in the number of guests, and was able to go to the banquetwith greater inward confidence; but he could not yet lay aside hissuspicions, and privily caused men to scour the interior and let himknow quickly of any treachery which they might espy. On this errand theywent into the forest, and, coming upon the array of an armed encampmentbelonging to the forces of the Britons, they halted in doubt, buthastily retraced their steps when the truth was apparent. For the tentswere dusky in colour, and muffled in a sort of pitchy coverings, thatthey might not catch the eye of anyone who came near. When Frode learnedthis, he arranged a counter-ambuscade with a strong force of nobles, that he might not go heedlessly to the banquet, and be cheated of timelyaid. They went into hiding, and he warned them that the note of thetrumpet was the signal for them to bring assistance. Then with a selectband, lightly armed, he went to the banquet. The hall was decked withregal splendour; it was covered all round with crimson hangings ofmarvellous rich handiwork. A curtain of purple dye adorned the propelledwalls. The flooring was bestrewn with bright mantles, which a manwould fear to trample on. Up above was to be seen the twinkle of manylanterns, the gleam of lamps lit with oil, and the censers poured forthfragrance whose sweet vapour was laden with the choicest perfumes. Thewhole way was blocked by the tables loaded with good things; and theplaces for reclining were decked with gold-embroidered couches; theseats were full of pillows. The majestic hall seemed to smile uponthe guests, and nothing could be noticed in all that pomp eitherinharmonious to the eye or offensive to the smell. In the midst of thehall stood a great butt ready for refilling the goblets, and holding anenormous amount of liquor; enough could be drawn from it for the hugerevel to drink its fill. Servants, dressed in purple, bore golden cups, and courteously did the office of serving the drink, pacing in orderedranks. Nor did they fail to offer the draught in the horns of the wildox. 

The feast glittered with golden bowls, and was laden with shininggoblets, many of them studded with flashing jewels. The place was filledwith an immense luxury; the tables groaned with the dishes, and thebowls brimmed over with divers liquors. Nor did they use wine pure andsimple, but, with juices sought far and wide, composed a nectar of manyflavours. The dishes glistened with delicious foods, being filled mostlywith the spoils of the chase; though the flesh of tame animals was notlacking either. The natives took care to drink more sparingly than theguests; for the latter felt safe, and were tempted to make an orgy;while the others, meditating treachery, had lost all temptations to bedrunken. So the Danes, who, if I may say so with my country's leave, were seasoned to drain the bowl against each other, took quantities ofwine. The Britons, when they saw that the Danes were very drunk, begangradually to slip away from the banquet, and, leaving their guestswithin the hall, made immense efforts, first to block the doors of thepalace by applying bars and all kinds of obstacles, and then to set fireto the house. The Danes were penned inside the hall, and when the firebegan to spread, battered vainly at the doors; but they could not getout, and soon attempted to make a sally by assaulting the wall. And theAngles, when they saw that it was tottering under the stout attack ofthe Danes, began to shove against it on their side, and to prop thestaggering pile by the application of large blocks on the outside, toprevent the wall being shattered and releasing the prisoners. Butat last it yielded to the stronger hand of the Danes, whose effortsincreased with their peril; and those pent within could sally out withease. Then Frode bade the trumpet strike in, to summon the band thathad been posted in ambush; and these, roused by the note of the clangingbugle, caught the enemy in their own trap; for the King of the Britons, with countless hosts of his men, was utterly destroyed. Thus theband helped Frode doubly, being both the salvation of his men and thedestruction of his enemies. 

Meantime the renown of the Danish bravery spread far, and moved theIrish to strew iron calthrops on the ground, in order to make their landharder to invade, and forbid access to their shores. Now the Irish usearmour which is light and easy to procure. They crop the hair close withrazors, and shave all the hair off the back of the head, that they maynot be seized by it when they run away. They also turn the points oftheir spears towards the assailant, and deliberately point their swordagainst the pursuer; and they generally fling their lances behind theirback, being more skilled at conquering by flight than by fighting. Hence, when you fancy that the victory is yours, then is the moment ofdanger. But Frode was wary and not rash in his pursuit of the foe whofled so treacherously, and he routed Kerwil (Cearbal), the leader ofthe nation, in battle. Kerwil's brother survived, but lost heartfor resistance, and surrendered his country to the king (Frode), whodistributed among his soldiers the booty he had won, to show himselffree from all covetousness and excessive love of wealth, and onlyambitious to gain honour. 

After the triumphs in Britain and the spoiling of the Irish theywent back to Denmark; and for thirty years there was a pause from allwarfare. At this time the Danish name became famous over the wholeworld almost for its extraordinary valour. Frode, therefore, desired toprolong and establish for ever the lustre of his empire, and made ithis first object to inflict severe treatment upon thefts and brigandage, feeling these were domestic evils and intestine plagues, and that if thenations were rid of them they would come to enjoy a more tranquil life;so that no ill-will should mar and hinder the continual extention ofpeace. He also took care that the land should not be devoured by anyplague at home when the enemy was at rest, and that intestine wickednessshould not encroach when there was peace abroad. At last he ordered thatin Jutland, the chief district of his realm, a golden bracelet, veryheavy, should be set up on the highways (as he had done before in thedistrict of Wik), wishing by this magnificent price to test the honestywhich he had enacted. Now, though the minds of the dishonest were vexedwith the provocation it furnished, and the souls of the evil tempted, yet the unquestioned dread of danger prevailed. For so potent was themajesty of Frode, that it guarded even gold that was thus exposed topillage, as though it were fast with bolts and bars. The strangedevice brought great glory upon its inventor. After dealing destructioneverywhere, and gaining famous victories far and wide, he resolvedto bestow quiet on all men, that the cheer of peace should follow thehorrors of war, and the end of slaughter might be the beginning ofsafety. He further thought that for the same reason all men's propertyshould be secured to them by a protective decree, so that what had beensaved from a foreign enemy might not find a plunderer at home. 

About the same time, the Author of our general salvation, coming to theearth in order to save mortals, bore to put on the garb of mortality;at which time the fires of war were quenched, and all the lands wereenjoying the calmest and most tranquil peace. It has been thought thatthe peace then shed abroad so widely, so even and uninterrupted over thewhole world, attended not so much an earthly rule as that divine birth;and that it was a heavenly provision that this extraordinary gift oftime should be a witness to the presence of Him who created all times. 

Meantime a certain matron, skilled in sorcery, who trusted in her artmore than she feared the severity of the king, tempted the covetousnessof her son to make a secret effort for the prize; promising himimpunity, since Frode was almost at death's door, his body failing, andthe remnant of his doting spirit feeble. To his mother's counselshe objected the greatness of the peril; but she bade him take hope, declaring, that either a sea-cow should have a calf, or that the king'svengeance should be baulked by some other chance. By this speech shebanished her son's fears, and made him obey her advice. When the deedwas done, Frode, stung by the affront, rushed with the utmost heat andfury to raze the house of the matron, sending men on to arrest her andbring her with her children. This the woman foreknew, and deluded herenemies by a trick, changing from the shape of a woman into that of amare. When Frode came up she took the shape of a sea-cow, and seemed tobe straying and grazing about the shore; and she also made her sonslook like calves of smaller size. This portent amazed the king, and heordered that they should be surrounded and cut off from returning tothe waters. Then he left the carriage, which he used because of thefeebleness of his aged body, and sat on the ground marvelling. But themother, who had taken the shape of the larger beast, charged at the kingwith outstretched tusk, and pierced one of his sides. The wound killedhim; and his end was unworthy of such majesty as his. His soldiers, thirsting to avenge his death, threw their spears and transfixed themonsters, and saw, when they were killed, that they were the corpses ofhuman beings with the heads of wild beasts: a circumstance which exposedthe trick more than anything. 

So ended Frode, the most famous king in the whole world. The nobles, when he had been disembowelled, had his body kept embalmed for threeyears, for they feared the provinces would rise if the king's endwere published. They wished his death to be concealed above all fromforeigners, so that by the pretence that he was alive they mightpreserve the boundaries of the empire, which had been extended forso long; and that, on the strength of the ancient authority of theirgeneral, they might exact the usual tribute from their subjects. So, thelifeless corpse was carried away by them in such a way that it seemed tobe taken, not in a funeral bier, but in a royal carriage, as if it werea due and proper tribute from the soldiers to an infirm old man not infull possession of his forces. Such splendour did his friends bestowon him even in death. But when his limbs rotted, and were seized withextreme decay, and when the corruption could not be arrested, theyburied his body with a royal funeral in a barrow near Waere, a bridge ofZealand; declaring that Frode had desired to die and be buried in whatwas thought the chief province of his kingdom. 

BOOK SIX. 

After the death of Frode, the Danes wrongly supposed that Fridleif, who was being reared in Russia, had perished; and, thinking that thesovereignty halted for lack of an heir, and that it could no longer bekept on in the hands of the royal line, they considered that the sceptrewould be best deserved by the man who should affix to the yet freshgrave of Frode a song of praise in his glorification, and commit therenown of the dead king to after ages by a splendid memorial. Then oneHIARN, very skilled in writing Danish poetry, wishing to give the fameof the hero some notable record of words, and tempted by the enormousprize, composed, after his own fashion, a barbarous stave. Its purport, expressed in four lines, I have transcribed as follows:

"Frode, whom the Danes would have wished to live long, they bore longthrough their lands when he was dead. The great chief's body, with thisturf heaped above it, bare earth covers under the lucid sky. "

When the composer of this song had uttered it, the Danes rewarded himwith the crown. Thus they gave a kingdom for an epitaph, and the weightof a whole empire was presented to a little string of letters. Slenderexpense for so vast a guerdon! This huge payment for a little poemexceeded the glory of Caesar's recompense; for it was enough for thedivine Julius to pension with a township the writer and glorifier ofthose conquests which he had achieved over the whole world. But now thespendthrift kindness of the populace squandered a kingdom on a churl. Nay, not even Africanus, when he rewarded the records of his deed, roseto the munificence of the Danes. For there the wage of that laboriousvolume was in mere gold, while here a few callow verses won a sceptrefor a peasant. 

At the same time Erik, who held the governorship of Sweden, died ofdisease; and his son Halfdan, who governed in his father's stead, alarmed by the many attacks of twelve brothers of Norwegian birth, andpowerless to punish their violence, fled, hoping for reinforcements, toask aid of Fridleif, then sojourning in Russia. Approaching him with asuppliant face, he lamented that he was himself shattered and bruisedby a foreign foe, and brought a dismal plaint of his wrongs. From himFridleif heard the tidings of his father's death, and granting the aidhe sought, went to Norway in armed array. At this time the aforesaidbrothers, their allies forsaking them, built a very high rampart withinan island surrounded by a swift stream, also extending their earthworksalong the level. Trusting to this refuge, they harried the neighborhoodwith continual raids. For they built a bridge on which they used to getto the mainland when they left the island. This bridge was fastened tothe gate of the stronghold; and they worked it by the guidance of ropes, in such a way that it turned as if on some revolving hinge, and at onetime let them pass across the river; while at another, drawn back fromabove by unseen cords, it helped to defend the entrance. 

These warriors were of valiant temper, young and stalwart, of splendidbodily presence, renowned for victories over giants, full of trophies ofconquered nations, and wealthy with spoil. I record the names of someof them--for the rest have perished in antiquity--Gerbiorn, Gunbiorn, Arinbiorn, Stenbiorn, Esbiorn, Thorbiorn, and Biorn. Biorn is said tohave had a horse which was splendid and of exceeding speed, so thatwhen all the rest were powerless to cross the river it alone stemmed theroaring eddy without weariness. This rapid comes down in so swift andsheer a volume that animals often lose all power of swimming in it, andperish. For, trickling from the topmost crests of the hills, it comesdown the steep sides, catches on the rocks, and is shattered, fallinginto the deep valleys with a manifold clamour of waters; but, beingstraightway rebuffed by the rocks that bar the way, it keeps the speedof its current ever at the same even pace. And so, along the wholelength of the channel, the waves are one turbid mass, and the white foambrims over everywhere. But, after rolling out of the narrows between therocks, it spreads abroad in a slacker and stiller flood, and turns intoan island a rock that lies in its course. On either side of the rockjuts out a sheer ridge, thick with divers trees, which screen the riverfrom distant view. Biorn had also a dog of extraordinary fierceness, a terribly vicious brute, dangerous for people to live with, which hadoften singly destroyed twelve men. But, since the tale is hearsay ratherthan certainty, let good judges weigh its credit. This dog, as I haveheard, was the favourite of the giant Offot (Un-foot), and used to watchhis herd amid the pastures. 

Now the warriors, who were always pillaging the neighbourhood, usedoften to commit great slaughters. Plundering houses, cutting downcattle, sacking everything, making great hauls of booty, rifling houses, then burning them, massacring male and female promiscuously--these, andnot honest dealings, were their occupations. Fridleif surprised themwhile on a reckless raid, and drove them all back for refuge to thestronghold; he also seized the immensely powerful horse, whose rider, inthe haste of his panic, had left it on the hither side of the river inorder to fly betimes; for he durst not take it with him over the bridge. Then Fridleif proclaimed that he would pay the weight of the dead bodyin gold to any man who slew one of those brothers. The hope of the prizestimulated some of the champions of the king; and yet they were firednot so much with covetousness as with valour; so, going secretly toFridleif, they promised to attempt the task, vowing to sacrifice theirlives if they did not bring home the severed heads of the robbers. Fridleif praised their valour and their vows, but bidding the onlookerswait, went in the night to the river, satisfied with a single companion. For, not to seem better provided with other men's valour than with hisown, he determined to forestall their aid by his own courage. Thereuponhe crushed and killed his companion with a shower of flints, and flunghis bloodless corpse into the waves, having dressed it in his ownclothes; which he stripped off, borrowing the cast-off garb of theother, so that when the corpse was seen it might look as if the king hadperished. He further deliberately drew blood from the beast on which hehad ridden, and bespattered it, so that when it came back into camp hemight make them think he himself was dead. Then he set spur to hishorse and drove it into the midst of the eddies, crossed the riverand alighted, and tried to climb over the rampart that screened thestronghold by steps set up against the mound. When he got over the topand could grasp the battlements with his hand, he quietly put his footinside, and, without the knowledge of the watch, went lightly on tiptoeto the house into which the bandits had gone to carouse. And when he hadreached its hall, he sat down under the porch overhanging the door. Nowthe strength of their fastness made the warriors feel so safe that theywere tempted to a debauch; for they thought that the swiftly rushingriver made their garrison inaccessible, since it seemed impossibleeither to swim over or to cross in boats. For no part of the riverallowed of fording. 

Biorn, moved by the revel, said that in his sleep he had seen a beastcome out of the waters, which spouted ghastly fire from its mouth, enveloping everything in a sheet of flame. Therefore the holes andcorners of the island should, he said, be searched; nor ought they totrust so much to their position, as rashly to let overweening confidencebring them to utter ruin. No situation was so strong that the mereprotection of nature was enough for it without human effort. Moreoverthey must take great care that the warning of his slumbers was notfollowed by a yet more gloomy and disastrous fulfilment. So they allsallied forth from the stronghold, and narrowly scanned the wholecircuit of the island; and finding the horse they surmised that Fridleifhad been drowned in the waters of the river. They received the horsewithin the gates with rejoicing, supposing that it had flung off itsrider and swum over. But Biorn, still scared with the memory of thevisions of the night, advised them to keep watch, since it was not safefor them yet to put aside suspicion of danger. Then he went to his roomto rest, with the memory of his vision deeply stored in his heart. 

Meanwhile the horse, which Fridleif, in order to spread a belief in hisdeath, had been loosed and besprinkled with blood (though only with thatwhich lies between flesh and skin), burst all bedabbled into the camp ofhis soldiers. They went straight to the river, and finding the carcaseof the slave, took it for the body of the king; the hissing eddieshaving cast it on the bank, dressed in brave attire. Nothing helpedtheir mistake so much as the swelling of the battered body; inasmuch asthe skin was torn and bruised with the flints, so that all the featureswere blotted out, bloodless and wan. This exasperated the champions whohad just promised Fridleif to see that the robbers were extirpated:and they approached the perilous torrent, that they might not seem totarnish the honour of their promise by a craven neglect of their vow. The rest imitated their boldness, and with equal ardour went to theriver, ready to avenge their king or to endure the worst. When Fridleifsaw them he hastened to lower the bridge to the mainland; and when hehad got the champions he cut down the watch at the first attack. Thushe went on to attack the rest and put them to the sword, all save Biorn;whom he tended very carefully and cured of his wounds; whereupon, underpledge of solemn oath, he made him his colleague, thinking it better touse his services than to boast of his death. He also declared it wouldbe shameful if such a flower of bravery were plucked in his first youthand perished by an untimely death. 

Now the Danes had long ago had false tidings of Fridleif's death, andwhen they found that he was approaching, they sent men to fetch him, and ordered Hiarn to quit the sovereignty, because he was thought tobe holding it only on sufferance and carelessly. But he could not bringhimself to resign such an honour, and chose sooner to spend his life forglory than pass into the dim lot of common men. Therefore he resolvedto fight for his present estate, that he might not have to resume hisformer one stripped of his royal honours. Thus the land was estrangedand vexed with the hasty commotion of civil strife; some were of Hiarn'sparty, while others agreed to the claims of Fridleif, because of thevast services of Frode; and the voice of the commons was perplexed anddivided, some of them respecting things as they were, others the memoryof the past. But regard for the memory of Frode weighed most, and itssweetness gave Fridleif the balance of popularity. 

Many wise men thought that a person of peasant rank should be removedfrom the sovereignty; since, contrary to the rights of birth, and onlyby the favour of fortune, he had reached an unhoped-for eminence; andin order that the unlawful occupant might not debar the rightful heir tothe office, Fridleif told the envoys of the Danes to return, and requestHiarn either to resign the kingdom or to meet him in battle. Hiarnthought it more grievous than death to set lust of life before honour, and to seek safety at the cost of glory. So he met Fridleif in thefield, was crushed, and fled into Jutland, where, rallying a band, heagain attacked his conqueror. But his men were all consumed with thesword, and he fled unattended, as the island testifies which has takenits name from his (Hiarno). And so, feeling his lowly fortune, andseeing himself almost stripped of his forces by the double defeat, heturned his mind to craft, and went to Fridleif with his facedisguised, meaning to become intimate, and find an occasion to slay himtreacherously. 

Hiarn was received by the king, hiding his purpose under the pretenceof servitude. For, giving himself out as a salt-distiller, he performedbase offices among the servants who did the filthiest work. He used alsoto take the last place at meal-time, and he refrained from the baths, lest his multitude of scars should betray him if he stripped. The king, in order to ease his own suspicions, made him wash; and when he knew hisenemy by the scars, he said: "Tell me now, thou shameless bandit, howwouldst thou have dealt with me, if thou hadst found out plainly thatI wished to murder thee?" Hiarn, stupefied, said: "Had I caught thee Iwould have first challenged thee, and then fought thee, to give thee abetter chance of wiping out thy reproach. " Fridleif presently tookhim at his word, challenged him and slew him, and buried his body in abarrow that bears the dead man's name. 

Soon after FRIDLEIF was admonished by his people to think aboutmarrying, that he might prolong his line; but he maintained that theunmarried life was best, quoting his father Frode, on whom his wife'swantonness had brought great dishonour. At last, yielding to thepersistent entreaties of all, he proceeded to send ambassadors to askfor the daughter of Amund, King of Norway. One of these, named Frok, wasswallowed by the waves in mid-voyage, and showed a strange portent athis death. For when the closing flood of billows encompassed him, blood arose in the midst of the eddy, and the whole face of the sea wassteeped with an alien redness, so that the ocean, which a moment beforewas foaming and white with tempest, was presently swollen with crimsonwaves, and was seen to wear a colour foreign to its nature. 

Around implacably declined to consent to the wishes of the king, andtreated the legates shamefully, declaring that he spurned the embassybecause the tyranny of Frode had of old borne so heavily upon Norway. But Amund's daughter, Frogertha, not only looking to the birth ofFridleif, but also honouring the glory of his deeds, began to upbraidher father, because he scorned a son-in-law whose nobility was perfect, being both sufficient in valour and flawless in birth. She added thatthe portentous aspect of the sea, when the waves were suddenly turnedinto blood, simply and solely signified the defeat of Norway, and wasa plain presage of the victory of Denmark. And when Fridleif sent afurther embassy to ask for her, wishing to vanquish the refusal bypersistency, Amund was indignant that a petition he had once deniedshould be obstinately pressed, and hurried the envoys to death, wishingto offer a brutal check to the zeal of this brazen wooer. Fridleif heardnews of this outrage, and summoning Halfdan and Biorn, sailed roundNorway. Amund, equipped with his native defences, put out his fleetagainst him. The firth into which both fleets had mustered is calledFrokasund. Here Fridleif left the camp at night to reconnoitre; and, hearing an unusual kind of sound close to him as of brass being beaten, he stood still and looked up, and heard the following song of threeswans, who were crying above him:

"While Hythin sweeps the sea and cleaves the ravening tide, his serfdrinks out of gold and licks the cups of milk. Best is the estate of theslave on whom waits the heir, the king's son, for their lots are rashlyinterchanged. " Next, after the birds had sung, a belt fell from on high, which showed writing to interpret the song. For while the son of Hythin, the King of Tellemark, was at his boyish play, a giant, assuming theusual appearance of men, had carried him off, and using him as anoarsman (having taken his skiff over to the neighbouring shore), wasthen sailing past Fridleif while he was occupied reconnoitering. But theking would not suffer him to use the service of the captive youth, andlonged to rob the spoiler of his prey. The youth warned him that hemust first use sharp reviling against the giant, promising that he wouldprove easy to attack, if only he were assailed with biting verse. ThenFridleif began thus:

"Since thou art a giant of three bodies, invincible, and almost reachestheaven with thy crest, why does this silly sword bind thy thigh? Whydoth a broken spear gird thy huge side? Why, perchance, dost thou defendthy stalwart breast with a feeble sword, and forget the likeness of thybodily stature, trusting in a short dagger, a petty weapon? Soon, soonwill I balk thy bold onset, when with blunted blade thou attemptest war. Since thou art thyself a timid beast, a lump lacking proper pith, thouart swept headlong like a flying shadow, having with a fair and famousbody got a heart that is unwarlike and unstable with fear, and a spiritquite unmatched to thy limbs. Hence thy frame totters, for thy goodlypresence is faulty through the overthrow of thy soul, and thy nature inall her parts is at strife. Hence shall all tribute of praise quitthee, nor shalt thou be accounted famous among the brave, but shalt bereckoned among ranks obscure. "

When he had said this he lopped off a hand and foot of the giant, madehim fly, and set his prisoner free. Then he went straightway to thegiant's headland, took the treasure out of his cave, and carried itaway. Rejoicing in these trophies, and employing the kidnapped youthto row him over the sea, he composed with cheery voice the followingstrain:

"In the slaying of the swift monster we wielded our blood-stained swordsand our crimsoned blade, whilst thou, Amund, lord of the Norwegian ruin, wert in deep slumber; and since blind night covers thee, without anylight of soul, thy valour has melted away and beguiled thee. But wecrushed a giant who lost use of his limbs and wealth, and we piercedinto the disorder of his dreary den. There we seized and plundered hispiles of gold. And now with oars we sweep the wave-wandering main, andjoyously return, rowing back to the shore our booty-laden ship; we fleetover the waves in a skiff that travels the sea; gaily let us furrowthose open waters, lest the dawn come and betray us to the foe. Lightlytherefore, and pulling our hardest, let us scour the sea, making for ourcamp and fleet ere Titan raise his rosy head out of the clear waters;that when fame noises the deed about, and Frogertha knows that the spoilhas been won with a gallant struggle, her heart may be stirred to bemore gentle to our prayer. "

On the morrow there was a great muster of the forces, and Fridleif hada bloody battle with Amund, fought partly by sea and partly by land. Fornot only were the lines drawn up in the open country, but the warriorsalso made an attack with their fleet. The battle which followed costmuch blood. So Biorn, when his ranks gave back, unloosed his hound andsent it against the enemy; wishing to win with the biting of a dog thevictory which he could not achieve with the sword. The enemy were bythis means shamefully routed, for a square of the warriors ran away whenattacked with its teeth. 

There is no saying whether their flight was more dismal or moredisgraceful. Indeed, the army of the Northmen was a thing to blush for;for an enemy crushed it by borrowing the aid of a brute. Nor was ittreacherous of Fridleif to recruit the failing valour of his men withthe aid of a dog. In this war Amund fell; and his servant Ane, surnamedthe Archer, challenged Fridleif to fight him; but Biorn, being a man ofmeaner estate, not suffering the king to engage with a common fellow, attacked him himself. And when Biorn had bent his bow and was fittingthe arrow to the string, suddenly a dart sent by Ane pierced the top ofthe cord. Soon another arrow came after it and struck amid the joints ofhis fingers. A third followed, and fell on the arrow as it was laid tothe string. For Ane, who was most dexterous at shooting arrows from adistance, had purposely only struck the weapon of his opponent, in orderthat, by showing it was in his power to do likewise to his person, hemight recall the champion from his purpose. But Biorn abated none ofhis valour for this, and, scorning bodily danger, entered the fray withheart and face so steadfast, that he seemed neither to yield anythingto the skill of Ane, nor lay aside aught of his wonted courage. Thushe would in nowise be made to swerve from his purpose, and dauntlesslyventured on the battle. Both of them left it wounded; and fought anotheralso on Agdar Ness with an emulous thirst for glory. 

By the death of Amund, Fridleif was freed from a most bitter foe, andobtained a deep and tranquil peace; whereupon he forced his savagetemper to the service of delight; and, transferring his ardour to love, equipped a fleet in order to seek the marriage which had once beendenied him. At last he set forth on his voyage; and his fleet beingbecalmed, he invaded some villages to look for food; where, beingreceived hospitably by a certain Grubb, and at last winning his daughterin marriage, he begat a son named Olaf. After some time had passed healso won Frogertha; but, while going back to his own country, he had abad voyage, and was driven on the shores of an unknown island. A certainman appeared to him in a vision, and instructed him to dig up a treasurethat was buried in the ground, and also to attack the dragon thatguarded it, covering himself in an ox-hide to escape the poison;teaching him also to meet the envenomed fangs with a hide stretched overhis shield. Therefore, to test the vision, he attacked the snake as itrose out of the waves, and for a long time cast spears against its scalyside; in vain, for its hard and shelly body foiled the darts flung atit. But the snake, shaking its mass of coils, uprooted the trees whichit brushed past by winding its tail about them. Moreover, by constantlydragging its body, it hollowed the ground down to the solid rock, andhad made a sheer bank on either hand, just as in some places we seehills parted by an intervening valley. So Fridleif, seeing that theupper part of the creature was proof against attack, assailed thelower side with his sword, and piercing the groin, drew blood fromthe quivering beast. When it was dead, he unearthed the money from theunderground chamber and had it taken off in his ships. 

When the year had come to an end, he took great pains to reconcile Biornand Ane, who had often challenged and fought one another, and made themexchange their hatred for friendship; and even entrusted to them histhree-year-old son, Olaf, to rear. But his mistress, Juritha, the motherof Olaf, he gave in marriage to Ane, whom he made one of his warriors;thinking that she would endure more calmly to be put away, if she weddedsuch a champion, and received his robust embrace instead of a king's. 

The ancients were wont to consult the oracles of the Fates concerningthe destinies of their children. In this way Fridleif desired to searchinto the fate of his son Olaf; and, after solemnly offering up his vows, he went to the house of the gods in entreaty; where, looking into thechapel, he saw three maidens, sitting on three seats. The first of themwas of a benignant temper, and bestowed upon the boy abundant beautyand ample store of favour in the eyes of men. The second granted himthe gift of surpassing generosity. But the third, a woman of moremischievous temper and malignant disposition, scorning the unanimouskindness of her sisters, and likewise wishing to mar their gifts, markedthe future character of the boy with the slur of niggardliness. Thus thebenefits of the others were spoilt by the poison of a lamentable doom;and hence, by virtue of the twofold nature of these gifts Olaf got hissurname from the meanness which was mingled with his bounty. So it cameabout that this blemish which found its way into the gift marred thewhole sweetness of its first benignity. 

When Fridleif had returned from Norway, and was traveling throughSweden, he took on himself to act as ambassador, and sued successfullyfor Hythin's daughter, whom he had once rescued from a monster, tobe the wife of Halfdan, he being still unwedded. Meantime his wifeFrogertha bore a son FRODE, who afterwards got his surname fromhis noble munificence. And thus Frode, because of the memory of hisgrandsire's prosperity, which he recalled by his name, became from hisvery cradle and earliest childhood such a darling of all men, thathe was not suffered even to step or stand on the ground, but wascontinually cherished in people's laps and kissed. Thus he was notassigned to one upbringer only, but was in a manner everybody'sfosterling. And, after his father's death, while he was in his twelfthyear, Swerting and Hanef, the kings of Saxony, disowned his sway, andtried to rebel openly. He overcame them in battle, and imposed on theconquered peoples a poll-tax of a coin, which they were to pay as hisslaves. For he showed himself so generous that he doubled the ancientpay of the soldiers: a fashion of bounty which then was novel. For hedid not, as despots do, expose himself to the vulgar allurements ofvice, but strove to covet ardently whatsoever he saw was nearest honour;to make his wealth public property; to surpass all other men in bounty, to forestall them all in offices of kindness; and, hardest of all, toconquer envy by virtue. By this means the youth soon won such favourwith all men, that he not only equalled in renown the honours of hisforefathers, but surpassed the most ancient records of kings. 

At the same time one Starkad, the son of Storwerk, escaped alone, eitherby force or fortune, from a wreck in which his friends perished, andwas received by Frode as his guest for his incredible excellence both ofmind and body. And, after being for some little time his comrade, he wasdressed in a better and more comely fashion every day, and was at lastgiven a noble vessel, and bidden to ply the calling of a rover, withthe charge of guarding the sea. For nature had gifted him with a body ofsuperhuman excellence; and his greatness of spirit equalled it, so thatfolk thought him behind no man in valour. So far did his glory spread, that the renown of his name and deeds continues famous even yet. Heshone out among our own countrymen by his glorious roll of exploits, andhe had also won a most splendid record among all the provinces of theSwedes and Saxons. Tradition says that he was born originally in thecountry which borders Sweden on the east, where barbarous hordes ofEsthonians and other nations now dwell far and wide. But a fabulous yetcommon rumour has invented tales about his birth which are contrary toreason and flatly incredible. For some relate that he was sprung fromgiants, and betrayed his monstrous birth by an extraordinary number ofhands, four of which, engendered by the superfluity of his nature, theydeclare that the god Thor tore off, shattering the framework of thesinews and wrenching from his whole body the monstrous bunches offingers; so that he had but two left, and that his body, which hadbefore swollen to the size of a giant's, and, by reason of its shapelesscrowd of limbs looked gigantic, was thenceforth chastened to a betterappearance, and kept within the bounds of human shortness. 

For there were of old certain men versed in sorcery, Thor, namely, and Odin, and many others, who were cunning in contriving marvelloussleights; and they, winning the minds of the simple, began to claimthe rank of gods. For, in particular, they ensnared Norway, Swedenand Denmark in the vainest credulity, and by prompting these lands toworship them, infected them with their imposture. The effects of theirdeceit spread so far, that all other men adored a sort of divine powerin them, and, thinking them either gods or in league with gods, offered up solemn prayers to these inventors of sorceries, and gave toblasphemous error the honour due to religion. Hence it has come aboutthat the holy days, in their regular course, are called among us by thenames of these men; for the ancient Latins are known to have named thesedays severally, either after the titles of their own gods, or after theplanets, seven in number. But it can be plainly inferred from the merenames of the holy days that the objects worshipped by our countrymenwere not the same as those whom the most ancient of the Romans calledJove and Mercury, nor those to whom Greece and Latium paid idolatroushomage. For the days, called among our countrymen Thors-day orOdins-day, the ancients termed severally the holy day of Jove or ofMercury. If, therefore, according to the distinction implied in theinterpretation I have quoted, we take it that Thor is Jove and OdinMercury, it follows that Jove was the son of Mercury; that is, if theassertion of our countrymen holds, among whom it is told as a matterof common belief, that Thor was Odin's son. Therefore, when the Latins, believing to the contrary effect, declare that Mercury was sprung fromJove, then, if their declaration is to stand, we are driven to considerthat Thor was not the same as Jove, and that Odin was also differentfrom Mercury. Some say that the gods, whom our countrymen worshipped, shared only the title with those honoured by Greece or Latium, but that, being in a manner nearly equal to them in dignity, they borrowed fromthem the worship as well as the name. This must be sufficient discourseupon the deities of Danish antiquity. I have expounded this briefly forthe general profit, that my readers may know clearly to what worship inits heathen superstition our country has bowed the knee. Now I will goback to my subject where I left it. 

Ancient tradition says that Starkad, whom I mentioned above, offered thefirst-fruits of his deeds to the favour of the gods by slaying Wikar, the king of the Norwegians. The affair, according to the version of somepeople, happened as follows:--

Odin once wished to slay Wikar by a grievous death; but, loth to dothe deed openly, he graced Starkad, who was already remarkable for hisextraordinary size, not only with bravery, but also with skill in thecomposing of spells, that he might the more readily use his services toaccomplish the destruction of the king. For that was how he hoped thatStarkad would show himself grateful for the honour he paid him. For thesame reason he also endowed him with three spans of mortal life, thathe might be able to commit in them as many abominable deeds. So Odinresolved that Starkad's days should be prolonged by the following crime:Starkad presently went to Wikar and dwelt awhile in his company, hidingtreachery under homage. At last he went with him sea-roving. And in acertain place they were troubled with prolonged and bitter storms; andwhen the winds checked their voyage so much that they had to lie stillmost of the year, they thought that the gods must be appeased with humanblood. When the lots were cast into the urn it so fell that the king wasrequired for death as a victim. Then Starkad made a noose of withies andbound the king in it; saying that for a brief instant he should paythe mere semblance of a penalty. But the tightness of the knot actedaccording to its nature, and cut off his last breath as he hung. Andwhile he was still quivering Starkad rent away with his steel theremnant of his life; thus disclosing his treachery when he ought tohave brought aid. I do not think that I need examine the version whichrelates that the pliant withies, hardened with the sudden grip, actedlike a noose of iron. 

When Starkad had thus treacherously acted he took Wikar's ship and wentto one Bemon, the most courageous of all the rovers of Denmark, in orderto take up the life of a pirate. For Bemon's partner, named Frakk, wearyof the toil of sea-roving, had lately withdrawn from partnership withhim, after first making a money-bargain. Now Starkad and Bemon were socareful to keep temperate, that they are said never to have indulgedin intoxicating drink, for fear that continence, the greatest bond ofbravery, might be expelled by the power of wantonness. So when, afteroverthrowing provinces far and wide, they invaded Russia also in theirlust for empire, the natives, trusting little in their walls or arms, began to bar the advance of the enemy with nails of uncommon sharpness, that they might check their inroad, though they could not curb theironset in battle; and that the ground might secretly wound the soles ofthe men whom their army shrank from confronting in the field. But noteven such a barrier could serve to keep off the foe. The Danes werecunning enough to foil the pains of the Russians. For they straightwayshod themselves with wooden clogs, and trod with unhurt steps upon thepoints that lay beneath their soles. Now this iron thing is divided intofour spikes, which are so arranged that on whatsoever side chance maycast it, it stands steadily on three equal feet. Then they struck intothe pathless glades, where the woods were thickets, and expelled Flokk, the chief of the Russians, from the mountain hiding-places into whichhe had crept. And here they got so much booty, that there was not one ofthem but went back to the fleet laden with gold and silver. 

Now when Bemon was dead, Starkad was summoned because of his valour bythe champions of Permland. And when he had done many noteworthy deedsamong them, he went into the land of the Swedes, where he lived atleisure for seven years' space with the sons of Frey. At last he leftthem and betook himself to Hakon, the tyrant of Denmark, because whenstationed at Upsala, at the time of the sacrifices, he was disgusted bythe effeminate gestures and the clapping of the mimes on the stage, andby the unmanly clatter of the bells. Hence it is clear how far he kepthis soul from lasciviousness, not even enduring to look upon it. Thusdoes virtue withstand wantonness. 

Starkad took his fleet to the shore of Ireland with Hakon, in order thateven the furthest kingdoms of the world might not be untouched by theDanish arms. The king of the island at this time was Hugleik, who, though he had a well-filled treasury, was yet so prone to avarice, thatonce, when he gave a pair of shoes which had been adorned by the handof a careful craftsman, he took off the ties, and by thus removing thelatches turned his present into a slight. This unhandsome act blemishedhis gift so much that he seemed to reap hatred for it instead of thanks. Thus he used never to be generous to any respectable man, but to spendall his bounty upon mimes and jugglers. For so base a fellow was boundto keep friendly company with the base, and such a slough of vices towheedle his partners in sin with pandering endearments. 

Still Hugleik had the friendship of Geigad and Swipdag, nobles of triedvalour, who, by the lustre of their warlike deeds, shone out among theirunmanly companions like jewels embedded in ordure; these alone werefound to defend the riches of the king. When a battle began betweenHugleik and Hakon, the hordes of mimes, whose light-mindednessunsteadied their bodies, broke their ranks and scurried off in panic;and this shameful flight was their sole requital for all their king'sbenefits. Then Geigad and Swipdag faced all those thousands of the enemysingle-handed, and fought with such incredible courage, that they seemedto do the part not merely of two warriors, but of a whole army. Geigad, moreover, dealt Hakon, who pressed him hard, such a wound in the breastthat he exposed the upper part of his liver. It was here that Starkad, while he was attacking Geigad with his sword, received a very sore woundon the head; wherefore he afterwards related in a certain song thata ghastlier wound had never befallen him at any time; for, though thedivisions of his gashed head were bound up by the surrounding outerskin, yet the livid unseen wound concealed a foul gangrene below. 

Starkad conquered, killed Hugleik and routed the Irish; and had theactors beaten whom chance made prisoner; thinking it better to order apack of buffoons to be ludicrously punished by the loss of their skinsthan to command a more deadly punishment and take their lives. Thushe visited with a disgraceful chastisement the baseborn throngof professional jugglers, and was content to punish them with thedisgusting flouts of the lash. Then the Danes ordered that the wealth ofthe king should be brought out of the treasury in the city of Dublin andpublicly pillaged. For so vast a treasure had been found that none tookmuch pains to divide it strictly. 

After this, Starkad was commissioned, together with Win, the chief ofthe Sclavs, to check the revolt of the East. They, having fought againstthe armies of the Kurlanders, the Sembs, the Sangals, and, finally, allthe Easterlings, won splendid victories everywhere. 

A champion of great repute, named Wisin, settled upon a rock in Russianamed Ana-fial, and harried both neighbouring and distant provinces withall kinds of outrage. This man used to blunt the edge of every weapon bymerely looking at it. He was made so bold in consequence, by having lostall fear of wounds, that he used to carry off the wives of distinguishedmen and drag them to outrage before the eyes of their husbands. Starkadwas roused by the tale of this villainy, and went to Russia to destroythe criminal; thinking nothing too hard to overcome, he challengedWisin, attacked him, made even his tricks useless to him, and slew him. For Starkad covered his blade with a very fine skin, that it might notmet the eye of the sorcerer; and neither the power of his sleightsnor his great strength were any help to Wisin, for he had to yield toStarkad. Then Starkad, trusting in his bodily strength, fought withand overcame a giant at Byzantium, reputed invincible, named Tanne, anddrove him to fly an outlaw to unknown quarters of the earth. Therefore, finding that he was too mighty for any hard fate to overcome him, hewent to the country of Poland, and conquered in a duel a championwhom our countrymen name Wasce; but the Teutons, arranging the lettersdifferently, call him Wilzce. 

Meanwhile the Saxons began to attempt a revolt, and to considerparticularly how they could destroy Frode, who was unconquered in war, by some other way than an open conflict. Thinking that it would be bestdone by a duel, they sent men to provoke the king with a challenge, knowing that he was always ready to court any hazard, and that his highspirit would not yield to any admonition whatever. They fancied thatthis was the best time to attack him, because they knew that Starkad, whose valour most men dreaded, was away on business. But while Frodehesitated, and said that he would talk with his friends about theanswer to be given, Starkad, who had just returned from his sea-roving, appeared, and blamed such a challenge, principally (he said) because itwas fitting for kings to fight only with their equals, and becausethey should not take up arms against men of the people; but it was morefitting for himself, who was born in a lowlier station, to manage thebattle. 

The Saxons approached Hame, who was accounted their most famouschampion, with many offers, and promised him that, if he would lend hisservices for the duel they would pay him his own weight in gold. The fighter was tempted by the money, and, with all the ovation of amilitary procession, they attended him to the ground appointed for thecombat. Thereupon the Danes, decked in warlike array, led Starkad, whowas to represent his king, out to the duelling-ground. Hame, in hisyouthful assurance, despised him as withered with age, and chose tograpple rather than fight with an outworn old man. Attacking Starkad, hewould have flung him tottering to the earth, but that fortune, who wouldnot suffer the old man to be conquered, prevented him from being hurt. For he is said to have been so crushed by the fist of Hame, as he dashedon him, that he touched the earth with his chin, supporting himself onhis knees. But he made up nobly for his tottering; for, as soon as hecould raise his knee and free his hand to draw his sword, he clove Hamethrough the middle of the body. Many lands and sixty bondmen apiece werethe reward of the victory. 

After Hame was killed in this manner the sway of the Danes over theSaxons grew so insolent, that they were forced to pay every year a smalltax for each of their limbs that was a cubit (ell) long, in token oftheir slavery. This Hanef could not bear, and he meditated war in hisdesire to remove the tribute. Steadfast love of his country filled hisheart every day with greater compassion for the oppressed; and, longingto spend his life for the freedom of his countrymen, he openly showeda disposition to rebel. Frode took his forces over the Elbe, and killedhim near the village of Hanofra (Hanover), so named after Hanef. ButSwerting, though he was equally moved by the distress of his countrymen, said nothing about the ills of his land, and revolved a plan for freedomwith a spirit yet more dogged than Hanef's. Men often doubt whetherthis zeal was liker to vice or to virtue; but I certainly censure it ascriminal, because it was produced by a treacherous desire to revolt. Itmay have seemed most expedient to seek the freedom of the country, butit was not lawful to strive after this freedom by craft and treachery. Therefore, since the deed of Swerting was far from honourable, neitherwill it be called expedient; for it is nobler to attack openly him whomyou mean to attack, and to exhibit hatred in the light of day, than todisguise a real wish to do harm under a spurious show of friendship. Butthe gains of crime are inglorious, its fruits are brief and fading. Foreven as that soul is slippery, which hides its insolent treachery bystealthy arts, so is it right that whatsoever is akin to guilt should befrail and fleeting. For guilt has been usually found to come home to itsauthor; and rumour relates that such was the fate of Swerting. For hehad resolved to surprise the king under the pretence of a banquet, andburn him to death; but the king forestalled and slew him, though slainby him in return. Hence the crime of one proved the destruction of both;and thus, though the trick succeeded against the foe, it did not bestowimmunity on its author. 

Frode was succeeded by his son Ingild, whose soul was pervertedfrom honour. He forsook the examples of his forefathers, and utterlyenthralled himself to the lures of the most wanton profligacy. Thushe had not a shadow of goodness and righteousness, but embraced vicesinstead of virtue; he cut the sinews of self-control, neglected theduties of his kingly station, and sank into a filthy slave of riot. Indeed, he fostered everything that was adverse or ill-fitted to anorderly life. He tainted the glories of his father and grandfather bypractising the foulest lusts, and bedimmed the brightest honours of hisancestors by most shameful deeds. For he was so prone to gluttony, thathe had no desire to avenge his father, or repel the aggressions of hisfoes; and so, could he but gratify his gullet, he thought that decencyand self-control need be observed in nothing. By idleness and sloth hestained his glorious lineage, living a loose and sensual life; and hissoul, so degenerate, so far perverted and astray from the steps of hisfathers, he loved to plunge into most abominable gulfs of foulness. Fowl-fatteners, scullions, frying-pans, countless cook-houses, differentcooks to roast or spice the banquet--the choosing of these stood to himfor glory. As to arms, soldiering, and wars, he could endure neitherto train himself to them, nor to let others practise them. Thus he castaway all the ambitions of a man and aspired to those of women; forhis incontinent itching of palate stirred in him love of everykitchen-stench. Ever breathing of his debauch, and stripped of every ragof soberness, with his foul breath he belched the undigested filth inhis belly. He was as infamous in wantonness as Frode was illustrious inwar. So utterly had his spirit been enfeebled by the untimely seductionsof gluttony. Starkad was so disgusted at the excess of Ingild, that heforsook his friendship, and sought the fellowship of Halfdan, the Kingof Swedes, preferring work to idleness. Thus he could not bear somuch as to countenance excessive indulgence. Now the sons of Swerting, fearing that they would have to pay to Ingild the penalty of theirfather's crime, were fain to forestall his vengeance by a gift, and gavehim their sister in marriage. Antiquity relates that she bore him sons, Frode, Fridleif, Ingild, and Olaf (whom some say was the son of Ingild'ssister). 

Ingild's sister Helga had been led by amorous wooing to return theflame of a certain low-born goldsmith, who was apt for soft words, andfurnished with divers of the little gifts which best charm a woman'swishes. For since the death of the king there had been none to honourthe virtues of the father by attention to the child; she had lackedprotection, and had no guardians. When Starkad had learnt this from therepeated tales of travellers, he could not bear to let the wantonness ofthe smith pass unpunished. For he was always heedful to bear kindness inmind, and as ready to punish arrogance. So he hastened to chastisesuch bold and enormous insolence, wishing to repay the orphan ward thebenefits he had of old received from Frode. Then he travelled throughSweden, went into the house of the smith, and posted himself near thethreshold muffling his face in a cap to avoid discovery. The smith, whohad not learnt the lesson that "strong hands are sometimes found under amean garment", reviled him, and bade him quickly leave the house, sayingthat he should have the last broken victuals among the crowd of paupers. But the old man, whose ingrained self-control lent him patience, wasnevertheless fain to rest there, and gradually study the wantonness ofhis host. For his reason was stronger than his impetuosity, and curbedhis increasing rage. Then the smith approached the girl with openshamelessness, and cast himself in her lap, offering the hair of hishead to be combed out by her maidenly hands. 

Also he thrust forward his loin cloth, and required her help in pickingout the fleas; and exacted from this woman of lordly lineage thatshe should not blush to put her sweet fingers in a foul apron. Then, believing that he was free to have his pleasure, he ventured to put hislonging palms within her gown and to set his unsteady hands close to herbreast. But she, looking narrowly, was aware of the presence of the oldman whom she once had known, and felt ashamed. She spurned the wantonand libidinous fingering, and repulsed the unchaste hands, telling theman also that he had need of arms, and urging him to cease his lewdsport. 

Starkad, who had sat down by the door, with the hat muffling his head, had already become so deeply enraged at this sight, that he could notfind patience to hold his hand any longer, but put away his covering andclapped his right hand to his sword to draw it. Then the smith, whoseonly skill was in lewdness, faltered with sudden alarm, and finding thatit had come to fighting, gave up all hope of defending himself, and sawin flight the only remedy for his need. Thus it was as hard to break outof the door, of which the enemy held the approach, as it was grievous toawait the smiter within the house. At last necessity forced him to putan end to his delay, and he judged that a hazard wherein there lay butthe smallest chance of safety was more desirable than sure and manifestdanger. Also, hard as it was to fly, the danger being so close, yet hedesired flight because it seemed to bring him aid, and to be the nearerway to safety; and he cast aside delay, which seemed to be an evilbringing not the smallest help, but perhaps irretrievable ruin. But justas he gained the threshold, the old man watching at the door smote himthrough the hams, and there, half dead, he tottered and fell. For thesmiter thought he ought carefully to avoid lending his illustrious handsto the death of a vile cinder-blower, and considered that ignominy wouldpunish his shameless passion worse than death. Thus some men thinkthat he who suffers misfortune is worse punished than he who is slainoutright. Thus it was brought about, that the maiden, who had never hadparents to tend her, came to behave like a woman of well-trained nature, and did the part, as it were, of a zealous guardian to herself. And whenStarkad, looking round, saw that the household sorrowed over the lateloss of their master, he heaped shame on the wounded man with moreinvective, and thus began to mock:

"Why is the house silent and aghast? What makes this new grief? Or wherenow rest that doting husband whom the steel has just punished for hisshameful love? Keeps he still aught of his pride and lazy wantonness?Holds he to his quest, glows his lust as hot as before? Let him whileaway an hour with me in converse, and allay with friendly words myhatred of yesterday. Let your visage come forth with better cheer; letnot lamentation resound in the house, or suffer the faces to becomedulled with sorrow. 

"Wishing to know who burned with love for the maiden, and was deeplyenamoured of my beloved ward, I put on a cap, lest my familiar facemight betray me. Then comes in that wanton smith, with lewd steps, bending his thighs this way and that with studied gesture, and likewisemaking eyes as he ducked all ways. His covering was a mantle fringedwith beaver, his sandals were inlaid with gems, his cloak was deckedwith gold. Gorgeous ribbons bound his plaited hair, and a many-colouredband drew tight his straying locks. Hence grew a sluggish and puffed-uptemper; he fancied that wealth was birth, and money forefathers, andreckoned his fortune more by riches than by blood. Hence came pride untohim, and arrogance led to fine attire. For the wretch began to thinkthat his dress made him equal to the high-born; he, the cinder-blower, who hunts the winds with hides, and puffs with constant draught, whorakes the ashes with his fingers, and often by drawing back the bellowstakes in the air, and with a little fan makes a breath and kindles thesmouldering fires! Then he goes to the lap of the girl, and leaningclose, says, `Maiden, comb my hair and catch the skipping fleas, andremove what stings my skin. ' Then he sat and spread his arms thatsweated under the gold, lolling on the smooth cushion and leaning backon his elbow, wishing to flaunt his adornment, just as a barking bruteunfolds the gathered coils of its twisted tail. But she knew me, andbegan to check her lover and rebuff his wanton hands; and, declaringthat it was I, she said, `Refrain thy fingers, check thy promptings, take heed to appease the old man sitting close by the doors. The sportwill turn to sorrow. I think Starkad is here, and his slow gaze scansthy doings. ' The smith answered: `Turn not pale at the peaceful ravenand the ragged old man; never has that mighty one whom thou feareststooped to such common and base attire. The strong man loves shiningraiment, and looks for clothes to match his courage. ' Then I uncoveredand drew my sword, and as the smith fled I clove his privy parts; hishams were laid open, cut away from the bone; they showed his entrails. Presently I rise and crush the girl's mouth with my fist, and draw bloodfrom her bruised nostril. Then her lips, used to evil laughter, were wetwith tears mingled with blood, and foolish love paid for all the sinsit committed with soft eyes. Over is the sport of the hapless woman whorushed on, blind with desire, like a maddened mare, and makes herlust the grave of her beauty. Thou deservest to be sold for a price toforeign peoples and to grind at the mill, unless blood pressed from thybreasts prove thee falsely accused, and thy nipple's lack of milk clearthee of the crime. Howbeit, I think thee free from this fault; yet bearnot tokens of suspicion, nor lay thyself open to lying tongues, nor givethyself to the chattering populace to gird at. Rumour hurts many, and alying slander often harms. A little word deceives the thoughts of commonmen. Respect thy grandsires, honour thy fathers, forget not thy parents, value thy forefathers; let thy flesh and blood keep its fame. Whatmadness came on thee? And thou, shameless smith, what fate drove thee inthy lust to attempt a high-born race? Or who sped thee, maiden, worthyof the lordliest pillows, to loves obscure? Tell me, how durst thoutaste with thy rosy lips a mouth reeking of ashes, or endure on thybreast hands filthy with charcoal, or bring close to thy side the armsthat turn the live coals over, and put the palms hardened with the useof the tongs to thy pure cheeks, and embrace the head sprinkled withembers, taking it to thy bright arms?

"I remember how smiths differ from one another, for once they smote me. All share alike the name of their calling, but the hearts beneath aredifferent in temper. I judge those best who weld warriors' swords andspears for the battle, whose temper shows their courage, who betokentheir hearts by the sternness of their calling, whose work declarestheir prowess. There are also some to whom the hollow mould yieldsbronze, as they make the likeness of divers things in molten gold, whosmelt the veins and recast the metal. But Nature has fashioned these ofa softer temper, and has crushed with cowardice the hands which shehas gifted with rare skill. Often such men, while the heat of the blastmelts the bronze that is poured in the mould, craftily filch flakes ofgold from the lumps, when the vessel thirsts after the metal they havestolen. "

So speaking, Starkad got as much pleasure from his words as from hisworks, and went back to Halfdan, embracing his service with the closestfriendship, and never ceasing from the exercise of war; so that heweaned his mind from delights, and vexed it with incessant applicationto arms. 

Now Ingild had two sisters, Helga and Asa; Helga was of full age tomarry, while Asa was younger and unripe for wedlock. Then Helge theNorwegian was moved with desire to ask for Helga for his wife, andembarked. Now he had equipped his vessel so luxuriously that he hadlordly sails decked with gold, held up also on gilded masts, and tiedwith crimson ropes. When he arrived Ingild promised to grant him hiswish if, to test his reputation publicly, he would first venture to meetin battle the champions pitted against him. Helge did not flinch at theterms; he answered that he would most gladly abide by the compact. And so the troth-plight of the future marriage was most ceremoniouslysolemnized. 

A story is remembered that there had grown up at the same time, on theIsle of Zealand, the nine sons of a certain prince, all highly giftedwith strength and valour, the eldest of whom was Anganty. This last wasa rival suitor for the same maiden; and when he saw that the matchwhich he had been denied was promised to Helge, he challenged him toa struggle, wishing to fight away his vexation. Helge agreed to theproposed combat. The hour of the fight was appointed for the wedding-dayby the common wish of both. For any man who, being challenged, refusedto fight, used to be covered with disgrace in the sight of all men. ThusHelge was tortured on the one side by the shame of refusing the battle, on the other by the dread of waging it. For he thought himself attackedunfairly and counter to the universal laws of combat, as he hadapparently undertaken to fight nine men single-handed. While he wasthus reflecting his betrothed told him that he would need help, andcounselled him to refrain from the battle, wherein it seemed he wouldencounter only death and disgrace, especially as he had not stipulatedfor any definite limit to the number of those who were to be hisopponents. He should therefore avoid the peril, and consult his safetyby appealing to Starkad, who was sojourning among the Swedes; since itwas his way to help the distressed, and often to interpose successfullyto retrieve some dismal mischance. 

Then Helge, who liked the counsel thus given very well, took a smallescort and went into Sweden; and when he reached its most famous city, Upsala, he forbore to enter, but sent in a messenger who was to inviteStarkad to the wedding of Frode's daughter, after first greeting himrespectfully to try him. This courtesy stung Starkad like an insult. Helooked sternly on the youth, and said, "That had he not had his belovedFrode named in his instructions, he should have paid dearly for hissenseless mission. He must think that Starkad, like some buffoon ortrencherman, was accustomed to rush off to the reek of a distant kitchenfor the sake of a richer diet. " Helge, when his servant had told himthis, greeted the old man in the name of Frode's daughter, and asked himto share a battle which he had accepted upon being challenged, sayingthat he was not equal to it by himself, the terms of the agreement beingsuch as to leave the number of his adversaries uncertain. Starkad, whenhe had heard the time and place of the combat, not only received thesuppliant well, but also encouraged him with the offer of aid, and toldhim to go back to Denmark with his companions, telling him that he wouldfind his way to him by a short and secret path. Helge departed, and ifwe may trust report, Starkad, by sheer speed of foot, travelled in oneday's journeying over as great a space as those who went before him aresaid to have accomplished in twelve; so that both parties, by a chancemeeting, reached their journey's end, the palace of Ingild, at the verysame time. Here Starkad passed, just as the servants did, along thetables filled with guests; and the aforementioned nine, howling horriblywith repulsive gestures, and running about as if they were on the stage, encouraged one another to the battle. Some say that they barked likefurious dogs at the champion as he approached. Starkad rebuked them formaking themselves look ridiculous with such an unnatural visage, and forclowning with wide grinning cheeks; for from this, he declared, soft andeffeminate profligates derived their wanton incontinence. When Starkadwas asked banteringly by the nine whether he had valour enough to fight, he answered that doubtless he was strong enough to meet, not merely one, but any number that might come against him. And when the nine heard thisthey understood that this was the man whom they had heard would cometo the succour of Helge from afar. Starkad also, to protect thebride-chamber with a more diligent guard, voluntarily took charge of thewatch; and, drawing back the doors of the bedroom, barred them witha sword instead of a bolt, meaning to post himself so as to giveundisturbed quiet to their bridal. 

When Helge woke, and, shaking off the torpor of sleep, remembered hispledge, he thought of buckling on his armour. But, seeing that a littleof the darkness of night yet remained, and wishing to wait for the hourof dawn, he began to ponder the perilous business at hand, when sleepstole on him and sweetly seized him, so that he took himself back tobed laden with slumber. Starkad, coming in on him at daybreak, saw himlocked asleep in the arms of his wife, and would not suffer him to bevexed with a sudden shock, or summoned from his quiet slumbers; lesthe should seem to usurp the duty of wakening him and breaking upon thesweetness of so new a union, all because of cowardice. He thought it, therefore, more handsome to meet the peril alone than to gain a comradeby disturbing the pleasure of another. So he quietly retraced his steps, and scorning his enemies, entered the field which in our tongue iscalled Roliung, and finding a seat under the slope of a certain hill, he exposed himself to wind and snow. Then, as though the gentle airs ofspring weather were breathing upon him, he put off his cloak, and set topicking out the fleas. He also cast on the briars a purple mantle whichHelga had lately given him, that no clothing might seem to lend himshelter against the raging shafts of hail. Then the champions came andclimbed the hill on the opposite side; and, seeking a spot shelteredfrom the winds wherein to sit, they lit a fire and drove off the cold. At last, not seeing Starkad, they sent a man to the crest of the hill, to watch his coming more clearly, as from a watch-tower. This manclimbed to the top of the lofty mountain, and saw, on its sloping side, an old man covered shoulder-high with the snow that showered down. Heasked him if he was the man who was to fight according to the promise. Starkad declared that he was. Then the rest came up and asked himwhether he had resolved to meet them all at once or one by one. But hesaid, "Whenever a surly pack of curs yelps at me, I commonly send themflying all at once, and not in turn. " Thus he let them know that hewould rather fight with-them all together than one by one, thinking thathis enemies should be spurned with words first and deeds afterwards. 

The fight began furiously almost immediately, and he felled six of themwithout receiving any wound in return; and though the remaining threewounded him so hard in seventeen places that most of his bowels gushedout of his belly, he slew them notwithstanding, like their brethren. Disembowelled, with failing strength, he suffered from dreadful straitsof thirst, and, crawling on his knees in his desire to find a draught, he longed for water from the streamlet that ran close by. But when hesaw it was tainted with gore he was disgusted at the look of the water, and refrained from its infected draught. For Anganty had been struckdown in the waves of the river, and had dyed its course so deep with hisred blood that it seemed now to flow not with water, but with some ruddyliquid. So Starkad thought it nobler that his bodily strength shouldfail than that he should borrow strength from so foul a beverage. Therefore, his force being all but spent, he wriggled on his knees, upto a rock that happened to be lying near, and for some little while layleaning against it. A hollow in its surface is still to be seen, just asif his weight as he lay had marked it with a distinct impression ofhis body. But I think this appearance is due to human handiwork, for itseems to pass all belief that the hard and uncleavable rock should soimitate the softness of wax, as, merely by the contact of a man leaningon it, to present the appearance of a man having sat there, and assumeconcavity for ever. 

A certain man, who chanced to be passing by in a cart, saw Starkadwounded almost all over his body. Equally aghast and amazed, he turnedand drove closer, asking what reward he should have if he were to tendand heal his wounds. But Starkad would rather be tortured by grievouswounds than use the service of a man of base estate, and first askedhis birth and calling. The man said that his profession was that of asergeant. Starkad, not content with despising him, also spurned him withrevilings, because, neglecting all honourable business, he followed thecalling of a hanger-on; and because he had tarnished his whole careerwith ill repute, thinking the losses of the poor his own gains;suffering none to be innocent, ready to inflict wrongful accusationupon all men, most delighted at any lamentable turn in the fortunes ofanother; and toiling most at his own design, namely of treacherouslyspying out all men's doings, and seeking some traitorous occasion tocensure the character of the innocent. 

As this first man departed, another came up, promising aid and remedies. Like the last comer, he was bidden to declare his condition; and hesaid that he had a certain man's handmaid to wife, and was doing peasantservice to her master in order to set her free. Starkad refused toaccept his help, because he had married in a shameful way by taking aslave to his embrace. Had he had a shred of virtue he should at leasthave disdained to be intimate with the slave of another, but should haveenjoyed some freeborn partner of his bed. What a mighty man, then, mustwe deem Starkad, who, when enveloped in the most deadly perils, showedhimself as great in refusing aid as in receiving wounds!

When this man departed a woman chanced to approach and walk past theold man. She came up to him in order to wipe his wounds, but was firstbidden to declare what was her birth and calling. She said that she wasa handmaid used to grinding at the mill. Starkad then asked her if shehad children; and when he was told that she had a female child, he toldher to go home and give the breast to her squalling daughter; for hethought it most uncomely that he should borrow help from a woman of thelowest degree. Moreover, he knew that she could nourish her own fleshand blood with milk better than she could minister to the wounds of astranger. 

As the woman was departing, a young man came riding up in a cart. He sawthe old man, and drew near to minister to his wounds. On being asked whohe was, he said his father was a labourer, and added that he was usedto the labours of a peasant. Starkad praised his origin, and pronouncedthat his calling was also most worthy of honour; for, he said, such mensought a livelihood by honourable traffic in their labour, inasmuch asthey knew not of any gain, save what they had earned by the sweatof their brow. He also thought that a country life was justly to bepreferred even to the most splendid riches; for the most wholesomefruits of it seemed to be born and reared in the shelter of a middleestate, halfway between magnificence and squalor. But he did not wishto pass the kindness of the youth unrequited, and rewarded the esteemhe had shown him with the mantle he had cast among the thorns. So thepeasant's son approached, replaced the parts of his belly that had beentorn away, and bound up with a plait of withies the mass of intestinesthat had fallen out. Then he took the old man to his car, and with themost zealous respect carried him away to the palace. 

Meantime Helga, in language betokening the greatest wariness, began toinstruct her husband, saying that she knew that Starkad, as soon ashe came back from conquering the champions, would punish him for hisabsence, thinking that he had inclined more to sloth and lust than tohis promise to fight as appointed. Therefore he must withstand Starkadboldly, because he always spared the brave but loathed the coward. Helgerespected equally her prophecy and her counsel, and braced his souland body with a glow of valorous enterprise. Starkad, when he had beendriven to the palace, heedless of the pain of his wounds, leaped swiftlyout of the cart, and just like a man who was well from top to toe, burstinto the bridal-chamber, shattering the doors with his fist. Then Helgeleapt from his bed, and, as he had been taught by the counsel of hiswife, plunged his blade full at Starkad's forehead. And since he seemedto be meditating a second blow, and to be about to make another thrustwith his sword, Helga flew quickly from the couch, caught up a shield, and, by interposing it, saved the old man from impending destruction;for, notwithstanding, Helge with a stronger stroke of his blade smotethe shield right through to the boss. Thus the praiseworthy wit of thewoman aided her friend, and her hand saved him whom her counsel hadinjured; for she protected the old man by her deed, as well as herhusband by her warning. Starkad was induced by this to let Helge goscot-free; saying that a man whose ready and assured courage so surelybetokened manliness, ought to be spared; for he vowed that a man illdeserved death whose brave spirit was graced with such a dogged will toresist. 

Starkad went back to Sweden before his wounds had been treated withmedicine, or covered with a single scar. Halfdan had been killed by hisrivals; and Starkad, after quelling certain rebels, set up Siward as theheir to his father's sovereignty. With him he sojourned a long time; butwhen he heard--for the rumour spread--that Ingild, the son of Frode (whohad been treacherously slain), was perversely minded, and insteadof punishing his father's murderers, bestowed upon them kindness andfriendship, he was vexed with stinging wrath at so dreadful a crime. And, resenting that a youth of such great parts should have renouncedhis descent from his glorious father, he hung on his shoulders a mightymass of charcoal, as though it were some costly burden, and made hisway to Denmark. When asked by those he met why he was taking along sounusual a load, he said that he would sharpen the dull wits of KingIngild to a point by bits of charcoal. So he accomplished a swift andheadlong journey, as though at a single breath, by a short and speedytrack; and at last, becoming the guest of Ingild, he went up, as hiscustom was, in to the seat appointed for the great men; for he had beenused to occupy the highest post of distinction with the kings of thelast generation. 

When the queen came in, and saw him covered over with filth and cladin the mean, patched clothes of a peasant, the ugliness of her guest'sdress made her judge him with little heed; and, measuring the man by theclothes, she reproached him with crassness of wit, because he had gonebefore greater men in taking his place at table, and had assumed a seatthat was too good for his boorish attire. She bade him quit the place, that he might not touch the cushions with his dress, which was foulerthan it should have been. For she put down to crassness and brazennesswhat Starkad only did from proper pride; she knew not that on a highseat of honour the mind sometimes shines brighter than the raiment. Thespirited old man obeyed, though vexed at the rebuff, and with marvellousself-control choked down the insult which his bravery so ill deserved;uttering at this disgrace he had received neither word nor groan. Buthe could not long bear to hide the bitterness of his anger in silence. Rising, and retreating to the furthest end of the palace, he flung hisbody against the walls; and strong as they were, he so battered themwith the shock, that the beams quaked mightily; and he nearly broughtthe house down in a crash. Thus, stung not only with his rebuff, butwith the shame of having poverty cast in his teeth, he unsheathedhis wrath against the insulting speech of the queen with inexorablesternness. 

Ingild, on his return from hunting, scanned him closely, and, whenhe noticed that he neither looked cheerfully about, nor paid him therespect of rising, saw by the sternness written on his brow that it wasStarkad. For when he noted his hands horny with fighting, his scars infront, the force and fire of his eye, he perceived that a man whosebody was seamed with so many traces of wounds had no weakling soul. He therefore rebuked his wife, and charged her roundly to put away herhaughty tempers, and to soothe and soften with kind words and gentleoffices the man she had reviled; to comfort him with food and drink, and refresh him with kindly converse; saying, that this man had beenappointed his tutor by his father long ago, and had been a most tenderguardian of his childhood. Then, learning too late the temper of the oldman, she turned her harshness into gentleness, and respectfully waitedon him whom she had rebuffed and railed at with bitter revilings. The angry hostess changed her part, and became the most fawning offlatterers. She wished to check his anger with her attentiveness; andher fault was the less, inasmuch as she was so quick in ministeringto him after she had been chidden. But she paid dearly for it, for shepresently beheld stained with the blood of her brethren the place whereshe had flouted and rebuffed the brave old man from his seat. 

Now, in the evening, Ingild took his meal with the sons of Swerting, and fell to a magnificent feast, loading the tables with the profusestdishes. With friendly invitation he kept the old man back from leavingthe revel too early; as though the delights of elaborate dainties couldhave undermined that staunch and sturdy virtue! But when Starkad had seteyes on these things, he scorned so wanton a use of them; and, not togive way a whit to foreign fashions, he steeled his appetite againstthese tempting delicacies with the self-restraint which was his greateststrength. He would not suffer his repute as a soldier to be impairedby the allurements of an orgy. For his valour loved thrift, and was astranger to all superfluity of food, and averse to feasting in excess. For his was a courage which never at any moment had time to make luxuryof aught account, and always forewent pleasure to pay due heed tovirtue. So, when he saw that the antique character of self-restraint, and all good old customs, were being corrupted by new-fangled luxuryand sumptuosity, he wished to be provided with a morsel fitter for apeasant, and scorned the costly and lavish feast. 

Spurning profuse indulgence in food, Starkad took some smoky and ratherrancid fare, appeasing his hunger with a bitter relish because moresimply; and being unwilling to enfeeble his true valour with the taintedsweetness of sophisticated foreign dainties, or break the rule ofantique plainness by such strange idolatries of the belly. He was alsovery wroth that they should go, to the extravagance of having the samemeat both roasted and boiled at the same meal; for he considered aneatable which was steeped in the vapours of the kitchen, and which theskill of the cook rubbed over with many kinds of flavours, in the lightof a monstrosity. 

Unlike Starkad Ingild flung the example of his ancestors to the winds, and gave himself freer licence of innovation in the fashions of thetable than the custom of his fathers allowed. For when he had onceabandoned himself to the manners of Teutonland, he did not blush toyield to its unmanly wantonness. No slight incentives to debauchery haveflowed down our country's throat from that sink of a land. Hence camemagnificent dishes, sumptuous kitchens, the base service of cooks, andall sorts of abominable sausages. Hence came our adoption, wanderingfrom the ways of our fathers, of a more dissolute dress. Thus ourcountry, which cherished self-restraint as its native quality, hasgone begging to our neighbours for luxury; whose allurements so charmedIngild, that he did not think it shameful to requite wrongs withkindness; nor did the grievous murder of his father make him heave onesigh of bitterness when it crossed his mind. 

But the queen would not depart without effecting her purpose. Thinkingthat presents would be the best way to banish the old man's anger, shetook off her own head a band of marvellous handiwork, and put it in hislap as he supped: desiring to buy his favour since she could not blunthis courage. But Starkad, whose bitter resentment was not yet abated, flung it back in the face of the giver, thinking that in such a giftthere was more scorn than respect. And he was wise not to put thisstrange ornament of female dress upon the head that was all bescarredand used to the helmet; for he knew that the locks of a man ought not towear a woman's head-band. Thus he avenged slight with slight, and repaidwith retorted scorn the disdain he had received; thereby bearing himselfwell-nigh as nobly in avenging his disgrace as he had borne himself inenduring it. 

To the soul of Starkad reverence for Frode was grappled with hooks oflove. Drawn to him by deeds of bounty, countless kindnesses, he couldnot be wheedled into giving up his purpose of revenge by any sort ofalluring complaisance. Even now, when Frode was no more, he was eagerto pay the gratitude due to his benefits, and to requite the kindnessof the dead, whose loving disposition and generous friendship he hadexperienced while he lived. For he bore graven so deeply in his heartthe grievous picture of Frode's murder, that his honour for that mostfamous captain could never be plucked from the inmost chamber of hissoul; and therefore he did not hesitate to rank his ancient friendshipbefore the present kindness. Besides, when he recalled the previousaffront, he could not thank the complaisance that followed; he could notput aside the disgraceful wound to his self-respect. For the memory ofbenefits or injuries ever sticks more firmly in the minds of bravemen than in those of weaklings. For he had not the habits of those whofollow their friends in prosperity and quit them in adversity, who paymore regard to fortune than to looks, and sit closer to their own gainthan to charity toward others. 

But the woman held to her purpose, seeing that even so she could not winthe old man to convivial mirth. Continuing with yet more lavish courtesyher efforts to soothe him, and to heap more honours on the guest, shebade a piper strike up, and started music to melt his unbending rage. For she wanted to unnerve his stubborn nature by means of cunningsounds. But the cajolery of pipe or string was just as powerless toenfeeble that dogged warrior. When he heard it, he felt that the respectpaid him savoured more of pretence than of love. Hence the crestfallenperformer seemed to be playing to a statue rather than a man, and learntthat it is vain for buffoons to assail with, their tricks a settled andweighty sternness, and that a mighty mass cannot be shaken with theidle puffing of the lips. For Starkad had set his face so firmly in hisstubborn wrath, that he seemed not a whit easier to move than ever. Forthe inflexibility which he owed his vows was not softened either by thestrain of the lute or the enticements of the palate; and he thought thatmore respect should be paid to his strenuous and manly purpose than tothe tickling of the ears or the lures of the feast. Accordingly he flungthe bone, which he had stripped in eating the meat, in the face of theharlequin, and drove the wind violently out of his puffed cheeks, sothat they collapsed. By this he showed how his austerity loathed theclatter of the stage; for his ears were stopped with anger and open tono influence of delight. This reward, befitting an actor, punishedan unseemly performance with a shameful wage. For Starkad excellentlyjudged the man's deserts, and bestowed a shankbone for the piper to pipeon, requiting his soft service with a hard fee. None could say whetherthe actor piped or wept the louder; he showed by his bitter flood oftears how little place bravery has in the breasts of the dissolute. Forthe fellow was a mere minion of pleasure, and had never learnt to bearthe assaults of calamity. This man's hurt was ominous of the carnagethat was to follow at the feast. Right well did Starkad's spirit, heedful of sternness, hold with stubborn gravity to steadfast revenge;for he was as much disgusted at the lute as others were delighted, and repaid the unwelcome service by insultingly flinging a bone; thusavowing that he owed a greater debt to the glorious dust of his mightyfriend than to his shameless and infamous ward. 

But when Starkad saw that the slayers of Frode were in high favourwith the king, his stern glances expressed the mighty wrath which heharboured, and his face betrayed what he felt. The visible fury of hisgaze betokened the secret tempest in his heart. At last, when Ingildtried to appease him with royal fare, he spurned the dainty. Satisfiedwith cheap and common food, he utterly spurned outlandish delicacies;he was used to plain diet, and would not pamper his palate with anydelightful flavour. When he was asked why he had refused the generousattention of the king with such a clouded brow, he said that he had cometo Denmark to find the son of Frode, not a man who crammed his proudand gluttonous stomach with rich elaborate feasts. For the Teutonextravagance which the king favoured had led him, in his longing for thepleasures of abundance, to set to the fire again, for roasting, disheswhich had been already boiled. Thereupon he could not forbear fromattacking Ingild's character, but poured out the whole bitterness ofhis reproaches on his head. He condemned his unfilial spirit, becausehe gaped with repletion and vented his squeamishness in filthy hawkings;because, following the lures of the Saxons, he strayed and departed farfrom soberness; because he was so lacking in manhood as not to pursueeven the faintest shadow of it. But, declared Starkad, he bore theheaviest load of infamy, because, even when he first began to seeservice, he forgot to avenge his father, to whose butchers, forsakingthe law of nature, he was kind and attentive. Men whose deserts weremost vile he welcomed with loving affection; and not only did he letthose go scot-free, whom he should have punished most sharply, but heeven judged them fit persons to live with and entertain at his table, whereas he should rather have put them to death. Hereupon Starkad isalso said to have sung as follows:

"Let the unwarlike youth yield to the aged, let him honour all the yearsof him that is old. When a man is brave, let none reproach the number ofhis days. 

"Though the hair of the ancient whiten with age, their valour staysstill the same; nor shall the lapse of time have power to weaken theirmanly heart. 

"I am elbowed away by the offensive guest, who taints with vice hisoutward show of goodness, whilst he is the slave of his belly andprefers his daily dainties to anything. 

"When I was counted as a comrade of Frode, I ever sat in the midst ofwarriors on a high seat in the hall, and I was the first of the princesto take my meal. 

"Now, the lot of a nobler age is reversed; I am shut in a corner, I amlike the fish that seeks shelter as it wanders to and fro hidden in thewaters. 

"I, who used surely in the former age to lie back on a couch handsomelyspread, am now thrust among the hindmost and driven from the crowdedhall. 

"Perchance I had been driven on my back at the doors, had not the wallstruck my side and turned me back, and had not the beam, in the way madeit hard for me to fly when I was thrust forth. 

"I am baited with the jeers of the court-folk; I am not received asa guest should be; I am girded at with harsh gibing, and stung withbabbling taunts. 

"I am a stranger, and would gladly know what news are spread abroad bybusy rumour; what is the course of events; what the order of the land;what is doing in your country. 

"Thou, Ingild, buried in sin, why dost thou tarry in the task ofavenging thy father? Wilt thou think tranquilly of the slaughter of thyrighteous sire?

"Why dost thou, sluggard, think only of feasting, and lean thy bellyback in ease, more effeminate than harlots? Is the avenging of thyslaughtered father a little thing to thee?

"When last I left thee, Frode, I learned by my prophetic soul that thou, mightiest of kings, wouldst surely perish by the sword of enemies. 

"And while I travelled long in the land, a warning groan rose in mysoul, which augured that thereafter I was never to see thee more. 

"Wo is me, that then I was far away, harrying the farthest peoples ofthe earth, when the traitorous guest aimed craftily at the throat of hisking. 

"Else I would either have shown myself the avenger of my lord, orhave shared his fate and fallen where he fell, and would joyfully havefollowed the blessed king in one and the same death. 

"I have not come to indulge in gluttonous feasting, the sin whereof Iwill strive to chastise; nor will I take mine ease, nor the delights ofthe fat belly. 

"No famous king has ever set me before in the middle by the strangers. Ihave been wont to sit in the highest seats among friends. 

"I have come from Sweden, travelling over wide lands, thinking that Ishould be rewarded, if only I had the joy to find the son of my belovedFrode. 

"But I sought a brave man, and I have come to a glutton, a king who isthe slave of his belly and of vice, whose liking has been turned backtowards wantonness by filthy pleasure. 

"Famous is the speech men think that Halfdan spoke: he warned us itwould soon come to pass that an understanding father should beget awitless son. 

"Though the heir be deemed degenerate, I will not suffer the wealth ofmighty Frode to profit strangers or to be made public like plunder. "

At these words the queen trembled, and she took from her head the ribbonwith which she happened, in woman's fashion, to be adorning her hair, and proffered it to the enraged old man, as though she could avert hisanger with a gift. Starkad in anger flung it back most ignominiously inthe face of the giver, and began again in a loud voice:

"Take hence, I pray thee, thy woman's gift, and set back thy headgear onthy head; no brave man assumes the chaplets that befit Love only. 

"For it is amiss that the hair of men that are ready for battle shouldbe bound back with wreathed gold; such attire is right for the throngsof the soft and effeminate. 

"But take this gift to thy husband, who loves luxury, whose fingeritches, while he turns over the rump and handles the flesh of the birdroasted brown. 

"The flighty and skittish wife of Ingild longs to observe the fashionsof the Teutons; she prepares the orgy and makes ready the artificialdainties. 

"For she tickles the palate with a new-fangled feast; she pursues thezest of an unknown flavour, raging to load all the tables with dishesyet more richly than before. 

"She gives her lord wine to drink in bowls, pondering all things withzealous preparation; she bids the cooked meats be roasted, and intendsthem for a second fire. 

"Wantonly she feeds her husband like a hog; a shameless whore, trusting.... 

"She roasts the boiled, and recooks the roasted meats, planning the mealwith spendthrift extravagance, careless of right and wrong, practisingsin, a foul woman. 

"Wanton in arrogance, a soldier of Love, longing for dainties, sheabjures the fair ways of self-control, and also provides devices forgluttony. 

"With craving stomach she desires turnip strained in a smooth pan, cakeswith thin juice, and shellfish in rows. 

"I do not remember the Great Frode putting his hand to the sinews ofbirds, or tearing the rump of a cooked fowl with crooked thumb. 

"What former king could have been so gluttonous as to stir the stinkingfilthy flesh, or rummage in the foul back of a bird with pluckingfingers?

"The food of valiant men is raw; no need, methinks, of sumptuous tablesfor those whose stubborn souls are bent on warfare. 

"It had been fitter for thee to have torn the stiff beard, biting hardwith thy teeth, than greedily to have drained the bowl of milk with thywide mouth. 

"We fled from the offence of the sumptuous kitchen; we stayed ourstomach with rancid fare; few in the old days loved cooked juices. 

"A dish with no sauce of herbs gave us the flesh of rams and swine. Wepartook temperately, tainting nothing with bold excess. 

"Thou who now lickest the milk-white fat, put on, prithee, the spirit ofa man; remember Frode, and avenge thy father's death. 

"The worthless and cowardly heart shall perish, and shall not parry thethrust of death by flight, though it bury itself in a valley, or crouchin darkling dens. 

"Once we were eleven princes, devoted followers of King Hakon, and hereGeigad sat above Helge in the order of the meal. 

"Geigad used to appease the first pangs of hunger with a dry rump ofham; and plenty of hard crust quelled the craving of his stomach. 

"No one asked for a sickly morsel; all took their food in common; themeal of mighty men cost but slight display. 

"The commons shunned foreign victual, and the greatest lusted not for afeast; even the king remembered to live temperately at little cost. 

"Scorning to look at the mead, he drank the fermented juice of Ceres; heshrank not from the use of undercooked meats, and hated the roast. 

"The board used to stand with slight display, a modest salt-cellarshowed the measure of its cost; lest the wise ways of antiquity shouldin any wise be changed by foreign usage. 

"Of old, no man put flagons or mixing-bowls on the tables; the stewardfilled the cup from the butt, and there was no abundance of adornedvessels. 

"No one who honoured past ages put the smooth wine-jars beside thetankards, and of old no bedizened lackey heaped the platter withdainties. 

"Nor did the vainglorious host deck the meal with little salt-shellor smooth cup; but all has been now abolished in shameful wise by thenew-fangled manners. 

"Who would ever have borne to take money in ransom for the death of alost parent, or to have asked a foe for a gift to atone for the murderof a father?

"What strong heir or well-starred son would have sat side by side withsuch as these, letting a shameful bargain utterly unnerve the warrior?

"Wherefore, when the honours of kings are sung, and bards relate thevictories of captains, I hide my face for shame in my mantle, sick atheart. 

"For nothing shines in thy trophies, worthy to be recorded by the pen;no heir of Frode is named in the roll of the honourable. 

"Why dost thou vex me with insolent gaze, thou who honourest the foeguilty of thy father's blood, and art thought only to take thy vengeancewith loaves and warm soup?

"When men speak well of the avengers of crimes, then long thou to losethy quick power of hearing, that thy impious spirit may not be ashamed. 

"For oft has the virtue of another vexed a heart that knows its guilt, and the malice in the breast is abashed by the fair report of the good. 

"Though thou go to the East, or live sequestered in the countries ofthe West, or whether, driven thence, thou seek the midmost place of theearth;

"Whether thou revisit the cold quarter of the heaven where the pole isto be seen, and carries on the sphere with its swift spin, and looksdown upon the neighbouring Bear;

"Shame shall accompany thee far, and shall smite thy countenance withheavy disgrace, when the united assembly of the great kings is takingpastime. 

"Since everlasting dishonour awaits thee, thou canst not come amidstthe ranks of the famous; and in every clime thou shalt pass thy days ininfamy. 

"The fates have given Frode an offspring born into the world when godswere adverse, whose desires have been enthralled by crime and ignoblelust. 

"Even as in a ship all things foul gather to the filthy hollow of thebilge, even so hath a flood of vices poured into Ingild. 

"Therefore, in terror of thy shame being published, thou shalt liecrushed in the corners of the land, sluggish on thy foul hearth, andnever to be seen in the array of the famous. 

"Then shalt thou shake thy beard at thine evil fate, kept down by thetaunts of thy mistresses, when thy paramour galls thy ear with herquerulous cries. 

"Since chill fear retards thy soul, and thou dreadest to become theavenger of thy sire, thou art utterly degenerate, and thy ways are likea slave's. 

"It would have needed scant preparation to destroy thee; even as if aman should catch and cut the throat of a kid, or slit the weazand of asoft sheep and butcher it. 

"Behold, a son of the tyrant Swerting shall take the inheritance ofDenmark after thee; he whose slothful sister thou keepest in infamousunion. 

"Whilst thou delightest to honour thy bride, laden with gems and shiningin gold apparel, we burn with all indignation that is linked with shame, lamenting thy infamies. 

"When thou art stirred by furious lust, our mind is troubled, andrecalls the fashion of ancient times, and bids us grieve sorely. 

"For we rate otherwise than thou the crime of the foes whom now thouholdest in honour; wherefore the face of this age is a burden to me, remembering the ancient ways. 

"I would crave no greater blessing, O Frode, if I might see those guiltyof thy murder duly punished for such a crime. "

Now he prevailed so well by this stirring counsel, that his reproachserved like a flint wherewith to strike a blazing flame of valour in thesoul that had been chill and slack. For the king had at first heardthe song inattentively; but, stirred by the earnest admonition ofhis guardian, he conceived in his heart a tardy fire of revenge; and, forgetting the reveller, he changed into the foeman. At last he leapt upfrom where he lay, and poured the whole flood of his anger on those attable with him; insomuch that he unsheathed his sword upon the sons ofSwerting with bloody ruthlessness, and aimed with drawn blade at thethroats of those whose gullets he had pampered with the pleasures of thetable. These men he forthwith slew; and by so doing he drowned theholy rites of the table in blood. He sundered the feeble bond of theirleague, and exchanged a shameful revel for enormous cruelty; the hostbecame the foe, and that vilest slave of excess the bloodthirsty agentof revenge. For the vigorous pleading of his counsellor bred a breath ofcourage in his soft and unmanly youth; it drew out his valour from itslurking-place, and renewed it, and so fashioned it that the authors of amost grievous murder were punished even as they deserved. For the youngman's valour had been not quenched, but only in exile, and the aid ofan old man had drawn it out into the light; and it accomplished a deedwhich was all the greater for its tardiness; for it was somewhat noblerto steep the cups in blood than in wine. What a spirit, then, must wethink that old man had, who by his eloquent adjuration expelled fromthat king's mind its infinite sin, and who, bursting the bonds ofiniquity, implanted a most effectual seed of virtue. Starkad aided theking with equal achievements; and not only showed the most completecourage in his own person, but summoned back that which had been rootedout of the heart of another. When the deed was done, he thus begun:

"King Ingild, farewell; thy heart, full of valour, hath now shown a deedof daring. The spirit that reigns in thy body is revealed by its fairbeginning; nor did there lack deep counsel in thy heart, though thouwert silent till this hour; for thou dost redress by thy bravery whatdelay had lost, and redeemest the sloth of thy spirit by mighty valour. Come now, let us rout the rest, and let none escape the peril whichall alike deserve. Let the crime come home to the culprit; let the sinreturn and crush its contriver. 

"Let the servants take up in a car the bodies of the slain, and let theattendant quickly bear out the carcases. Justly shall they lack thelast rites; they are unworthy to be covered with a mound; let no funeralprocession or pyre suffer them the holy honour of a barrow; let them bescattered to rot in the fields, to be consumed by the beaks of birds;let them taint the country all about with their deadly corruption. 

"Do thou too, king, if thou hast any wit, flee thy savage bride, lestthe she-wolf bring forth a litter like herself, and a beast spring fromthee that shall hurt its own father. 

"Tell me, Rote, continual derider of cowards, thinkest thou that we haveavenged Frode enough, when we have spent seven deaths on the vengeanceof one? Lo, those are borne out dead who paid homage not to thy sway indeed, but only in show, and though obsequious they planned treachery. But I always cherished this hope, that noble fathers have nobleoffspring, who will follow in their character the lot which theyreceived by their birth. Therefore, Ingild, better now than in time pastdost thou deserve to be called lord of Leire and of Denmark. 

"When, O King Hakon, I was a beardless youth, and followed thy leadingand command in warfare, I hated luxury and wanton souls, and practicedonly wars. Training body and mind together, I banished every unholything from my soul, and shunned the pleasures of the belly, lovingdeeds of prowess. For those that followed the calling of arms had roughclothing and common gear and short slumbers and scanty rest. Toil droveease far away, and the time ran by at scanty cost. Not as with some mennow, the light of whose reason is obscured by insatiate greed with itsblind maw. Some one of these clad in a covering of curiously wroughtraiment effeminately guides the fleet-footed (steed), and unknots hisdishevelled locks, and lets his hair fly abroad loosely. 

"He loves to plead often in the court, and to covet a base pittance, andwith this pursuit he comforts his sluggish life, doing with venal tonguethe business entrusted to him. 

"He outrages the laws by force, he makes armed assault upon men'srights, he tramples on the innocent, he feeds on the wealth of others, he practices debauchery and gluttony, he vexes good fellowship withbiting jeers, and goes after harlots as a hoe after the grass. 

"The coward falls when battles are lulled in peace. Though he who fearsdeath lie in the heart of the valley, no mantlet shall shelter him. Hisfinal fate carries off every living man; doom is not to be averted byskulking. But I, who have shaken the whole world with my slaughters, shall I enjoy a peaceful death? Shall I be taken up to the stars in aquiet end? Shall I die in my bed without a wound?"

BOOK SEVEN. 

We are told by historians of old, that Ingild had four sons, of whomthree perished in war, while OLAF alone reigned after his father; butsome say that Olaf was the son of Ingild's sister, though this opinionis doubtful. Posterity has but an uncertain knowledge of his deeds, which are dim with the dust of antiquity; nothing but the last counselof his wisdom has been rescued by tradition. For when he was in the lastgrip of death he took thought for his sons FRODE and HARALD, and badethem have royal sway, one over the land and the other over the sea, andreceive these several powers, not in prolonged possession, but in yearlyrotation. Thus their share in the rule was made equal; but Frode, whowas the first to have control of the affairs of the sea, earned disgracefrom his continual defeats in roving. His calamity was due to hissailors being newly married, and preferring nuptial joys at home to thetoils of foreign warfare. After a time Harald, the younger son, receivedthe rule of the sea, and chose soldiers who were unmarried, fearing tobe baffled like his brother. Fortune favoured his choice; for he was asglorious a rover as his brother was inglorious; and this earned him hisbrother's hatred. Moreover, their queens, Signe and Ulfhild, one ofwhom was the daughter of Siward, King of Sweden, the other of Karl, thegovernor of Gothland, were continually wrangling as to which was thenobler, and broke up the mutual fellowship of their husbands. HenceHarald and Frode, when their common household was thus shattered, divided up the goods they held in common, and gave more heed to thewrangling altercations of the women than to the duties of brotherlyaffection. 

Moreover, Frode, judging that his brother's glory was a disgrace tohimself and brought him into contempt, ordered one of his household toput him to death secretly; for he saw that the man of whom he had theadvantage in years was surpassing him in courage. When the deedwas done, he had the agent of his treachery privily slain, lest theaccomplice should betray the crime. Then, in order to gain the credit ofinnocence and escape the brand of crime, he ordered a full inquiry to bemade into the mischance that had cut off his brother so suddenly. But hecould not manage, by all his arts, to escape silent condemnation in thethoughts of the common people. He afterwards asked Karl, "Who had killedHarald?" and Karl replied that it was deceitful in him to ask a questionabout something which he knew quite well. These words earned him hisdeath; for Frode thought that he had reproached him covertly withfratricide. 

After this, the lives of Harald and Halfdan, the sons of Harald by Signethe daughter of Karl, were attempted by their uncle. But the guardiansdevised a cunning method of saving their wards. For they cut off theclaws of wolves and tied them to the soles of their feet; and thenmade them run along many times so as to harrow up the mud near theirdwelling, as well as the ground (then covered with, snow), and give theappearance of an attack by wild beasts. Then they killed the childrenof some bond-women, tore their bodies into little pieces, and scatteredtheir mangled limbs all about. So when the youths were looked for invain, the scattered limbs were found, the tracks of the beasts werepointed out, and the ground was seen besmeared with blood. It wasbelieved that the boys had been devoured by ravening wolves; and hardlyanyone was suffered to doubt so plain a proof that they were mangled. The belief in this spectacle served to protect the wards. They werepresently shut up by their guardians in a hollow oak, so that no traceof their being alive should get abroad, and were fed for a long timeunder pretence that they were dogs; and were even called by hounds'names, to prevent any belief getting abroad that they were hiding. (1)

Frode alone refused to believe in their death; and he went and inquiredof a woman skilled in divination where they were hid. So potent wereher spells, that she seemed able, at any distance, to perceive anything, however intricately locked away, and to summon it out to light. Shedeclared that one Ragnar had secretly undertaken to rear them, and hadcalled them by the names of dogs to cover the matter. When the youngmen found themselves dragged from their hiding by the awful force ofher spells, and brought before the eyes of the enchantress, loth to bebetrayed by this terrible and imperious compulsion, they flung into herlap a shower of gold which they had received from their guardians. Whenshe had taken the gift, she suddenly feigned death, and fell like onelifeless. Her servants asked the reason why she fell so suddenly; andshe declared that the refuge of the sons of Harald was inscrutable;for their wondrous might qualified even the most awful effects of herspells. Thus she was content with a slight benefit, and could notbear to await a greater reward at the king's hands. After this Ragnar, finding that the belief concerning himself and his wards was becomingrife in common talk, took them, both away into Funen. Here he was takenby Frode, and confessed that he had put the young men in safe keeping;and he prayed the king to spare the wards whom he had made fatherless, and not to think it a piece of good fortune to be guilty of twounnatural murders. By this speech he changed the king's cruelty intoshame; and he promised that if they attempted any plots in their ownland, he would give information to the king. Thus he gained safety forhis wards, and lived many years in freedom from terror. 

When the boys grew up, they went to Zealand, and were bidden by theirfriends to avenge their father. They vowed that they and their uncleshould not both live out the year. When Ragnar found this out, he wentby night to the palace, prompted by the recollection of his covenant, and announced that he was come privily to tell the king something he hadpromised. But the king was asleep, and he would not suffer them to wakehim up, because Frode had been used to punish any disturbance of hisrest with the sword. So mighty a matter was it thought of old to breakthe slumbers of a king by untimely intrusion. Frode heard this from thesentries in the morning; and when he perceived that Ragnar had cometo tell him of the treachery, he gathered together his soldiers, andresolved to forestall deceit by ruthless measures. Harald's sons hadno help for it but to feign madness. For when they found themselvessuddenly attacked, they began to behave like maniacs, as if they weredistraught. And when Frode thought that they were possessed, he gaveup his purpose, thinking it shameful to attack with the sword those whoseemed to be turning the sword against themselves. But he was burnedto death by them on the following night, and was punished as befitted afratricide. For they attacked the palace, and first crushing the queenwith a mass of stones and then, having set fire to the house, theyforced Frode to crawl into a narrow cave that had been cut out longbefore, and into the dark recesses of tunnels. Here he lurked in hidingand perished, stifled by the reek and smoke. 

After Frode was killed, HALFDAN reigned over his country about threeyears, and then, handing over his sovereignty to his brother Harald asdeputy, went roving, and attacked and ravaged Oland and the neighbouringisles, which are severed from contact with Sweden by a winding sound. Here in the winter he beached and entrenched his ships, and spent threeyears on the expedition. After this he attacked Sweden, and destroyedits king in the field. Afterwards he prepared to meet the king'sgrandson Erik, the son of his own uncle Frode, in battle; and when heheard that Erik's champion, Hakon, was skillful in blunting swords withhis spells, he fashioned, to use for clubbing, a huge mace studded withiron knobs, as if he would prevail by the strength of wood over thepower of sorcery. Then--for he was conspicuous beyond all others for hisbravery--amid the hottest charges of the enemy, he covered his head withhis helmet, and, without a shield, poised his club, and with the helpof both hands whirled it against the bulwark of shields before him. Noobstacle was so stout but it was crushed to pieces by the blow of themass that smote it. Thus he overthrew the champion, who ran against himin the battle, with a violent stroke of his weapon. But he was conquerednotwithstanding, and fled away into Helsingland, where he went to oneWitolf (who had served of old with Harald), to seek tendance for hiswounds. This man had spent most of his life in camp; but at last, afterthe grievous end of his general, he had retreated into this lonelydistrict, where he lived the life of a peasant, and rested from thepursuits of war. Often struck himself by the missiles of the enemy, hehad gained no slight skill in leechcraft by constantly tending his ownwounds. But if anyone came with flatteries to seek his aid, instead ofcuring him he was accustomed to give him something that would secretlyinjure him, thinking it somewhat nobler to threaten than to wheedle forbenefits. When the soldiers of Erik menaced his house, in their desireto take Halfdan, he so robbed them of the power of sight that they couldneither perceive the house nor trace it with certainty, though it wasclose to them. So utterly had their eyesight been dulled by a decisivemist. 

When Halfdan had by this man's help regained his full strength, hesummoned Thore, a champion of notable capacity, and proclaimed waragainst Erik. But when the forces were led out on the other side, andhe saw that Erik was superior in numbers, he hid a part of his army, andinstructed it to lie in ambush among the bushes by the wayside, in orderto destroy the enemy by an ambuscade as he marched through the narrowpart of the path. Erik foresaw this, having reconnoitred his means ofadvancing, and thought he must withdraw for fear, if he advanced alongthe track he had intended, of being hard-pressed by the tricks of theenemy among the steep windings of the hills. They therefore joinedbattle, force against force, in a deep valley, inclosed all round bylofty mountain ridges. Here Halfdan, when he saw the line of hismen wavering, climbed with Thore up a crag covered with stones and, uprooting boulders, rolled them down upon the enemy below; and theweight of these as they fell crushed the line that was drawn up in thelower position. Thus he regained with stones the victory which hehad lost with arms. For this deed of prowess he received the name ofBiargramm ("rock strong"), a word which seems to have been compoundedfrom the name of his fierceness and of the mountains. He soon gained somuch esteem for this among the Swedes that he was thought to be the sonof the great Thor, and the people bestowed divine honours upon him, andjudged him worthy of public libation. 

But the souls of the conquered find it hard to rest, and the insolenceof the beaten ever struggles towards the forbidden thing. So it came topass that Erik, in his desire to repair the losses incurred in flight, attacked the districts subject to Halfdan. Even Denmark he did notexempt from this harsh treatment; for he thought it a most worthy deedto assail the country of the man who had caused him to be driven fromhis own. And so, being more anxious to inflict injury than to repel it, he set Sweden free from the arms of the enemy. When Halfdan heard thathis brother Harald had been beaten by Erik in three battles, and slainin the fourth, he was afraid of losing his empire; he had to quit theland of the Swedes and go back to his own country. Thus Erik regainedthe kingdom of Sweden all the more quickly, that he quitted it solightly. Had fortune wished to favour him in keeping his kingdom as muchas she had in regaining it, she would in nowise have given him intothe hand of Halfdan. This capture was made in the following way: WhenHalfdan had gone back into Sweden, he hid his fleet craftily, and wentto meet Erik with two vessels. Erik attacked him with ten; and Halfdan, sailing through sundry winding channels, stole back to his concealedforces. Erik pursued him too far, and the Danish fleet came out onthe sea. Thus Erik was surrounded; but he rejected the life, which wasoffered him under condition of thraldom. He could not bear to think moreof the light of day than liberty, and chose to die rather than serve;lest he should seem to love life so well as to turn from a slave intoa freeman; and that he might not court with new-born obeisance the manwhom fortune had just before made only his equal. So little knows virtuehow to buy life with dishonour. Wherefore he was put in chains, andbanished to a place haunted by wild beasts; an end unworthy of thatlofty spirit. 

Halfdan had thus become sovereign of both kingdoms, and graced his famewith a triple degree of honour. For he was skillful and eloquent incomposing poems in the fashion of his country; and he was no lessnotable as a valorous champion than as a powerful king. But when heheard that two active rovers, Toke and Anund, were threatening thesurrounding districts, he attacked and routed them in a sea-fight. Forthe ancients thought that nothing was more desirable than glory whichwas gained, not by brilliancy of wealth, but by address in arms. Accordingly, the most famous men of old were so minded as to loveseditions, to renew quarrels, to loathe ease, to prefer fighting topeace, to be rated by their valour and not by their wealth, to findtheir greatest delight in battles, and their least in banquetings. 

But Halfdan was not long to seek for a rival. A certain Siwald, ofmost illustrious birth, related with lamentation in the assembly of theSwedes the death of Frode and his queen; and inspired in almost all ofthem such a hatred of Halfdan, that the vote of the majority granted himpermission to revolt. Nor was he content with the mere goodwill of theirvoices, but so won the heart of the commons by his crafty canvassingthat he induced almost all of them to set with their hands the royalemblem on his head. Siwald had seven sons, who were such cleversorcerers that often, inspired with the force of sudden frenzy, theywould roar savagely, bite their shields, swallow hot coals, and gothrough any fire that could be piled up; and their frantic passion couldonly be checked by the rigour of chains, or propitiated by slaughterof men. With such a frenzy did their own sanguinary temper, or else thefury of demons, inspire them. 

When Halfdan had heard of these things while busy roving, he said itwas right that his soldiers, who had hitherto spent their rage uponforeigners, should now smite with the steel the flesh of their owncountrymen, and that they who had been used to labour to extend theirrealm should now avenge its wrongful seizure. On Halfdan approaching, Siwald sent him ambassadors and requested him, if he was as great in actas in renown, to meet himself and his sons in single combat, and savethe general peril by his own. When the other answered, that a combatcould not lawfully be fought by more than two men, Siwald said, thatit was no wonder that a childless bachelor should refuse the profferedconflict, since his nature was void of heat, and had struck adisgraceful frost into his soul and body. Children, he added, were notdifferent from the man who begot them, since they drew from him theircommon principle of birth. Thus he and his sons were to be accountedas one person, for nature seemed in a manner to have bestowed on thema single body. Halfdan, stung with this shameful affront, acceptedthe challenge; meaning to wipe out with noble deeds of valour such aninsulting taunt upon his celibacy. And while he chanced to be walkingthrough a shady woodland, he plucked up by the roots all oak that stuckin his path, and, by simply stripping it of its branches, made it looklike a stout club. Having this trusty weapon, he composed a short songas follows:

"Behold! The rough burden which I bear with straining crest, shall untocrests bring wounds and destruction. Never shall any weapon of leafywood crush the Goths with direr augury. It shall shatter the toweringstrength of the knotty neck, and shall bruise the hollow temples withthe mass of timber. The club which shall quell the wild madness ofthe land shall be no less fatal to the Swedes. Breaking bones, andbrandished about the mangled limbs of warriors, the stock I havewrenched off shall crush the backs of the wicked, crush the hearths ofour kindred, shed the blood of our countrymen, and be a destructive pestupon our land. "

When he had said this, he attacked Siwald and his seven sons, anddestroyed them, their force and bravery being useless against theenormous mass of his club. 

At this time one Hardbeen, who came from Helsingland, gloried inkidnapping and ravishing princesses, and used to kill any man whohindered him in his lusts. He preferred high matches to those that werelowly; and the more illustrious the victims he could violate, the morenoble he thought himself. No man escaped unpunished who durst measurehimself with Hardbeen in valour. He was so huge, that his staturereached the measure of nine ells. He had twelve champions dwelling withhim, whose business it was to rise up and to restrain his fury with theaid of bonds, whenever the rage came on him that foreboded of battle. These men asked Halfdan to attack Hardbeen and his champions man by man;and he not only promised to fight, but assured himself the victory withmost confident words. When Hardbeen heard this, a demoniacal frenzysuddenly took him; he furiously bit and devoured the edges of hisshield; he kept gulping down fiery coals; he snatched live embers in hismouth and let them pass down into his entrails; he rushed through theperils of crackling fires; and at last, when he had raved through everysort of madness, he turned his sword with raging hand against the heartsof six of his champions. It is doubtful whether this madness came fromthirst for battle or natural ferocity. Then with the remaining bandof his champions he attacked Halfdan, who crushed him with a hammer ofwondrous size, so that he lost both victory and life; paying thepenalty both to Halfdan, whom he had challenged, and to the kings whoseoffspring he had violently ravished. 

Fortune never seemed satisfied with the trying of Halfdan's strength, and used to offer him unexpected occasions for fighting. It so happenedthat Egther, a Finlander, was harrying the Swedes on a roving raid. Halfdan, having found that he had three ships, attacked him with thesame number. Night closed the battle, so that he could not conquer him;but he challenged Egther next day, fought with and overthrew him. Henext heard that Grim, a champion of immense strength, was suing, underthreats of a duel, for Thorhild, the daughter of the chief Hather, andthat her father had proclaimed that he who put the champion out of theway should have her. Halfdan, though he had reached old age a bachelor, was stirred by the promise of the chief as much as by the insolence ofthe champion, and went to Norway. When he entered it, he blotted outevery mark by which he could be recognized, disguising his face withsplashes of dirt; and when he came to the spot of the battle, drew hissword first. And when he knew that it had been blunted by the glance ofthe enemy, he cast it on the ground, drew another from the sheath, withwhich he attacked Grim, cutting through the meshes on the edge of hiscuirass, as well as the lower part of his shield. Grim wondered at thedeed, and said, "I cannot remember an old man who fought more keenly;"and, instantly drawing his sword, he pierced through and shattered thetarget that was opposed to his blade. But as his right arm tarried onthe stroke, Halfdan, without wavering, met and smote it swiftly with hissword. The other, notwithstanding, clasped his sword with his left hand, and cut through the thigh of the striker, revenging the mangling ofhis own body with a slight wound. Halfdan, now conqueror, allowed theconquered man to ransom the remnant of his life with a sum of money;he would not be thought shamefully to rob a maimed man, who could notfight, of the pitiful remainder of his days. By this deed he showedhimself almost as great in saving as in conquering his enemy. As aprize for this victory he won Thorhild in marriage, and had by her ason Asmund, from whom the kings of Norway treasure the honour of beingdescended; retracing the regular succession of their line down fromHalfdan. 

After this, Ebbe, a rover of common birth, was so confident of hisvalour, that he was moved to aspire to a splendid marriage. He wasa suitor for Sigrid, the daughter of Yngwin, King of the Goths, andmoreover demanded half the Gothic kingdom for her dowry. Halfdan wasconsulted whether the match should be entertained, and advised thata feigned consent should be given, promising that he would baulk themarriage. He also gave instructions that a seat should be allotted tohimself among the places of the guests at table. Yngwin approved theadvice; and Halfdan, utterly defacing the dignity of his royal presencewith an unsightly and alien disguise, and coming by night on the weddingfeast, alarmed those who met him; for they marvelled at the coming of aman of such superhuman stature. 

When Halfdan entered the palace, he looked round on all and asked, whowas he that had taken the place next to the king? Upon Ebbe replyingthat the future son-in-law of the king was next to his side, Halfdanasked him, in the most passionate language, what madness, or whatdemons, had brought him to such wantonness, as to make bold to unite hiscontemptible and filthy race with a splendid and illustrious line, or todare to lay his peasant finger upon the royal family: and, not contenteven with such a claim, to aspire, as it seemed, to a share even in thekingdom of another. Then he bade Ebbe fight him, saying that he must getthe victory before he got his wish. The other answered that the nightwas the time to fight with monsters, but the day the time with men;but Halfdan, to prevent him shirking the battle by pleading the hour, declared that the moon was shining with the brightness of daylight. Thus he forced Ebbe to fight, and felled him, turning the banquet into aspectacle, and the wedding into a funeral. 

Some years passed, and Halfdan went back to his own country, andbeing childless he bequeathed the royal wealth by will to Yngwin, andappointed him king. YNGWIN was afterwards overthrown in war by a rivalnamed Ragnald, and he left a son SIWALD. 

Siwald's daughter, Sigrid, was of such excellent modesty, that though agreat concourse of suitors wooed her for her beauty, it seemed as if shecould not be brought to look at one of them. Confident in this power ofself-restraint, she asked her father for a husband who by the sweetnessof his blandishments should be able to get a look back from her. For inold time among us the self-restraint of the maidens was a great subduerof wanton looks, lest the soundness of the soul should be infected bythe licence of the eyes; and women desired to avouch the purity of theirhearts by the modesty of their faces. Then one Ottar, the son of Ebb, kindled with confidence in the greatness either of his own achievements, or of his courtesy and eloquent address, stubbornly and ardently desiredto woo the maiden. And though he strove with all the force of his wit tosoften her gaze, no device whatever could move her downcast eyes; and, marvelling at her persistence in her indomitable rigour, he departed. 

A giant desired the same thing, but, finding himself equally foiled, hesuborned a woman; and she, pretending friendship for the girl, servedher for a while as her handmaid, and at last enticed her far from herfather's house, by cunningly going out of the way; then the giant rushedupon her and bore her off into the closest fastnesses of a ledge onthe mountain. Others think that he disguised himself as a woman, treacherously continued his devices so as to draw the girl away from herown house, and in the end carried her off. When Ottar heard of this, heransacked the recesses of the mountain in search of the maiden, foundher, slew the giant, and bore her off. But the assiduous giant had boundback the locks of the maiden, tightly twisting her hair in such a waythat the matted mass of tresses was held in a kind of curled bundle; norwas it easy for anyone to unravel their plaited tangle, without usingthe steel. Again, he tried with divers allurements to provoke the maidento look at him; and when he had long laid vain siege to her listlesseyes, he abandoned his quest, since his purpose turned out so little tohis liking. But he could not bring himself to violate the girl, lothto defile with ignoble intercourse one of illustrious birth. She thenwandered long, and sped through divers desert and circuitous paths, andhappened to come to the hut of a certain huge woman of the woods, whoset her to the task of pasturing her goats. Again Ottar granted her hisaid to set her free, and again he tried to move her, addressing her inthis fashion: "Wouldst thou rather hearken to my counsels, and embraceme even as I desire, than be here and tend the flock of rank goats?

"Spurn the hand of thy wicked mistress, and flee hastily from thycruel taskmistress, that thou mayst go back with me to the ships of thyfriends and live in freedom. 

"Quit the care of the sheep entrusted to thee; scorn to drive the stepsof the goats; share my bed, and fitly reward my prayers. 

"O thou whom I have sought with such pains, turn again thy listlessbeams; for a little while--it is an easy gesture--lift thy modest face. 

"I will take thee hence, and set thee by the house of thy father, andunite thee joyfully with thy loving mother, if but once thou wilt showme thine eyes stirred with soft desires. 

"Thou, whom I have borne so oft from the prisons of the giants, pay thousome due favour to my toil of old; pity my hard endeavours, and be sternno more. 

"For why art thou become so distraught and brainsick, that thou wiltchoose to tend the flock of another, and be counted among the servantsof monsters, sooner than encourage our marriage-troth with fitting andequal consent?"

But she, that she might not suffer the constancy of her chaste mind tofalter by looking at the world without, restrained her gaze, keeping herlids immovably rigid. How modest, then, must we think, were the women ofthat age, when, under the strongest provocations of their lovers, theycould not be brought to make the slightest motion of their eyes! So whenOttar found that even by the merits of his double service he could notstir the maiden's gaze towards him, he went back to the fleet, weariedout with shame and chagrin. Sigrid, in her old fashion, ran far awayover the rocks, and chanced to stray in her wanderings to the abode ofEbb; where, ashamed of her nakedness and distress, she pretended to bea daughter of paupers. The mother of Ottar saw that this woman, thoughbestained and faded, and covered with a meagre cloak, was the scion ofsome noble stock; and took her, and with honourable courtesy kept herby her side in a distinguished seat. For the beauty of the maiden wasa sign that betrayed her birth, and her telltale features echoed herlineage. Ottar saw her, and asked why she hid her face in her robe. Also, in order to test her mind more surely, he feigned that a woman wasabout to become his wife, and, as he went up into the bride-bed, gaveSigrid the torch to hold. The lights had almost burnt down, and shewas hard put to it by the flame coming closer; but she showed such anexample of endurance that she was seen to hold her hand motionless, andmight have been thought to feel no annoyance from the heat. For thefire within mastered the fire without, and the glow of her longing souldeadened the burn of her scorched skin. At last Ottar bade her look toher hand. Then, modestly lifting her eyes, she turned her calm gaze uponhim; and straightway, the pretended marriage being put away, went upunto the bride-bed to be his wife. Siwald afterwards seized Ottar, andthought that he ought to be hanged for defiling his daughter. 

But Sigrid at once explained how she had happened to be carried away, and not only brought Ottar back into the king's favour, but also inducedher father himself to marry Ottar's sister. After this a battle wasfought between Siwald and Ragnald in Zealand, warriors of picked valourbeing chosen on both sides. For three days they slaughtered one another;but so great was the bravery of both sides, that it was doubtful howthe victory would go. Then Ottar, whether seized with weariness atthe prolonged battle, or with desire of glory, broke, despising death, through the thickest of the foe, cut down Ragnald among the bravestof his soldiers, and won the Danes a sudden victory. This battle wasnotable for the cowardice of the greatest nobles. For the whole massfell into such a panic, that forty of the bravest of the Swedes are saidto have turned and fled. The chief of these, Starkad, had been used totremble at no fortune, however cruel, and no danger, however great. Butsome strange terror stole upon him, and he chose to follow the flight ofhis friends rather than to despise it. I should think that he was filledwith this alarm by the power of heaven, that he might not think himselfcourageous beyond the measure of human valour. Thus the prosperity ofmankind is wont ever to be incomplete. Then all these warriors embracedthe service of King Hakon, the mightiest of the rovers, like remnants ofthe war drifting to him. 

After this Siwald was succeeded by his son SIGAR, who had sons Siwald, Alf, and Alger, and a daughter Signe. All excelled the rest in spiritand beauty, and devoted himself to the business of a rover. Such a gracewas shed on his hair, which had a wonderful dazzling glow, that hislocks seemed to shine silvery. At the same time Siward, the king of theGoths, is said to have had two sons, Wemund and Osten, and a daughterAlfhild, who showed almost from her cradle such faithfulness to modestythat she continually kept her face muffled in her robe, lest she shouldcause her beauty to provoke the passion of another. Her father banishedher into very close keeping, and gave her a viper and a snake to rear, wishing to defend her chastity by the protection of these reptileswhen they came to grow up. For it would have been hard to pry into herchamber when it was barred by so dangerous a bolt. He also enacted thatif any man tried to enter it, and failed, he must straightway yield hishead to be taken off and impaled on a stake. The terror which was thusattached to wantonness chastened the heated spirits of the young men. 

Alf, the son of Sigar, thinking that peril of the attempt only made itnobler, declared himself a wooer, and went to subdue the beasts thatkept watch beside the room of the maiden; inasmuch as, according to thedecree, the embraces of the maiden were the prize of their subduer. Alfcovered his body with a blood-stained hide in order to make them morefrantic against him. Girt with this, as soon as he had entered the doorsof the enclosure, he took a piece of red-hot steel in the tongs, andplunged it into the yawning throat of the viper, which he laid dead. Then he flung his spear full into the gaping mouth of the snake as itwound and writhed forward, and destroyed it. And when he demanded thegage which was attached to victory by the terms of the covenant, Siwardanswered that he would accept that man only for his daughter's husbandof whom she made a free and decided choice. None but the girl's motherwas stiff against the wooer's suit; and she privately spoke to herdaughter in order to search her mind. The daughter warmly praised hersuitor for his valour; whereon the mother upbraided her sharply, thather chastity should be unstrung, and she be captivated by charminglooks; and because, forgetting to judge his virtue, she cast the gaze ofa wanton mind upon the flattering lures of beauty. Thus Alfhild was ledto despise the young Dane; whereupon she exchanged woman's for man'sattire, and, no longer the most modest of maidens, began the life of awarlike rover. 

Enrolling in her service many maidens who were of the same mind, shehappened to come to a spot where a band of rovers were lamenting thedeath of their captain, who had been lost in war; they made her theirrover captain for her beauty, and she did deeds beyond the valour ofwoman. Alf made many toilsome voyages in pursuit of her, and in winterhappened to come on a fleet of the Blacmen. The waters were at this timefrozen hard, and the ships were caught in such a mass of ice that theycould not get on by the most violent rowing. But the continued frostpromised the prisoners a safer way of advance; and Alf ordered his mento try the frozen surface of the sea in their brogues, after they hadtaken off their slippery shoes, so that they could run over the levelice more steadily. The Blacmen supposed that they were taking to flightwith all the nimbleness of their heels, and began to fight them, buttheir steps tottered exceedingly and they gave back, the slipperysurface under their soles making their footing uncertain. But the Danescrossed the frozen sea with safer steps, and foiled the feeble advanceof the enemy, whom they conquered, and then turned and sailed toFinland. Here they chanced to enter a rather narrow gulf, and, onsending a few men to reconnoitre, they learnt that the harbour was beingheld by a few ships. For Alfhild had gone before them with her fleetinto the same narrows. And when she saw the strange ships afar off, sherowed in swift haste forward to encounter them, thinking it better toattack the foe than to await them. Alf's men were against attackingso many ships with so few; but he replied that it would be shamefulif anyone should report to Alfhild that his desire to advance could bechecked by a few ships in the path; for he said that their record ofhonours ought not to be tarnished by such a trifle. 

The Danes wondered whence their enemies got such grace of bodily beautyand such supple limbs. So, when they began the sea-fight, the youngman Alf leapt on Alfhild's prow, and advanced towards the stern, slaughtering all that withstood him. His comrade Borgar struck offAlfhild's helmet, and, seeing the smoothness of her chin, saw that hemust fight with kisses and not with arms; that the cruel spears must beput away, and the enemy handled with gentler dealings. So Alf rejoicedthat the woman whom he had sought over land and sea in the face of somany dangers was now beyond all expectation in his power; whereupon hetook hold of her eagerly, and made her change her man's apparel fora woman's; and afterwards begot on her a daughter, Gurid. Also Borgarwedded the attendant of Alfhild, Groa, and had by her a son, Harald, towhom the following age gave the surname Hyldeland. 

And that no one may wonder that this sex laboured at warfare, I willmake a brief digression, in order to give a short account of the estateand character of such women. There were once women among the Danes whodressed themselves to look like men, and devoted almost every instantof their lives to the pursuit of war, that they might not suffer theirvalour to be unstrung or dulled by the infection of luxury. For theyabhorred all dainty living, and used to harden their minds andbodies with toil and endurance. They put away all the softness andlightmindedness of women, and inured their womanish spirit to masculineruthlessness. They sought, moreover, so zealously to be skilled inwarfare, that they might have been thought to have unsexed themselves. Those especially, who had either force of character or tall and comelypersons, used to enter on this kind of life. These women, therefore(just as if they had forgotten their natural estate, and preferredsternness to soft words), offered war rather than kisses, and wouldrather taste blood than busses, and went about the business of arms morethan that of amours. They devoted those hands to the lance which theyshould rather have applied to the loom. They assailed men with theirspears whom they could have melted with their looks, they thought ofdeath and not of dalliance. Now I will cease to wander, and will go backto my theme. 

In the early spring, Alf and Alger, who had gone back to sea-roving, were exploring the sea in various directions, when they lighted witha hundred ships upon Helwin, Hagbard, and Hamund, sons of the kingletHamund. These they attacked and only the twilight stayed theirblood-wearied hands; and in the night the soldiers were ordered to keeptruce. On the morrow this was ratified for good by a mutual oath; forsuch loss had been suffered on both sides in the battle of the daybefore that they had no force left to fight again. Thus, exhausted byequality of valour, they were driven perforce to make peace. About thesame time Hildigisl, a Teuton Of noble birth, relying on his looks andhis rank, sued for Signe, the daughter of Sigar. But she scorned him, chiefly for his insignificance, inasmuch as he was not brave, but wishedto adorn his fortunes with the courage of other people. But this womanwas inclined to love Hakon, chiefly for the high renown of his greatdeeds. For she thought more of the brave than the feeble; she admirednotable deeds more than looks, knowing that every allurement of beautyis mere dross when reckoned against simple valour, and cannot weighequal with it in the balance. For there are maids that are more charmedby the fame than by the face of their lovers; who go not by the looks, but by the mind, and whom naught but regard for a man's spirit cankindle to pledge their own troth. Now Hagbard, going to Denmark with thesons of Sigar, gained speech of their sister without their knowledge, and in the end induced her to pledge her word to him that she wouldsecretly become his mistress. Afterwards, when the waiting-womenhappened to be comparing the honourable deeds of the nobles, shepreferred Hakon to Hildigisl, declaring that the latter had nothing topraise but his looks, while in the case of the other a wrinkled visagewas outweighed by a choice spirit. Not content with this plain kind ofpraise, she is said to have sung as follows:

"This man lacks fairness, but shines with foremost courage, measuringhis features by his force. 

"For the lofty soul redeems the shortcoming of harsh looks, and conquersthe body's blemish. 

"His look flashes with spirit, his face, notable in its very harshness, delights in fierceness. 

"He who strictly judges character praises not the mind for the fair hue, but rather the complexion for the mind. 

"This man is not prized for beauty, but for brave daring and war-wonhonour. 

"While the other is commended by his comely head and radiant countenanceand crest of lustrous locks. 

"Vile is the empty grace of beauty, self-confounded the deceptive prideof comeliness. 

"Valour and looks are swayed by different inclinations: one lasts on, the other perishes. 

"Empty red and white brings in vice, and is frittered away little bylittle by the lightly gliding years;

"But courage plants firmer the hearts devoted to it, and does not slipand straightway fall. 

"The voice of the multitude is beguiled by outward good, and forsakesthe rule of right;

"But I praise virtue at a higher rate, and scorn the grace ofcomeliness. "

This utterance fell on the ears of the bystanders in such a way, thatthey thought she praised Hagbard under the name of Hakon. And Hildigisl, vexed that she preferred Hagbard to himself, bribed a certain blind man, Bolwis, to bring the sons of Sigar and the sons of Hamund to turn theirfriendship into hatred. For King Sigar had been used to transact almostall affairs by the advice of two old men, one of whom was Bolwis. Thetemper of these two men was so different, that one used to reconcilefolk who were at feud, while the other loved to sunder in hatred thosewho were bound by friendship, and by estranging folk to fan pestilentquarrels. 

So Bolwis began by reviling the sons of Hamund to the sons of Sigar, inlying slanders, declaring that they never used to preserve the bonds offellowship loyally, and that they must be restrained by war rather thanby league. Thus the alliance of the young men was broken through; andwhile Hagbard was far away, the sons of Sigar, Alf and Alger, made anattack, and Helwin and Hamund were destroyed by the harbour which iscalled Hamund's Bay. Hagbard then came up with fresh forces to avengehis brothers, and destroyed them in battle. Hildigisl slunk off with aspear through both buttocks, which was the occasion for a jeer at theTeutons, since the ugliness of the blow did not fail to brand it withdisgrace. 

Afterwards Hagbard dressed himself in woman's attire, and, as though hehad not wronged Sigar's daughter by slaying her brothers, went back toher alone, trusting in the promise he had from her, and feeling moresafe in her loyalty than alarmed by reason of his own misdeed. Thus doeslust despise peril. And, not to lack a pretext for his journey, he gavehimself out as a fighting-maid of Hakon, saying that he took an embassyfrom him to Sigar. And when he was taken to bed at night among thehandmaids, and the woman who washed his feet were wiping them, theyasked him why he had such hairy legs, and why his hands were not at allsoft to touch, he answered:

"What wonder that the soft hollow of my foot should harden, and thatlong hairs should stay on my shaggy leg, when the sand has so oftensmitten my soles beneath, and the briars have caught me in mid-step?

"Now I scour the forest with leaping, now the waters with running. Nowthe sea, now the earth, now the wave is my path. 

"Nor could my breast, shut in bonds of steel, and wont to be beaten withlance and missile, ever have been soft to the touch, as with you who arecovered by the mantle or the smooth gown. 

"Not the distaff or the wool-frails, but spears dripping from theslaughter, have served for our handling. "

Signe did not hesitate to back up his words with like dissembling, andreplied that it was natural that hands which dealt more in wounds thanwools, and in battle than in tasks of the house should show the hardnessthat befitted their service; and that, unenfeebled with the pliablesoftness of women, they should not feel smooth to the touch of others. For they were hardened partly by the toils of war, partly by the habitof seafaring. For, said she, the warlike handmaid of Hakon did notdeal in woman's business, but had been wont to bring her right handblood-stained with hurling spears and flinging missiles. It was nowonder, therefore, if her soles were hardened by the immense journeysshe had gone; and that, when the shores she had scoured so often hadbruised them with their rough and broken shingle, they should toughenin a horny stiffness, and should not feel soft to the touch like theirs, whose steps never strayed, but who were forever cooped within theconfines of the palace. Hagbard received her as his bedfellow, underplea that he was to have the couch of honour; and, amid their converseof mutual delight, he addressed her slowly in such words as these:

"If thy father takes me and gives me to bitter death, wilt thouever, when I am dead, forget so strong a troth, and again seek themarriage-plight?

"For if the chance should fall that way, I can hope for no room forpardon; nor will the father who is to avenge his sons spare or havepity. 

"For I stripped thy brothers of their power on the sea and slew them;and now, unknown to thy father, as though I had done naught beforecounter to his will, I hold thee in the couch we share. 

"Say, then, my one love, what manner of wish wilt thou show when thoulackest the accustomed embrace?"

Signe answered:

"Trust me, dear; I wish to die with thee, if fate brings thy turn toperish first, and not to prolong my span of life at all, when oncedismal death has cast thee to the tomb. 

"For if thou chance to close thy eyes for ever, a victim to the maddenedattack of the men-at-arms;--by whatsoever doom thy breath be cut off, by sword or disease, by sea or soil, I forswear every wanton and corruptflame, and vow myself to a death like thine; that they who were bound byone marriage-union may be embraced in one and the same punishment. Norwill I quit this man, though I am to feel the pains of death; I haveresolved he is worthy of my love who gathered the first kisses of mymouth, and had the first fruits of my delicate youth. I think that novow will be surer than this, if speech of woman have any loyalty atall. "

This speech so quickened the spirit of Hagbard, that he found morepleasure in her promise than peril in his own going away (to his death). The serving-women betrayed him; and when Sigar's men-at-arms attackedhim, he defended himself long and stubbornly, and slew many of them inthe doorway. But at last he was taken, and brought before the assembly, and found the voices of the people divided over him. For very many saidthat he should be punished for so great an offence; but Bilwis, thebrother of Bolwis, and others, conceived a better judgment, and advisedthat it would be better to use his stout service than to deal with himtoo ruthlessly. Then Bolwis came forward and declared that it was eviladvice which urged the king to pardon when he ought to take vengeance, and to soften with unworthy compassion his righteous impulse to anger. For how could Sigar, in the case of this man, feel any desire to spareor pity him, when he had not only robbed him of the double comfort ofhis sons, but had also bestained him with the insult of defloweringhis daughter? The greater part of the assembly voted for this opinion;Hagbard was condemned, and a gallows-tree planted to receive him. Henceit came about that he who at first had hardly one sinister voice againsthim was punished with general harshness. Soon after the queen handed hima cup, and, bidding him assuage his thirst, vexed him with threats afterthis manner:

"Now, insolent Hagbard, whom the whole assembly has pronounced worthy ofdeath, now to quench thy thirst thou shalt give thy lips liquor to drinkin a cup of horn. 

"Wherefore cast away fear, and, at this last hour of thy life, tastewith bold lips the deadly goblet;

"That, having drunk it, thou mayst presently land by the dwellings ofthose below, passing into the sequestered palace of stern Dis, givingthy body to the gibbet and thy spirit to Orcus. "

Then the young man took the cup offered him, and is said to have madeanswer as follows:

"With this hand, wherewith I cut off thy twin sons, I will take my lasttaste, yea the draught of the last drink. 

"Now not unavenged shall I go to the Elysian regions, not unchastisingto the stern ghosts. For these men have first been shut in the dens ofTartarus by a slaughter wrought by my endeavours. This right hand waswet with blood that was yours, this hand robbed thy children of theyears of their youth, children whom thy womb brought to light; butthe deadly sword spared it not then. Infamous woman, raving in spirit, hapless, childless mother, no years shall restore to thee the lost, notime and no day whatsoever shall save thy child from the starkness ofdeath, or redeem him!"

Thus he avenged the queen's threats of death by taunting her with theyouths whom he had slain; and, flinging back the cup at her, drenchedher face with the sprinkled wine. 

Meantime Signe asked her weeping women whether they could endure to bearher company in the things which she purposed. They promised that theywould carry out and perform themselves whatsoever their mistress shouldcome to wish, and their promise was loyally kept. Then, drowned intears, she said that she wished to follow in death the only partner ofher bed that she had ever had; and ordered that, as soon as the signalhad been given from a place of watch, torches should be put to the room, then that halters should be made out of their robes; and to these theyshould proffer their throats to be strangled, thrusting away the supportto the feet. They agreed, and that they might blench the less at death, she gave them a draught of wine. After this Hagbard was led to the hill, which afterwards took its name from him, to be hanged. Then, to testthe loyalty of his true love, he told the executioners to hang up hismantle, saying that it would be a pleasure to him if he could see thelikeness of his approaching death rehearsed in some way. The requestwas granted; and the watcher on the outlook, thinking that the thingwas being done to Hagbard, reported what she saw to the maidens who wereshut within the palace. They quickly fired the house, and thrusting awaythe wooden support under their feet, gave their necks to the noose tobe writhen. So Hagbard, when he saw the palace wrapped in fire, and thefamiliar chamber blazing, said that he felt more joy from the loyalty ofhis mistress than sorrow at his approaching death. He also charged thebystanders to do him to death, witnessing how little he made of his doomby a song like this:

"Swiftly, O warriors! Let me be caught and lifted into the air. Sweet, Omy bride! Is it for me to die when thou hast gone. 

"I perceive the crackling and the house ruddy with flames; and the love, long-promised, declares our troth. 

"Behold, thy covenant is fulfilled with no doubtful vows, since thousharest my life and my destruction. 

"We shall have one end, one bond after our troth, and somewhere ourfirst love will live on. 

"Happy am I, that have deserved to have joy of such a consort, and notto go basely alone to the gods of Tartarus!

"Then let the knot gripe the midst of the throat; nought but pleasurethe last doom shall bring, "Since there remains a sure hope of the renewal of love, and a deathwhich will soon have joys of its own. 

"Either country is sweet; in both worlds shall be held in honour therepose of our souls together, our equal truth in love, "For, see now, I welcome the doom before me; since not even among theshades does very love suffer the embrace of its partner to perish. " Andas he spoke the executioners strangled him. And, that none may thinkthat all traces of antiquity have utterly disappeared, a proof of theaforesaid event is afforded by local marks yet existing; for the killingof Hagbard gave his name to the stead; and not far from the town ofSigar there is a place to be seen, where a mound a little above thelevel, with the appearance of a swelling in the ground, looks like anancient homestead. Moreover, a man told Absalon that he had seen a beamfound in the spot, which a countryman struck with his ploughshare as heburrowed into the clods. 

Hakon, the son of Hamund, heard of this; but when he was seen to be onthe point of turning his arms from the Irish against the Danes inorder to avenge his brother, Hakon the Zealander, the son of Wigar, andStarkad deserted him. They had been his allies from the death of Ragnaldup to that hour: one, because he was moved by regard for friendship, the other by regard for his birth; so that different reasons made bothdesire the same thing. 

Now patriotism diverted Hakon (of Zealand) from attacking his country;for it was apparent that he was going to fight his own people, while allthe rest warred with foreigners. But Starkad forbore to become the foeof the aged Sigar, whose hospitality he had enjoyed, lest he should bethought to wrong one who deserved well of him. For some men paysuch respect to hospitality that, if they can remember ever to haveexperienced kindly offices from folk, they cannot be thought to inflictany annoyance on them. But Hakon thought the death of his brother aworse loss than the defection of his champions; and, gathering his fleetinto the haven called Herwig in Danish, and in Latin Hosts' Bight, hedrew up his men, and posted his line of foot-soldiers in the spot wherethe town built by Esbern now defends with its fortifications those whodwell hard by, and repels the approach of barbarous savages. Thenhe divided his forces in three, and sent on two-thirds of his ships, appointing a few men to row to the river Susa. This force was to advanceon a dangerous voyage along its winding reaches, and to help those onfoot if necessary. He marched in person by land with the remainder, advancing chiefly over wooded country to escape notice. Part of thispath, which was once closed up with thick woods, is now land ready forthe plough, and fringed with a scanty scrub. And, in order that whenthey got out into the plain they might not lack the shelter of trees, he told them to cut and carry branches. Also, that nothing might burdentheir rapid march, he bade them cast away some of their clothes, aswell as their scabbards; and carry their swords naked. In memory of thisevent he left the mountain and the ford a perpetual name. Thus by hisnight march he eluded two pickets of sentries; but when he came uponthe third, a scout, observing the marvellous event, went to thesleeping-room of Sigar, saying that he brought news of a portentousthing; for he saw leaves and shrubs like men walking. Then the kingasked him how far off was the advancing forest; and when he heard thatit was near, he added that this prodigy boded his own death. Hencethe marsh where the shrubs were cut down was styled in common parlanceDeadly Marsh. Therefore, fearing the narrow passages, he left the town, and went to a level spot which was more open, there to meet the enemyin battle. Sigar fought unsuccessfully, and was crushed and slain at thespot that is called in common speech Walbrunna, but in Latin the Springof Corpses or Carnage. Then Hakon used his conquest to cruel purpose, and followed up his good fortune so wickedly, that he lusted for anindiscriminate massacre, and thought no forbearance should be shown torank or sex. Nor did he yield to any regard for compassion or shame, but stained his sword in the blood of women, and attacked mothers andchildren in one general and ruthless slaughter. 

SIWALD, the son of Sigar, had thus far stayed under his father's roof. But when he heard of this, he mustered an army in order to have hisvengeance. So Hakon, alarmed at the gathering of such numbers, went backwith a third of his army to his fleet at Herwig, and planned to departby sea. But his colleague, Hakon, surnamed the Proud, thought that heought himself to feel more confidence at the late victory than fear atthe absence of Hakon; and, preferring death to flight, tried to defendthe remainder of the army. So he drew back his camp for a little, andfor a long time waited near the town of Axelsted, for the arrival of thefleet, blaming his friends for their tardy coming. For the fleet thathad been sent into the river had not yet come to anchor in the appointedharbour. Now the killing of Sigar and the love of Siwald were stirringthe temper of the people one and all, so that both sexes devotedthemselves to war, and you would have thought that the battle did notlack the aid of women. 

On the morrow Hakon and Siwald met in an encounter and fought two wholedays. The combat was most frightful; both generals fell; and victorygraced the remnants of the Danes. But, in the night after the battle, the fleet, having penetrated the Susa, reached the appointed haven. Itwas once possible to row along this river; but its bed is now chokedwith solid substances, and is so narrowed by its straits thatfew vessels can get in, being prevented by its sluggishness andcontractedness. At daybreak, when the sailors saw the corpses of theirfriends, they heaped up, in order to bury the general, a barrow ofnotable size, which is famous to this day, and is commonly named Hakon'sHowe. 

But Borgar, with Skanian chivalry suddenly came up and slaughtered amultitude of them. When the enemy were destroyed, he manned their ships, which now lacked their rowers, and hastily, with breathless speed, pursued the son of Hamund. He encountered him, and ill-fortune befellHakon, who fled in hasty panic with three ships to the country of theScots, where, after two years had gone by, he died. 

All these perilous wars and fortunes had so exhausted the royal lineamong the Danes, that it was found to be reduced to GURID alone, thedaughter of Alf, and granddaughter of Sigar. And when the Danes sawthemselves deprived of their usual high-born sovereigns, they committedthe kingdom to men of the people, and appointed rulers out of thecommons, assigning to Ostmar the regency of Skaane, and that of Zealandto Hunding; on Hane they conferred the lordship of Funen; while in thehands of Rorik and Hather they put the supreme power of Jutland, theauthority being divided. Therefore, that it may not be unknown from whatfather sprang the succeeding line of kings, some matters come to my mindwhich must be glanced at for a while in a needful digression. 

They say that Gunnar, the bravest of the Swedes, was once at feud withNorway for the most weighty reasons, and that he was granted liberty toattack it, but that he turned this liberty into licence by the greatestperils, and fell, in the first of the raids he planned, upon thedistrict of Jather, which he put partly to the sword and partly to theflames. Forbearing to plunder, he rejoiced only in passing through thepaths that were covered with corpses, and the blood-stained ways. Other men used to abstain from bloodshed, and love pillage more thanslaughter; but he preferred bloodthirstiness to booty, and liked bestto wreak his deadly pleasure by slaughtering men. His cruelty drovethe islanders to forestall the impending danger by a public submission. Moreover, Ragnald, the King of the Northmen, now in extreme age, when heheard how the tyrant busied himself, had a cave made and shut up init his daughter Drota, giving her due attendance, and providing hermaintenance for a long time. Also he committed to the cave some swordswhich had been adorned with the choicest smith-craft, besides the royalhousehold gear; so that he might not leave the enemy to capture and usethe sword, which he saw that he could not wield himself. And, to preventthe cave being noticed by its height, he levelled the hump down to thefirmer ground. Then he set out to war; but being unable with his agedlimbs to go down into battle, he leaned on the shoulders of his escortand walked forth propped by the steps of others. So he perished in thebattle, where he fought with more ardour than success, and left hiscountry a sore matter for shame. 

For Gunnar, in order to punish the cowardice of the conquered race byterms of extraordinary baseness, had a dog set over them as a governor. What can we suppose to have been his object in this action, unless itwere to make a haughty nation feel that their arrogance was being moresignally punished when they bowed their stubborn heads before a yappinghound? To let no insult be lacking, he appointed governors to look afterpublic and private affairs in its name; and he appointed separate ranksof nobles to keep continual and steadfast watch over it. He alsoenacted that if any one of the courtiers thought it contemptible to doallegiance to their chief, and omitted offering most respectful homageto its various goings and comings as it ran hither and thither, heshould be punished with loss of his limbs. Also Gunnar imposed on thenation a double tribute, one to be paid out of the autumn harvest, theother in the spring. Thus he burst the bubble conceit of the Norwegians, to make them feel clearly how their pride was gone, when they saw itforced to do homage to a dog. 

When he heard that the king's daughter was shut up in some distanthiding-place, Gunnar strained his wits in every nerve to track herout. Hence, while he was himself conducting the search with others, hisdoubtful ear caught the distant sound of a subterranean hum. Then hewent on slowly, and recognized a human voice with greater certainty. Heordered the ground underfoot to be dug down to the solid rock; andwhen the cave was suddenly laid open, he saw the winding tunnels. Theservants were slain as they tried to guard the now uncovered entranceto the cave, and the girl was dragged out of the hole, together with thebooty therein concealed. With great foresight, she had consigned atany rate her father's swords to the protection of a more secret place. Gunnar forced her to submit to his will, and she bore a son Hildiger. This man was such a rival to his father in cruelty, that he was everthirsting to kill, and was bent on nothing but the destruction of men, panting with a boundless lust for bloodshed. Outlawed by his fatheron account of his unbearable ruthlessness, and soon after presented byAlver with a government, he spent his whole life in arms, visitinghis neighbours with wars and slaughters; nor did he, in his estate ofbanishment, relax his accustomed savagery a whir, but would not changehis spirit with his habitation. 

Meanwhile Borgar, finding that Gunnar had married Drota, the daughter ofRagnald, by violence, took from him both life and wife, and wedded Drotahimself. She was not an unwilling bride; she thought it right for her toembrace the avenger of her parent. For the daughter mourned her father, and could never bring herself to submit with any pleasure to hismurderer. This woman and Borgar had a son Halfdan, who through all hisearly youth was believed to be stupid, but whose later years provedillustrious for the most glorious deeds, and famous for the highestqualities that can grace life. Once, when a stripling, he mocked inboyish fashion at a champion of noble repute, who smote him with abuffet; whereupon Halfdan attacked him with the staff he was carryingand killed him. This deed was an omen of his future honours; he hadhitherto been held in scorn, but henceforth throughout his life he hadthe highest honour and glory. The affair, indeed, was a prophecy of thegreatness of his deeds in war. 

At this period, Rothe, a Ruthenian rover, almost destroyed our countrywith his rapine and cruelty. His harshness was so notable that, whileother men spared their prisoners utter nakedness, he did not thinkit uncomely to strip of their coverings even the privy parts of theirbodies; wherefore we are wont to this day to call all severe andmonstrous acts of rapine Rothe-Ran (Rothe's Robbery). He used alsosometimes to inflict the following kind of torture: Fastening the men'sright feet firmly to the earth, he tied the left feet to boughs forthe purpose that when these should spring back the body would be rentasunder. Hane, Prince of Funen, wishing to win honour and glory, triedto attack this man with his sea-forces, but took to flight with oneattendant. It was in reproach of him that the proverb arose: "The cock(Hane) fights better on its own dunghill. " Then Borgar, who could notbear to see his countrymen perishing any longer, encountered Rothe. Together they fought and together they perished. It is said that in thisbattle Halfdan was sorely stricken, and was for some time feeble withthe wounds he had received. One of these was inflicted conspicuouslyon his mouth, and its scar was so manifest that it remained as an openblotch when all the other wounds were healed; for the crushed portion ofthe lip was so ulcerated by the swelling, that the flesh would not growout again and mend the noisome gash. This circumstance fixed on him amost insulting nickname, ... Although wounds in the front of the bodycommonly bring praise and not ignominy. So spiteful a colour does thebelief of the vulgar sometimes put upon men's virtues. 

Meanwhile Gurid, the daughter of Alf, seeing that the royal line wasreduced to herself alone, and having no equal in birth whom she couldmarry, proclaimed a vow imposing chastity on herself, thinking it betterto have no husband than to take one from the commons. Moreover, toescape outrage, she guarded her room with a chosen band of champions. Once Halfdan happened to come to see her. The champions, whose brotherhe had himself slain in his boyhood, were away. He told her that sheought to loose her virgin zone, and exchange her austere chastity fordeeds of love; that she ought not to give in so much to her inclinationfor modesty as to be too proud to make a match, and so by her servicerepair the fallen monarchy. So he bade her look on himself, who wasof eminently illustrious birth, in the light of a husband, since itappeared that she would only admit pleasure for the reason he had named. Gurid answered that she could not bring her mind to ally the remnants ofthe royal line to a man of meaner rank. Not content with reproachinghis obscure birth, she also taunted his unsightly countenance. Halfdanrejoined that she brought against him two faults: one that his blood wasnot illustrious enough; another, that he was blemished with a crackedlip whose scar had never healed. Therefore he would not come back to askfor her before he had wiped away both marks of shame by winning glory inwar. 

Halfdan entreated her to suffer no man to be privy to her bed until sheheard certain tidings either of his return or his death. The champions, whom he had bereaved of their brother long ago, were angry that he hadspoken to Gurid, and tried to ride after him as he went away. Whenhe saw it, he told his comrades to go into ambush, and said he wouldencounter the champions alone. His followers lingered, and thought itshameful to obey his orders, but he drove them off with threats, sayingthat Gurid should not find that fear had made him refuse to fight. Presently he cut down an oak-tree and fashioned it into a club, foughtthe twelve single-handed, and killed them. After their destruction, notcontent with the honours of so splendid an action, and meaning to do oneyet greater, he got from his mother the swords of his grandfather, oneof which was called Lyusing.... And the other Hwyting, after the sheenof its well-whetted point. But when he heard that war was raging betweenAlver, the King of Sweden, and the Ruthenians (Russians), he instantlywent to Russia, offered help to the natives, and was received by allwith the utmost honour. Alver was not far off, there being only a littleground to cross to cover the distance between the two. Alver's soldierHildiger, the son of Gunnar, challenged the champions of the Rutheniansto fight him; but when he saw that Halfdan was put up against him, though knowing well that he was Halfdan's brother, he let naturalfeeling prevail over courage, and said that he, who was famous for thedestruction of seventy champions, would not fight with an untriedman. Therefore he told him to measure himself in enterprises of lessermoment, and thenceforth to follow pursuits fitted to his strength. Hemade this announcement not from distrust in his own courage, but inorder to preserve his uprightness; for he was not only very valiant, butalso skilled at blunting the sword with spells. For when he rememberedthat Halfdan's father had slain his own, he was moved by twofeelings--the desire to avenge his father, and his love for his brother. He therefore thought it better to retire from the challenge than to beguilty of a very great crime. Halfdan demanded another champion inhis place, slew him when he appeared, and was soon awarded the palmof valour even by the voice of the enemy, being accounted by publicacclamation the bravest of all. On the next day he asked for two men tofight with, and slew them both. On the third day he subdued three; onthe fourth he overcame four who met him; and on the fifth he asked forfive. 

When Halfdan conquered these, and when the eighth day had been reachedwith an equal increase in the combatants and in the victory, he laid loweleven who attacked him at once. Hildiger, seeing that his own record ofhonours was equalled by the greatness of Halfdan's deeds could not bearto decline to meet him any longer. And when he felt that Halfdan haddealt him a deadly wound with a sword wrapped in rags, he threw away hisarms, and, lying on the earth, addressed his brother as follows:

"It is pleasing to pass an hour away in mutual talk; and, while thesword rests, to sit a little on the ground and while away the time byspeaking in turn, and keep ourselves in good heart. Time is left for ourpurpose; our two destinies have a different lot; one is surely doomed todie by a fatal weird, while triumph and glory and all the good of livingawait the other in better years. Thus our omens differ, and our portionsare distinguished. Thou art a son of the Danish land, I of the countryof Sweden. Once, Drota thy mother had her breast swell for thee; shebore me, and by her I am thy foster-brother. Lo now, there perishesa righteous offspring, who had the heart to fight with savage spears;brothers born of a shining race charge and bring death on one another;while they long for the height of power, they lose their days, and, having now received a fatal mischief in their desire for a sceptre, theywill go to Styx in a common death. Fast by my head stands my Swedishshield, which is adorned with (as) a fresh mirror of diverse chasing, and ringed with layers of marvellous fretwork. There a picture of reallyhues shows slain nobles and conquered champions, and the wars also andthe notable deed of my right hand. In the midst is to be seen, paintedin bright relief, the figure of my son, whom this hand bereft of hisspan of life. He was our only heir, the only thought of his father'smind, and given to his mother with comfort from above. An evil lot, which heaps years of ill-fortune on the joyous, chokes mirth inmourning, and troubles our destiny. For it is lamentable and wretchedto drag out a downcast life, to draw breath through dismal days and tochafe at foreboding. But whatsoever things are bound by the propheticorder of the fates, whatsoever are shadowed in the secrets of the divineplan, whatsoever are foreseen and fixed in the course of the destinies, no change of what is transient shall cancel these things. "

When he had thus spoken, Halfdan condemned Hildiger for sloth in avowingso late their bond of brotherhood; he declared he had kept silence thathe might not be thought a coward for refusing to fight, or a villainif he fought; and while intent on these words of excuse, he died. But report had given out among the Danes that Hildiger had overthrownHalfdan. After this, Siwar, a Saxon of very high birth, began to be asuitor for Gurid, the only survivor of the royal blood among the Danes. Secretly she preferred Halfdan to him, and imposed on her wooer thecondition that he should not ask her in marriage till he had united intoone body the kingdom of the Danes, which was now torn limb from limb, and restored by arms what had been wrongfully taken from her. Siwar madea vain attempt to do this; but as he bribed all the guardians, she wasat last granted to him in betrothal. Halfdan heard of this in Russiathrough traders, and voyaged so hard that he arrived before the time ofthe wedding-rites. On their first day, before he went to the palace, hegave orders that his men should not stir from the watches appointed themtill their ears caught the clash of the steel in the distance. Unknownto the guests, he came and stood before the maiden, and, that hemight not reveal his meaning to too many by bare and common speech, hecomposed a dark and ambiguous song as follows:

"As I left my father's sceptre, I had no fear of the wiles of woman'sdevice nor of female subtlety. 

"When I overthrew, one and two, three and four, and soon five, and nextsix, then seven, and also eight, yea eleven single-handed, triumphant inbattle. 

"But neither did I then think that I was to be shamed with the taint ofdisgrace, with thy frailness to thy word and thy beguiling pledges. "

Gurid answered: "My soul wavered in suspense, with slender power overevents, and shifted about with restless fickleness. The report of theewas so fleeting, so doubtful, borne on uncertain stories, and parched bydoubting heart. I feared that the years of thy youth had perished bythe sword. Could I withstand singly my elders and governors, when theyforbade me to refuse that thing, and pressed me to become a wife? Mylove and my flame are both yet unchanged, they shall be mate and matchto thine; nor has my troth been disturbed, but shall have faithfulapproach to thee. 

"For my promise has not yet beguiled thee at all, though I, being alone, could not reject the counsel of such manifold persuasion, nor opposetheir stern bidding in the matter of my consent to the marriage bond. "

Before the maiden had finished her answer, Halfdan had already run hissword through the bridegroom. Not content with having killed one man, hemassacred most of the guests. Staggering tipsily backwards, the Saxonsran at him, but his servants came up and slaughtered them. After thisHALFDAN took Gurid to wife. But finding in her the fault of barrenness, and desiring much to have offspring, he went to Upsala in order toprocure fruitfulness for her; and being told in answer, that he mustmake atonement to the shades of his brother if he would raise upchildren, he obeyed the oracle, and was comforted by gaining his desire. For he had a son by Gurid, to whom he gave the name of Harald. Under histitle Halfdan tried to restore the kingdom of the Danes to its ancientestate, as it was torn asunder by the injuries of the chiefs; but, whilefighting in Zealand, he attacked Wesete, a very famous champion, inbattle, and was slain. Gurid was at the battle in man's attire, fromlove for her son. She saw the event; the young man fought hotly, buthis companions fled; and she took him on her shoulders to a neighbouringwood. Weariness, more than anything else, kept the enemy from pursuinghim; but one of them shot him as he hung, with an arrow, through thehinder parts, and Harald thought that his mother's care brought him moreshame than help. 

HARALD, being of great beauty and unusual size, and surpassing those ofhis age in strength and stature, received such favour from Odin (whoseoracle was thought to have been the cause of his birth), that steelcould not injure his perfect soundness. The result was, that shaftswhich wounded others were disabled from doing him any harm. Nor was theboon unrequited; for he is reported to have promised to Odin all thesouls which his sword cast out of their bodies. He also had his father'sdeeds recorded for a memorial by craftsmen on a rock in Bleking, whereofI have made mention. 

After this, hearing that Wesete was to hold his wedding in Skaane, hewent to the feast disguised as a beggar; and when all were sunken inwine and sleep, he battered the bride-chamber with a beam. But Wesete, without inflicting a wound, so beat his mouth with a cudgel, that hetook out two teeth; but two grinders unexpectedly broke out afterwardsand repaired their loss: an event which earned him the name ofHyldetand, which some declare he obtained on account of a prominent rowof teeth. Here he slew Wesete, and got the sovereignty of Skaane. Nexthe attacked and killed Hather in Jutland; and his fall is marked by thelasting name of the town. After this he overthrew Hunding and Rorik, seized Leire, and reunited the dismembered realm of Denmark into itsoriginal shape. Then he found that Asmund, the King of the Wikars, hadbeen deprived of his throne by his elder sister; and, angered by suchpresumption on the part of a woman, went to Norway with a single ship, while the war was still undecided, to help him. The battle began; and, clothed in a purple cloak, with a coif broidered with gold, and with hishair bound up, he went against the enemy trusting not in arms, but inhis silent certainty of his luck, insomuch that he seemed dressed morefor a feast than a fray. But his spirit did not match his attire. For, though unarmed and only adorned with his emblems of royalty, heoutstripped the rest who bore arms, and exposed himself, lightly-armedas he was, to the hottest perils of the battle. For the shafts aimedagainst him lost all power to hurt, as if their points had been blunted. When the other side saw him fighting unarmed, they made an attack, andwere forced for very shame into assailing him more hotly. But Harald, whole in body, either put them to the sword, or made them take toflight; and thus he overthrew the sister of Asmund, and restored him hiskingdom. When Asmund offered him the prizes of victory, he said that thereward of glory was enough by itself; and demeaned himself as greatlyin refusing the gifts as he had in earning them. By this he made all menadmire his self-restraint as much as his valour; and declared that thevictory should give him a harvest not of gold but glory. 

Meantime Alver, the King of the Swedes, died leaving sons Olaf, Ing, and Ingild. One of these, Ing, dissatisfied with the honours his fatherbequeathed him, declared war with the Danes in order to extend hisempire. And when Harald wished to inquire of oracles how this war wouldend, an old man of great height, but lacking one eye, and clad also in ahairy mantle, appeared before him, and declared that he was called Odin, and was versed in the practice of warfare; and he gave him the mostuseful instruction how to divide up his army in the field. Now he toldhim, whenever he was going to make war with his land-forces, to dividehis whole army into three squadrons, each of which he was to pack intotwenty ranks; the centre squadron, however, he was to extend furtherthan the rest by the number of twenty men. This squadron he was also toarrange in the form of the point of a cone or pyramid, and to make thewings on either side slant off obliquely from it. He was to compose thesuccessive ranks of each squadron in the following way: the front shouldbegin with two men, and the number in each succeeding rank should onlyincrease by one; he was, in fact, to post a rank of three in the secondline, four in the third, and so on behind. And thus, when the menmustered, all the succeeding ranks were to be manned at the same rateof proportion, until the end of (the edge that made) the junction of mencame down to the wings; each wing was to be drawn up in ten lines fromthat point. Likewise after these squadrons he was to put the young men, equipped with lances, and behind these to set the company of aged men, who would support their comrades with what one might call a veteranvalour if they faltered; next, a skilful reckoner should attach wings ofslingers to stand behind the ranks of their fellows and attack the enemyfrom a distance with missiles. After these he was to enroll men of anyage or rank indiscriminately, without heed of their estate. Moreover, hewas to draw up the rear like the vanguard, in three separated divisions, and arranged in ranks similarly proportioned. The back of this, joiningon to the body in front would protect it by facing in the oppositedirection. But if a sea-battle happened to occur, he should withdraw aportion of his fleet, which when he began the intended engagement, wasto cruise round that of the enemy, wheeling to and fro continually. Equipped with this system of warfare, he forestalled matters in Sweden, and killed Ing and Olaf as they were making ready to fight. Theirbrother Ingild sent messengers to beg a truce, on pretence of hisill-health. Harald granted his request, that his own valour, which hadlearnt to spare distress, might not triumph over a man in the hourof lowliness and dejection. When Ingild afterwards provoked Haraldby wrongfully ravishing his sister, Harald vexed him with long andindecisive war, but then took him into his friendship, thinking itbetter to have him for ally than for enemy. 

After this he heard that Olaf, King of the Thronds, had to fight withthe maidens Stikla and Rusila for the kingdom. Much angered at thisarrogance on the part of women, he went to Olaf unobserved, put on dresswhich concealed the length of his teeth, and attacked the maidens. Heoverthrew them both, leaving to two harbours a name akin to theirs. Itwas then that he gave a notable exhibition of valour; for defendedonly by a shirt under his shoulders, he fronted the spears with unarmedbreast. 

When Olaf offered Harald the prize of victory, he rejected the gift, thus leaving it a question whether he had shown a greater example ofbravery or self-control. Then he attacked a champion of the Frisiannation, named Ubbe, who was ravaging the borders of Jutland anddestroying numbers of the common people; and when Harald could notsubdue him to his arms, he charged his soldiers to grip him with theirhands, throw him on the ground, and to bind him while thus overpowered. Thus he only overcame the man and mastered him by a shameful kind ofattack, though a little before he thought he would inflict a heavydefeat on him. But Harald gave him his sister in marriage, and thusgained him for his soldier. 

Harald made tributaries of the nations that lay along the Rhine, levyingtroops from the bravest of that race. With these forces he conqueredSclavonia in war, and caused its generals, Duk and Dal, because of theirbravery, to be captured, and not killed. These men he took to serve withhim, and, after overcoming Aquitania, soon went to Britain, where heoverthrew the King of the Humbrians, and enrolled the smartest of thewarriors he had conquered, the chief of whom was esteemed to be Orm, surnamed the Briton. The fame of these deeds brought champions fromdivers parts of the world, whom he formed into a band of mercenaries. Strengthened by their numbers, he kept down insurrections in allkingdoms by the terror of his name, so that he took out of their rulersall courage to fight with one another. Moreover, no man durst assume anysovereignty on the sea without his consent; for of old the state of theDanes had the joint lordship of land and sea. 

Meantime Ingild died in Sweden, leaving only a very little son, Ring, whom he had by the sister of Harald. Harald gave the boy guardians, andput him over his father's kingdom. Thus, when he had overcome princesand provinces, he passed fifty years in peace. To save the minds of hissoldiers from being melted into sloth by this inaction, he decreed thatthey should assiduously learn from the champions the way of parryingand dealing blows. Some of these were skilled in a remarkable manner offighting, and used to smite the eyebrow on the enemy's forehead with aninfallible stroke; but if any man, on receiving the blow, blinked forfear, twitching his eyebrow, he was at once expelled the court anddismissed the service. 

At this time Ole, the son of Siward and of Harald's sister, came toDenmark from the land of Norway in the desire to see his uncle. Since itis known that he had the first place among the followers of Harald, andthat after the Swedish war he came to the throne of Denmark, it bearssomewhat on the subject to relate the traditions of his deeds. Ole, then, when he had passed his tenth to his fifteenth year with hisfather, showed incredible proofs of his brilliant gifts both of mind andbody. Moreover, he was so savage of countenance that his eyes were likethe arms of other men against the enemy, and he terrified the bravestwith his stern and flashing glance. He heard the tidings that Gunn, ruler of Tellemark, with his son Grim, was haunting as a robber theforest of Etha-scog, which was thick with underbrush and full of gloomyglens. The offence moved his anger; then he asked his father for ahorse, a dog, and such armour as could be got, and cursed his youth, which was suffering the right season for valour to slip sluggishly away. He got what he asked, and explored the aforesaid wood very narrowly. Hesaw the footsteps of a man printed deep on the snow; for the rime wasblemished by the steps, and betrayed the robber's progress. Thus guided, he went over a hill, and came on a very great river. This effaced thehuman tracks he had seen before, and he determined that he must cross. But the mere mass of water, whose waves ran down in a headlong torrent, seemed to forbid all crossing; for it was full of hidden reefs, and thewhole length of its channel was turbid with a kind of whirl of foam. Yet all fear of danger was banished from Ole's mind by his impatienceto make haste. So valour conquered fear, and rashness scorned peril;thinking nothing hard to do if it were only to his mind, he crossedthe hissing eddies on horseback. When he had passed these, he came upondefiles surrounded on all sides with swamps, the interior of which wasbarred from easy approach by the pinnacle of a bank in front. He tookhis horse over this, and saw an enclosure with a number of stalls. Outof this he turned many horses, and was minded to put in his own, whena certain Tok, a servant of Gunn, angry that a stranger should wax soinsolent, attacked him fiercely; but Ole foiled his assailant by simplyopposing his shield. Thinking it a shame to slay the fellow with thesword, he seized him, shattered him limb by limb, and flung him acrossinto the house whence he had issued in his haste. This insult quicklyaroused Gunn and Grim: they ran out by different side-doors, and chargedOle both at once, despising his age and strength. He wounded themfatally; and, when their bodily powers were quite spent, Grim, who couldscarce muster a final gasp, and whose force was almost utterly gone, with his last pants composed this song:

"Though we be weak in frame, and the loss of blood has drained ourstrength; since the life-breath, now drawn out by my wound, scarcequivers softly in my pierced breast:

"I counsel that we should make the battle of our last hour gloriouswith dauntless deeds, that none may say that a combat has anywhere beenbravelier waged or harder fought;

"And that our wild strife while we bore arms may, when our weary fleshhas found rest in the tomb, win us the wage of immortal fame. 

"Let our first stroke crush the shoulder-blades of the foe, let oursteel cut off both his hands; so that, when Stygian Pluto has taken us, a like doom may fall on Ole also, and a common death tremble over three, and one urn cover the ashes of three. "

Here Grim ended. But his father, rivalling his indomitable spirit, andwishing to give some exhortation in answer to his son's valiant speech, thus began:

"What though our veins be wholly bloodless, and in our frail body thelife be brief, yet our last fight be so strong and strenuous that itsuffer not the praise of us to be brief also. 

"Therefore aim the javelin first at the shoulders and arms of the foe, so that the work of his hands may be weakened; and thus when we aregone three shall receive a common sepulchre, and one urn alike for threeshall cover our united dust. "

When he had said this, both of them, resting on their knees (for theapproach of death had drained their strength), made a desperate effortto fight Ole hand to hand, in order that, before they perished, theymight slay their enemy also; counting death as nothing if only theymight envelope their slayer in a common fall. Ole slew one of them withhis sword, the other with his hound. But even he gained no bloodlessvictory; for though he had been hitherto unscathed, now at last hereceived a wound in front. His dog diligently licked him over, and heregained his bodily strength: and soon, to publish sure news of hisvictory, he hung the bodies of the robbers upon gibbets in wide view. Moreover, he took the stronghold, and put in secret keeping all thebooty he found there, in reserve for future use. 

At this time the arrogant wantonness of the brothers Skate and Hialewaxed so high that they would take virgins of notable beauty fromtheir parents and ravish them. Hence it came about that they formed thepurpose of seizing Esa, the daughter of Olaf, prince of the Werms;and bade her father, if he would not have her serve the passion of astranger, fight either in person, or by some deputy, in defence of hischild. When Ole had news of this, he rejoiced in the chance of a battle, and borrowing the attire of a peasant, went to the dwelling of Olaf. He received one of the lowest places at table; and when he saw thehousehold of the king in sorrow, he called the king's son closer to him, and asked why they all wore so lamentable a face. The other answered, that unless someone quickly interposed to protect them, his sister'schastity would soon be outraged by some ferocious champions. Ole nextasked him what reward would be received by the man who devoted his lifefor the maiden. Olaf, on his son asking him about this matter, said thathis daughter should go to the man who fought for her: and these words, more than anything, made Ole long to encounter the danger. 

Now the maiden was wont to go from one guest to another in order to scantheir faces narrowly, holding out a light that she might have a surerview of the dress and character of those who were entertained. It isalso believed that she divined their lineage from the lines and featuresof the face, and could discern any man's birth by sheer shrewdness ofvision. When she stood and fixed the scrutiny of her gaze upon Olaf, she was stricken with the strange awfulness of his eyes, and fell almostlifeless. But when her strength came slowly back, and her breath wentand came more freely, she again tried to look at the young man, butsuddenly slipped and fell forward, as though distraught. A third timealso she strove to lift her closed and downcast gaze, but suddenlytottered and fell, unable not only to move her eyes, but even to controlher feet; so much can strength be palsied by amazement. When Olaf sawit, he asked her why she had fallen so often. She averred that she wasstricken by the savage gaze of the guest; that he was born of kings; andshe declared that if he could baulk the will of the ravishers, he waswell worthy of her arms. Then all of them asked Ole, who was keepinghis face muffled in a hat, to fling off his covering, and let them seesomething by which to learn his features. Then, bidding them all layaside their grief, and keep their heart far from sorrow, he uncoveredhis brow; and he drew the eyes of all upon him in marvel at his greatbeauty. For his locks were golden and the hair of his head was radiant;but he kept the lids close over his pupils, that they might not terrifythe beholders. 

All were heartened with the hope of better things; the guests seemed todance and the courtiers to leap for joy; the deepest melancholy seemedto be scattered by an outburst of cheerfulness. Thus hope relieved theirfears; the banquet wore a new face, and nothing was the same, orlike what it had been before. So the kindly promise of a single guestdispelled the universal terror. Meanwhile Hiale and Skate came upwith ten servants, meaning to carry off the maiden then and there, anddisturbed all the place with their noisy shouts. They called on the kingto give battle, unless he produced his daughter instantly. Ole at oncemet their frenzy with the promise to fight, adding the condition thatno one should stealthily attack an opponent in the rear, but should onlycombat in the battle face to face. Then, with his sword called Logthi, he felled them all, single-handed--an achievement beyond his years. Theground for the battle was found on an isle in the middle of a swamp, not far from which is a stead that serves to memorise this slaughter, bearing the names of the brothers Hiale and Skate together. 

So the girl was given him as prize of the combat, and bore him a sonOmund. Then he gained his father-in-law's leave to revisit his father. But when he heard that his country was being attacked by Thore, withthe help of Toste Sacrificer, and Leotar, surnamed.... He went to fightthem, content with a single servant, who was dressed as a woman. Whenhe was near the house of Thore, he concealed his own and his attendant'sswords in hollowed staves. And when he entered the palace, he disguisedhis true countenance, and feigned to be a man broken with age. He saidthat with Siward he had been king of the beggars, but that he was now inexile, having been stubbornly driven forth by the hatred of the king'sson Ole. Presently many of the courtiers greeted him with the name ofking, and began to kneel and offer him their hands in mockery. He toldthem to bear out in deeds what they had done in jest; and, plucking outthe swords which he and his man kept shut in their staves, attacked theking. So some aided Ole, taking it more as jest than earnest, and wouldnot be false to the loyalty which they mockingly yielded him; but mostof them, breaking their idle vow, took the side of Thore. Thus arose aninternecine and undecided fray. At last Thore was overwhelmed and slainby the arms of his own folk, as much as by these of his guests; andLeotar, wounded to the death, and judging that his conqueror, Ole, wasas keen in mind as he was valorous in deeds, gave him the name of theVigorous, and prophesied that he should perish by the same kind of trickas he had used with Thore; for, without question he should fall by thetreachery of his own house. And, as he spoke, he suddenly passed away. Thus we can see that the last speech of the dying man expressed by itsshrewd divination the end that should come upon his conqueror. 

After these deeds Ole did not go back to his father till he had restoredpeace to his house. His father gave him the command of the sea, and hedestroyed seventy sea-kings in a naval battle. The most distinguishedamong these were Birwil and Hwirwil, Thorwil, Nef and Onef, Redward (?), Rand and Erand (?). By the honour and glory of this exploit he excitedmany champions, whose whole heart's desire was for bravery, to joinin alliance with him. He also enrolled into a bodyguard the wild youngwarriors who were kindled with a passion for glory. Among these hereceived Starkad with the greatest honour, and cherished him with morefriendship than profit. Thus fortified, he checked, by the greatness ofhis name, the wantonness of the neighbouring kings, in that he took fromthem all their forces and all liking and heart for mutual warfare. 

After this he went to Harald, who made him commander of the sea; and atlast he was transferred to the service of Ring. At this time one Brunwas the sole partner and confidant of all Harald's councils. To this manboth Harald and Ring, whenever they needed a secret messenger, used toentrust their commissions. This degree of intimacy he obtained becausehe had been reared and fostered with them. But Brun, amid the toils ofhis constant journeys to and fro, was drowned in a certain river; andOdin, disguised under his name and looks, shook the close union of thekings by his treacherous embassage; and he sowed strife so guilefullythat he engendered in men, who were bound by friendship and blood, a bitter mutual hate, which seemed unappeasable except by war. Theirdissensions first grew up silently; at last both sides betrayed theirleanings, and their secret malice burst into the light of day. So theydeclared their feuds, and seven years passed in collecting the materialsof war. Some say that Harald secretly sought occasions to destroyhimself, not being moved by malice or jealousy for the crown, but by adeliberate and voluntary effort. His old age and his cruelty made him aburden to his subjects; he preferred the sword to the pangs of disease, and liked better to lay down his life in the battle-field than in hisbed, that he might have an end in harmony with the deeds of his pastlife. Thus, to make his death more illustrious, and go to the netherworld in a larger company, he longed to summon many men to share hisend; and he therefore of his own will prepared for war, in order to makefood for future slaughter. For these reasons, being seized with as greata thirst to die himself as to kill others, and wishing the massacre onboth sides to be equal, he furnished both sides with equal resources;but let Ring have a somewhat stronger force, preferring he shouldconquer and survive him. 

 ENDNOTES: (1) A parallel is the Lionel-Lancelot story of children saved by being turned into dogs. 

BOOK EIGHT. 

STARKAD was the first to set in order in Danish speech the history ofthe Swedish war, a conflict whereof he was himself a mighty pillar; thesaid history being rather an oral than a written tradition. He set forthand arranged the course of this war in the mother tongue according tothe fashion of our country; but I purpose to put it into Latin, and willfirst recount the most illustrious princes on either side. For I havefelt no desire to include the multitude, which are even past exactnumbering. And my pen shall relate first those on the side of Harald, and presently those who served under Ring. 

Now the most famous of the captains that mustered to Harald areacknowledged to have been Sweyn and Sambar (Sam?), Ambar and Elli; Ratiof Funen, Salgard and Roe (Hrothgar), whom his long beard distinguishedby a nickname. Besides these, Skalk the Scanian, and Alf the son of Agg;to whom are joined Olwir the Broad, and Gnepie the Old. Besides thesethere was Gardh, founder of the town Stang. To these are added thekinsfolk or bound followers of Harald: Blend (Blaeng?), the dwellerin furthest Thule, (1) and Brand, whose surname was Crumb (Bitling?). Allied with these were Thorguy, with Thorwig, Tatar (Teit), and Hialte. These men voyaged to Leire with bodies armed for war; but they were alsomighty in excellence of wit, and their trained courage matched theirgreat stature; for they had skill in discharging arrows both from bowand catapult, and at fighting their foe as they commonly did, man toman; and also at readily stringing together verse in the speech of theircountry: so zealously had they trained mind and body alike. Now out ofLeire came Hortar (Hjort) and Borrhy (Borgar or Borgny), and also Belgiand Beigad, to whom were added Bari and Toli. Now out of the town ofSle, under the captains Hetha (Heid) and Wisna, with Hakon Cut-cheekcame Tummi the Sailmaker. On these captains, who had the bodies ofwomen, nature bestowed the souls of men. Webiorg was also inspired withthe same spirit, and was attended by Bo (Bui) Bramason and Brat theJute, thirsting for war. In the same throng came Orm of England, Ubbethe Frisian, Ari the One-eyed, and Alf Gotar. Next in the count came Dalthe Fat and Duk the Sclav; Wisna, a woman, filled with sternness, anda skilled warrior, was guarded by a band of Sclavs: her chief followerswere Barri and Gnizli. But the rest of the same company had their bodiescovered by little shields, and used very long swords and targets ofskiey hue, which, in time of war, they either cast behind their backs orgave over to the baggage-bearers; while they cast away all protection totheir breasts, and exposed their bodies to every peril, offering battlewith drawn swords. The most illustrious of these were Tolkar and Ymi. After these, Toki of the province of Wohin was conspicuous together withOtrit surnamed the Young. Hetha, guarded by a retinue of very activemen, brought an armed company to the war, the chiefs of whom were Grimand Grenzli; next to whom are named Geir the Livonian, Hame also andHunger, Humbli and Biari, bravest of the princes. These men often foughtduels successfully, and won famous victories far and wide. 

The maidens I have named, in fighting as well as courteous array, ledtheir land-forces to the battle-field. Thus the Danish army musteredcompany by company. There were seven kings, equal in spirit butdiffering in allegiance, some defending Harald, and some Ring. Moreover, the following went to the side of Harald: Homi and Hosathul (Eysothul?), Him.... , Hastin and Hythin (Hedin) the Slight, also Dahar (Dag), namedGrenski, and Harald Olafsson also. From the province of Aland came Harand Herlewar (Herleif), with Hothbrodd, surnamed the Furious; thesefought in the Danish camp. But from Imisland arrived Humnehy (?) andHarald. They were joined by Haki and by Sigmund and Serker the sons ofBemon, all coming from the North. All these were retainers of the king, who befriended them most generously; for they were held in the highestdistinction by him, receiving swords adorned with gold, and the choicestspoils of war. There came also.... The sons of Gandal the old, who werein the intimate favour of Harald by reason of ancient allegiance. Thusthe sea was studded with the Danish fleet, and seemed to interpose abridge, uniting Zealand to Skaane. To those that wished to pass betweenthose provinces, the sea offered a short road on foot over the densemass of ships. But Harald would not have the Swedes unprepared intheir arrangements for war, and sent men to Ring to carry his publicdeclaration of hostilities, and notify the rupture of the mediatingpeace. The same men were directed to prescribe the place of combat. These then whom I have named were the fighters for Harald. 

Now, on the side of Ring were numbered Ulf, Aggi (Aki?), Windar(Eywind?), Egil the One-eyed; Gotar, Hildi, Guti Alfsson; Styr theStout, and (Tolo-) Stein, who lived by the Wienic Mere. To these werejoined Gerd the Glad and Gromer (Glum?) from Wermland. After these arereckoned the dwellers north on the Elbe, Saxo the Splitter, Sali theGoth; Thord the Stumbler, Throndar Big-nose; Grundi, Oddi, Grindir, Tovi; Koll, Biarki, Hogni the Clever, Rokar the Swart. Now these scornedfellowship with the common soldiers, and had formed themselves intoa separate rank apart from the rest of the company. Besides theseare numbered Hrani Hildisson and Lyuth Guthi (Hljot Godi), Svein theTopshorn, (Soknarsoti?), Rethyr (Hreidar?) Hawk, and Rolf the Uxorious(Woman-lover). Massed with these were Ring Adilsson and Harald who camefrom Thotn district. Joined to these were Walstein of Wick, Thorolf theThick, Thengel the Tall, Hun, Solwe, Birwil the Pale, Borgar and Skumbar(Skum). But from, Tellemark came the bravest of all, who had mostcourage but least arrogance--Thorleif the Stubborn, Thorkill the Gute(Gothlander), Grettir the Wicked and the Lover of Invasions. Next tothese came Hadd the Hard and Rolder (Hroald) Toe-joint. 

From Norway we have the names of Thrand of Throndhjem, Thoke (Thore)of More, Hrafn the White, Haf (war), Biarni, Blihar (Blig?) surnamedSnub-nosed; Biorn from the district of Sogni; Findar (Finn) born inthe Firth; Bersi born in the town F(I)alu; Siward Boarhead, Erik theStory-teller, Holmstein the White, Hrut Rawi (or Vafi, the Doubter), Erling surnamed Snake. Now from the province of Jather came Odd theEnglishman, Alf the Far-wanderer, Enar the Paunched, and Ywar surnamedThriug. Now from Thule (Iceland) came Mar the Red, born and bred in thedistrict called Midfirth; Grombar the Aged, Gram Brundeluk (Bryndalk?)Grim from the town of Skier (um) born in Skagafiord. Next came Berg theSeer, accompanied by Bragi and Rafnkel. 

Now the bravest of the Swedes were these: Arwakki, Keklu-Karl(Kelke-Karl), Krok the Peasant, (from Akr), Gudfast and Gummi fromGislamark. These were kindred of the god Frey, and most faithfulwitnesses to the gods. Ingi (Yngwe) also, and Oly, Alver, Folki, allsons of Elrik (Alrek), embraced the service of Ring; they were men readyof hand, quick in counsel, and very close friends of Ring. They likewiseheld the god Frey to be the founder of their race. Amongst these fromthe town of Sigtun also came Sigmund, a champion advocate, versed inmaking contracts of sale and purchase; besides him Frosti surnamed Bowl:allied with him was Alf the Lofty (Proud?) from the district of Upsala;this man was a swift spear-thrower, and used to go in the front of thebattle. 

Ole had a body-guard in which were seven kings, very ready of hand andof counsel; namely, Holti, Hendil, Holmar, Lewy (Leif), and Hame; withthese was enrolled Regnald the Russian, the grandson of Radbard; andSiwald also furrowed the sea with eleven light ships. Lesy (Laesi), theconqueror of the Pannonians (Huns), fitted with a sail his swift galleyringed with gold. Thririkar (Erik Helsing) sailed in a ship whose prowswere twisted like a dragon. Also Thrygir (Tryggve) and Torwil sailedand brought twelve ships jointly. In the entire fleet of Ring there were2, 500 ships. 

The fleet of Gotland was waiting for the Swedish fleet in the harbournamed Garnum. So Ring led the land-force, while Ole was instructedto command the fleet. Now the Goths were appointed a time and a placebetween Wik and Werund for the conflict with the Swedes. Then was thesea to be seen furrowed up with prows, and the canvas unfurled uponthe masts cut off the view over the ocean. The Danes had so far beendistressed with bad weather; but the Swedish fleet had a fair voyage, and had reached the scene of battle earlier. Here Ring disembarked hisforces from his fleet, and then massed and prepared to draw up in lineboth these and the army he had himself conducted overland. When theseforces were at first loosely drawn up over the open country, it wasfound that one wing reached all the way to Werund. The multitude wasconfused in its places and ranks; but the king rode round it, and postedin the van all the smartest and most excellently-armed men, led by Ole, Regnald, and Wivil; then he massed the rest of the army on the two wingsin a kind of curve. Ung, with the sons of Alrek, and Trig, he orderedto protect the right wing, while the left was put under the commandof Laesi. Moreover, the wings and the masses were composed mainly of aclose squadron of Kurlanders and of Esthonians. Last stood the line ofslingers. 

Meantime the Danish fleet, favoured by kindly winds, sailed, withoutstopping, for twelve days, and came to the town (stead) of Kalmar. The wind-blown sails covering the waters were a marvel; and the canvasstretched upon the yards blotted out the sight of the heavens. For thefleet was augmented by the Sclavs and the Livonians and 7, 000 Saxons. But the Skanians, knowing the country, were appointed as guides andscouts to those who were going over the dry land. So when the Danisharmy came upon the Swedes, who stood awaiting them, Ring told his men tostand quietly until Harald had drawn up his line of battle; bidding themnot to sound the signal before they saw the king settled in his chariotbeside the standards; for he said he should hope that an army wouldsoon come to grief which trusted in the leading of a blind man. Harald, moreover, he said, had been seized in extreme age with the desire offoreign empire, and was as witless as he was sightless; wealth couldnot satisfy a man who, if he looked to his years, ought to be well-nighcontented with a grave. The Swedes therefore were bound to fight fortheir freedom, their country, and their children, while the enemy hadundertaken the war in rashness and arrogance. Moreover, on the otherside, there were very few Danes, but a mass of Saxons and other unmanlypeoples stood arrayed. Swedes and Norwegians should therefore consider, how far the multitudes of the North had always surpassed the Germansand the Sclavs. They should therefore despise an army which seemed to becomposed more of a mass of fickle offscourings than of a firm and stoutsoldiery. 

By this harangue of King Ring he kindled high the hearts of thesoldiers. Now Brun, being instructed to form the line on Harald'sbehalf, made the front in a wedge, posting Hetha on the right flank, putting Hakon in command of the left, and making Wisna standard-bearer. Harald stood up in his chariot and complained, in as loud a voice as hecould, that Ring was requiting his benefits with wrongs; that the manwho had got his kingdom by Harald's own gift was now attacking him; sothat Ring neither pitied an old man nor spared an uncle, but set his ownambitions before any regard for Harald's kinship or kindness. So he badethe Danes remember how they had always won glory by foreign conquest, and how they were more wont to command their neighbours than to obeythem. He adjured them not to let such glory as theirs to be shaken bythe insolence of a conquered nation, nor to suffer the empire, which hehad won in the flower of his youth, to be taken from him in his outwornage. 

Then the trumpets sounded, and both sides engaged in battle with alltheir strength. The sky seemed to fall suddenly on the earth, fields andwoods to sink into the ground; all things were confounded, and old Chaoscome again; heaven and earth mingling in one tempestuous turmoil, andthe world rushing to universal ruin. For, when the spear-throwing began, the intolerable clash of arms filled the air with an incredible thunder. The steam of the wounds suddenly hung a mist over the sky, the daylightwas hidden under the hail of spears. The help of the slingers was ofgreat use in the battle. But when the missiles had all been flung fromhand or engines, they fought with swords or iron-shod maces; and it wasnow at close quarters that most blood was spilt. Then the sweat streameddown their weary bodies, and the clash of the swords could be heardafar. 

Starkad, who was the first to set forth the history of this war in thetelling, fought foremost in the fray, and relates that he overthrew thenobles of Harald, Hun and Elli, Hort and Burgha, and cut off the righthand of Wisna. He also relates that one Roa, with two others, Gnepie andGardar, fell wounded by him in the field. To these he adds the father ofSkalk, whose name is not given. He also declares that he cast Hakon, thebravest of the Danes, to the earth, but received from him such a woundin return that he had to leave the war with his lung protruding fromhis chest, his neck cleft to the centre, and his hand deprived of onefinger; so that he long had a gaping wound, which seemed as if it wouldnever either scar over or be curable. The same man witnesses that themaiden Weghbiorg (Webiorg) fought against the enemy and felled Soththe champion. While she was threatening to slay more champions, she waspierced through by an arrow from the bowstring of Thorkill, a native ofTellemark. For the skilled archers of the Gotlanders strung their bowsso hard that the shafts pierced through even the shields; nothing provedmore murderous; for the arrow-points made their way through hauberk andhelmet as if they were men's defenceless bodies. 

Meanwhile Ubbe the Frisian, who was the readiest of Harald's soldiers, and of notable bodily stature, slew twenty-five picked champions, besides eleven whom he had wounded in the field. All these were ofSwedish or Gothic blood. Then he attacked the vanguard and burst intothe thickest of the enemy, driving the Swedes struggling in a panicevery way with spear and sword. It had all but come to a flight, whenHagder (Hadd), Rolder (Hroald), and Grettir attacked the champion, emulating his valour, and resolving at their own risk to retrievethe general ruin. But, fearing to assault him at close quarters, theyaccomplished their end with arrows from afar; and thus Ubbe was riddledby a shower of arrows, no one daring to fight him hand to hand. Ahundred and forty-four arrows had pierced the breast of the warriorbefore his bodily strength failed and he bent his knee to the earth. Then at last the Danes suffered a great defeat, owing to the Throndsand the dwellers in the province of Dala. For the battle began afreshby reason of the vast mass of the archers, and nothing damaged our menmore. 

But when Harald, being now blind with age, heard the lamentable murmurof his men, he perceived that fortune had smiled on his enemies. So, as he was riding in a chariot armed with scythes, he told Brun, who wastreacherously acting as charioteer, to find out in what manner Ring hadhis line drawn up. Brun's face relaxed into something of a smile, and heanswered that he was fighting with a line in the form of a wedge. When the king heard this he began to be alarmed, and to ask in greatastonishment from whom Ring could have learnt this method of disposinghis line, especially as Odin was the discoverer and imparter of thisteaching, and none but himself had ever learnt from him this new patternof warfare. At this Brun was silent, and it came into the king's mindthat here was Odin, and that the god whom he had once known so wellwas now disguised in a changeful shape, in order either to give help orwithhold it. Presently he began to beseech him earnestly to grant thefinal victory to the Danes, since he had helped them so graciouslybefore, and to fill up his last kindness to the measure of the first;promising to dedicate to him as a gift the spirits of all who fell. ButBrun, utterly unmoved by his entreaties, suddenly jerked the king out ofthe chariot, battered him to the earth, plucked the club from him ashe fell, whirled it upon his head, and slew him with his own weapon. Countless corpses lay round the king's chariot, and the horrid heapovertopped the wheels; the pile of carcases rose as high as the pole. For about 12, 000 of the nobles of Ring fell upon the field. But on theside of Harald about 30, 000 nobles fell, not to name the slaughter ofthe commons. 

When Ring heard that Harald was dead, he gave the signal to his men tobreak up their line and cease fighting. Then under cover of truce hemade treaty with the enemy, telling them that it was vain to prolong thefray without their captain. Next he told the Swedes to look everywhereamong the confused piles of carcases for the body of Harald, that thecorpse of the king might not wrongfully lack its due rights. So thepopulace set eagerly to the task of turning over the bodies of theslain, and over this work half the day was spent. At last the body wasfound with the club, and he thought that propitiation should be made tothe shade of Harald. So he harnessed the horse on which he rode to thechariot of the king, decked it honourably with a golden saddle, andhallowed it in his honour. Then he proclaimed his vows, and added hisprayer that Harald would ride on this and outstrip those who shared hisdeath in their journey to Tartarus; and that he would pray Pluto, thelord of Orcus, to grant a calm abode there for friend and foe. Then heraised a pyre, and bade the Danes fling on the gilded chariot of theirking as fuel to the fire. And while the flames were burning the bodycast upon them, he went round the mourning nobles and earnestly chargedthem that they should freely give arms, gold, and every precious thingto feed the pyre in honour of so great a king, who had deserved so noblyof them all. He also ordered that the ashes of his body, when it wasquite burnt, should be transferred to an urn, taken to Leire, and there, together with the horse and armour, receive a royal funeral. By payingthese due rites of honour to his uncle's shade, he won the favour of theDanes, and turned the hate of his enemies into goodwill. Then the Danesbesought him to appoint Hetha over the remainder of the realm; but, thatthe fallen strength of the enemy might not suddenly rally, he severedSkaane from the mass of Denmark, and put it separately under thegovernorship of Ole, ordering that only Zealand and the other landsof the realm should be subject to Hetha. Thus the changes of fortunebrought the empire of Denmark under the Swedish rule. So ended theBravic war. 

But the Zealanders, who had had Harald for their captain, and still hadthe picture of their former fortune hovering before their minds, thoughtit shameful to obey the rule of a woman, and appealed to OLE not tosuffer men that had been used to serve under a famous king to be keptunder a woman's yoke. They also promised to revolt to him if he wouldtake up arms to remove their ignominious lot. Ole, tempted as much bythe memory of his ancestral glory as by the homage of the soldiers, wasnot slow to answer their entreaties. So he summoned Hetha, and forcedher by threats rather than by arms to quit every region under hercontrol except Jutland; and even Jutland he made a tributary state, soas not to allow a woman the free control of a kingdom. He also begot ason whom he named Omund. But he was given to cruelty, and showed himselfsuch an unrighteous king, that all who had found it a shameful thing tobe ruled by a queen now repented of their former scorn. 

Twelve generals, whether moved by the disasters of their country, orhating Ole for some other reason, began to plot against his life. Amongthese were Hlenni, Atyl, Thott, and Withne, the last of whom was a Daneby birth, though he held a government among the Sclavs. Moreover, nottrusting in their strength and their cunning to accomplish their deed, they bribed Starkad to join them. He was prevailed to do the deed withthe sword; he undertook the bloody work, and resolved to attack theking while at the bath. In he went while the king was washing, but wasstraightway stricken by the keenness of his gaze and by the restless andquivering glare of his eyes. His limbs were palsied with sudden dread;he paused, stepped back, and stayed his hand and his purpose. Thus hewho had shattered the arms of so many captains and champions could notbear the gaze of a single unarmed man. But Ole, who well knew about hisown countenance, covered his face, and asked him to come closer and tellhim what his message was; for old fellowship and long-tried friendshipmade him the last to suspect treachery. But Starkad drew his sword, leapt forward, thrust the king through, and struck him in the throat ashe tried to rise. One hundred and twenty marks of gold were kept forhis reward. Soon afterwards he was smitten with remorse and shame, andlamented his crime so bitterly, that he could not refrain from tearsif it happened to be named. Thus his soul, when he came to his senses, blushed for his abominable sin. Moreover, to atone for the crime hehad committed, he slew some of those who had inspired him to it, thusavenging the act to which he had lent his hand. 

Now the Danes made OMUND, the son of Ole, king, thinking that more heedshould be paid to his father's birth than to his deserts. Omund, when hehad grown up, fell in nowise behind the exploits of his father; for hemade it his aim to equal or surpass the deeds of Ole. 

At this time a considerable tribe of the Northmen (Norwegians) wasgoverned by Ring, and his daughter Esa's great fame commended her toOmund, who was looking out for a wife. 

But his hopes of wooing her were lessened by the peculiar inclination ofRing, who desired no son-in-law but one of tried valour; for he foundas much honour in arms as others think lies in wealth. Omund therefore, wishing to become famous in that fashion, and to win the praise ofvalour, endeavoured to gain his desire by force, and sailed to Norwaywith a fleet, to make an attempt on the throne of Ring under plea ofhereditary right. Odd, the chief of Jather, who declared that Ring hadassuredly seized his inheritance, and lamented that he harried him withcontinual wrongs, received Omund kindly. Ring, in the meantime, was ona roving raid in Ireland, so that Omund attacked a province without adefender. Sparing the goods of the common people, he gave the privateproperty of Ring over to be plundered, and slew his kinsfolk; Oddalso having joined his forces to Omund. Now, among all his divers andmanifold deeds, he could never bring himself to attack an inferiorforce, remembering that he was the son of a most valiant father, andthat he was bound to fight armed with courage, and not with numbers. 

Meanwhile Ring had returned from roving; and when Omund heard he wasback, he set to and built a vast ship, whence, as from a fortress, hecould rain his missiles on the enemy. To manage this ship he enlistedHomod and Thole the rowers, the soils of Atyl the Skanian, one of whomwas instructed to act as steersman, while the other was to command atthe prow. Ring lacked neither skill nor dexterity to encounter them. For he showed only a small part of his forces, and caused the enemy tobe attacked on the rear. Omund, when told of his strategy by Odd, sentmen to overpower those posted in ambush, telling Atyl the Skanian toencounter Ring. The order was executed with more rashness than success;and Atyl, with his power defeated and shattered, fled beaten to Skaane. Then Omund recruited his forces with the help of Odd, and drew up hisfleet to fight on the open sea. 

Atyl at this time had true visions of the Norwegian war in his dreams, and started on his voyage in order to make up for his flight as quicklyas possible, and delighted Omund by joining him on the eve of battle. Trusting in his help, Omund began to fight with equal confidence andsuccess. For, by fighting himself, he retrieved the victory which he hadlost when his servants were engaged. Ring, wounded to the death, gazedat him with faint eyes, and, beckoning to him with his hand, as wellas he could--for his voice failed him--he besought him to be hisson-in-law, saying that he would gladly meet his end if he left hisdaughter to such a husband. Before he could receive an answer he died. Omund wept for his death, and gave Homod, whose trusty help he hadreceived in the war, in marriage to one of the daughters of Ring, takingthe other himself. 

At the same time the amazon Rusla, whose prowess in warfare exceeded thespirit of a woman, had many fights in Norway with her brother, Thrond, for the sovereignty. She could not endure that Omund rule over theNorwegians, and she had declared war against all the subjects of theDanes. Omund, when he heard of this, commissioned his most active mento suppress the rising. Rusla conquered them, and, waxing haughty onher triumph, was seized with overweening hopes, and bent her mind uponactually acquiring the sovereignty of Denmark. She began her attack onthe region of Halland, but was met by Homod and Thode, whom the kinghad sent over. Beaten, she retreated to her fleet, of which only thirtyships managed to escape, the rest being taken by the enemy. Throndencountered his sister as she was eluding the Danes, but was conqueredby her and stripped of his entire army; he fled over the Dovrefjeldwithout a single companion. Thus she, who had first yielded before theDanes, soon overcame her brother, and turned her flight into a victory. When Omund heard of this, he went back to Norway with a great fleet, first sending Homod and Thole by a short and secret way to rouse thepeople of Tellemark against the rule of Rusla. The end was that she wasdriven out of her kingdom by the commons, fled to the isles for safety, and turned her back, without a blow, upon the Danes as they came up. The king pursued her hotly, caught up her fleet on the sea, and utterlydestroyed it, the enemy suffered mightily, and he won a bloodlessvictory and splendid spoils. But Rusla escaped with a very few ships, and rowed ploughing the waves furiously; but, while she was avoiding theDanes, she met her brother and was killed. So much more effectualfor harm are dangers unsurmised; and chance sometimes makes the lessalarming evil worse than that which threatens. The king gave Thrond agovernorship for slaying his sister, put the rest under tribute, andreturned home. 

At this time Thorias (?) and Ber (Biorn), the most active of thesoldiers of Rusla, were roving in Ireland; but when they heard of thedeath of their mistress, whom they had long ago sworn to avenge, theyhotly attacked Omund, and challenged him to a duel, which it used to beaccounted shameful for a king to refuse; for the fame of princes ofold was reckoned more by arms than by riches. So Homod and Thole cameforward, offering to meet in battle the men who had challenged the king. Omund praised them warmly, but at first declined for very shame to allowtheir help. At last, hard besought by his people, he brought himselfto try his fortune by the hand of another. We are told that Ber fell inthis combat, while Thorias left the battle severely wounded. The king, having first cured him of his wounds, took him into his service, andmade him prince (earl) over Norway. Then he sent ambassadors to exactthe usual tribute from the Sclavs; these were killed, and he was evenattacked in Jutland by a Sclavish force; but he overcame seven kingsin a single combat, and ratified by conquest his accustomed right totribute. 

Meantime, Starkad, who was now worn out with extreme age, and who seemedto be past military service and the calling of a champion, was loth tolose his ancient glory through the fault of eld, and thought it would bea noble thing if he could make a voluntary end, and hasten his death byhis own free will. Having so often fought nobly, he thought it would bemean to die a bloodless death; and, wishing to enhance the glory of hispast life by the lustre of his end, he preferred to be slain by someman of gallant birth rather than await the tardy shaft of nature. Soshameful was it thought that men devoted to war should die by disease. His body was weak, and his eyes could not see clearly, so that he hatedto linger any more in life. In order to buy himself an executioner, hewore hanging on his neck the gold which he had earned for the murder ofOle; thinking there was no fitter way of atoning for the treason he haddone than to make the price of Ole's death that of his own also, and tospend on the loss of his own life what he had earned by the slaying ofanother. This, he thought, would be the noblest use he could make ofthat shameful price. So he girded him with two swords, and guided hispowerless steps leaning on two staves. 

One of the common people, seeing him, thinking two swords superfluousfor the use of an old man, mockingly asked him to make him a presentof one of them. Starkad, holding out hopes of consent, bade him comenearer, drew the sword from his side, and ran him through. This wasseen by a certain Hather, whose father Hlenne Starkad had once killed inrepentance for his own impious crime. Hatfier was hunting game with hisdogs, but now gave over the chase, and bade two of his companionsspur their horses hard and charge at the old man to frighten him. Theygalloped forward, and tried to make off, but were stopped by the stavesof Starkad, and paid for it with their lives. Hather, terrified by thesight, galloped up closer, and saw who the old man was, but withoutbeing recognized by him in turn; and asked him if he would like toexchange his sword for a carriage. Starkad replied that he used in olddays to chastise jeerers, and that the insolent had never insulted himunpunished. But his sightless eyes could not recognize the featuresof the youth; so he composed a song, wherein he should declare thegreatness of his anger, as follows:

"As the unreturning waters sweep down the channel; so, as the years runby, the life of man flows on never to come back; fast gallops the cycleof doom, child of old age who shall make an end of all. Old age smitesalike the eyes and the steps of men, robs the warrior of his speech andsoul, tarnishes his fame by slow degrees, and wipes out his deeds ofhonour. It seizes his failing limbs, chokes his panting utterance, andnumbs his nimble wit. When a cough is taken, when the skin itches withthe scab, and the teeth are numb and hollow, and the stomach turnssqueamish, --then old age banishes the grace of youth, covers thecomplexion with decay, and sows many a wrinkle in the dusky skin. Oldage crushes noble arts, brings down the memorials of men of old, andscorches ancient glories up; shatters wealth, hungrily gnaws away theworth and good of virtue, turns athwart and disorders all things. 

"I myself have felt the hurtful power of injurious age, I, dim-sighted, and hoarse in my tones and in my chest; and all helpful things haveturned to my hurt. Now my body is less nimble, and I prop it up, leaningmy faint limbs on the support of staves. Sightless I guide my steps withtwo sticks, and follow the short path which the rod shows me, trustingmore in the leading of a stock than in my eyes. None takes any chargeof me, and no man in the ranks brings comfort to the veteran, unless, perchance, Hather is here, and succours his shattered friend. WhomsoeverHather once thinks worthy of his duteous love, that man he attendscontinually with even zeal, constant to his purpose, and fearing tobreak his early ties. He also often pays fit rewards to those that havedeserved well in war, and fosters their courage; he bestows dignitieson the brave, and honours his famous friends with gifts. Free with hiswealth, he is fain to increase with bounty the brightness of his name, and to surpass many of the mighty. Nor is he less in war: his strengthis equal to his goodness; he is swift in the fray, slow to waver, readyto give battle; and he cannot turn his back when the foe bears him hard. But for me, if I remember right, fate appointed at my birth that warsI should follow and in war I should die, that I should mix in broils, watch in arms, and pass a life of bloodshed. I was a man of camps, andrested not; hating peace, I grew old under thy standard, O War-god, inutmost peril; conquering fear, I thought it comely to fight, shameful toloiter, and noble to kill and kill again, to be for ever slaughtering!Oft have I seen the stern kings meet in war, seen shield and helmetbruised, and the fields redden with blood, and the cuirass broken by thespear-point, and the corselets all around giving at the thrust of thesteel, and the wild beasts battening on the unburied soldier. Here, asit chanced, one that attempted a mighty thing, a strong-handed warrior, fighting against the press of the foe, smote through the mail thatcovered my head, pierced my helmet, and plunged his blade into my crest. This sword also hath often been driven by my right hand in war, and, once unsheathed, hath cleft the skin and bitten into the skull. "

Hather, in answer, sang as follows:

"Whence comest thou, who art used to write the poems of thy land, leaning thy wavering steps on a frail staff? Or whither dost thou speed, who art the readiest bard of the Danish muse? All the glory of thy greatstrength is faded and lost; the hue is banished from thy face, the joyis gone out of thy soul; the voice has left thy throat, and is hoarseand dull; thy body has lost its former stature; the decay of deathbegins, and has wasted thy features and thy force. As a ship wearies, buffeted by continual billows, even so old age, gendered by a longcourse of years, brings forth bitter death; and the life falls when itsstrength is done, and suffers the loss of its ancient lot. Famous oldman, who has told thee that thou mayst not duly follow the sports ofyouth, or fling balls, or bite and eat the nut? I think it were betterfor thee now to sell thy sword, and buy a carriage wherein to rideoften, or a horse easy on the bit, or at the same cost to purchase alight cart. It will be more fitting for beasts of burden to carry weakold men, when their steps fail them; the wheel, driving round and round, serves for him whose foot totters feebly. But if perchance thou art lothto sell the useless steel, thy sword, if it be not for sale, shall betaken from thee and shall slay thee. "

Starkad answered: "Wretch, thy glib lips scatter idle words, unfit forthe ears of the good. Why seek the gifts to reward that guidance, whichthou shouldst have offered for naught? Surely I will walk afoot, andwill not basely give up my sword and buy the help of a stranger; naturehas given me the right of passage, and hath bidden me trust in my ownfeet. Why mock and jeer with insolent speech at him whom thou shouldsthave offered to guide upon his way? Why give to dishonour my deeds ofold, which deserve the memorial of fame? Why requite my service withreproach? Why pursue with jeers the old man mighty in battle, and putto shame my unsurpassed honours and illustrious deeds, belittling myglories and girding at my prowess? For what valour of thine dost thoudemand my sword, which thy strength does not deserve? It befits not theright hand or the unwarlike side of a herdsman, who is wont to make hispeasant-music on the pipe, to see to the flock, to keep the herds in thefields. Surely among the henchmen, close to the greasy pot, thou dippestthy crust in the bubbles of the foaming pan, drenching a meagre slicein the rich, oily fat, and stealthily, with thirsty finger, licking thewarm juice; more skilled to spread thy accustomed cloak on the ashes, tosleep on the hearth, and slumber all day long, and go busily about thework of the reeking kitchen, than to make the brave blood flow withthy shafts in war. Men think thee a hater of the light and a lover of afilthy hole, a wretched slave of thy belly, like a whelp who licks thecoarse grain, husk and all. 

"By heaven, thou didst not try to rob me of my sword when thrice atgreat peril I fought (for?) the son of Ole. For truly, in that array, myhand either broke the sword or shattered the obstacle, so heavy was theblow of the smiter. What of the day when I first taught them, to runwith wood-shod feet over the shore of the Kurlanders, and the pathbestrewn with countless points? For when I was going to the fieldsstudded with calthrops, I guarded their wounded feet with clogs belowthem. After this I slew Hame, who fought me mightily; and soon, with thecaptain Rin the son of Flebak, I crushed the Kurlanders, yea, or all thetribes Esthonia breeds, and thy peoples, O Semgala! Then I attacked themen of Tellemark, and took thence my head bloody with bruises, shatteredwith mallets, and smitten with the welded weapons. Here first I learnthow strong was the iron wrought on the anvil, or what valour the commonpeople had. Also it was my doing that the Teutons were punished, when, in avenging my lord, I laid low over their cups thy sons, O Swerting, who were guilty of the wicked slaughter of Frode. 

"Not less was the deed when, for the sake of a beloved maiden, I slewnine brethren in one fray;--witness the spot, which was consumed by thebowels that left me, and brings not forth the grain anew on its scorchedsod. And soon, when Ker the captain made ready a war by sea, with anoble army we beat his serried ships. Then I put Waske to death, andpunished the insolent smith by slashing his hinder parts; and with thesword I slew Wisin, who from the snowy rocks blunted the spears. ThenI slew the four sons of Ler, and the champions of Permland; and thenhaving taken the chief of the Irish race, I rifled the wealth of Dublin;and our courage shall ever remain manifest by the trophies of Bravalla. Why do I linger? Countless are the deeds of my bravery, and when Ireview the works of my hands I fail to number them to the full. Thewhole is greater than I can tell. My work is too great for fame, andspeech serves not for my doings. "

So sang Starkad. At last, when he found by their talk that Hather wasthe son of Hlenne, and saw that the youth was of illustrious birth, he offered him his throat to smite, bidding him not to shrink frompunishing the slayer of his father. He promised him that if he did so heshould possess the gold which he had himself received from Hlenne. Andto enrage his heart more vehemently against him, he is said to haveharangued him as follows:

"Moreover, Hather, I robbed thee of thy father Hlenne; requite me this, I pray, and strike down the old man who longs to die; aim at my throatwith the avenging steel. For my soul chooses the service of a noblesmiter, and shrinks to ask its doom at a coward's hand. Righteously maya man choose to forstall the ordinance of doom. What cannot be escapedit will be lawful also to anticipate. The fresh tree must be fostered, the old one hewn down. He is nature's instrument who destroys what isnear its doom and strikes down what cannot stand. Death is best whenit is sought: and when the end is loved, life is wearisome. Let not thetroubles of age prolong a miserable lot. "

So saying, he took money from his pouch and gave it him. But Hather, desiring as much to enjoy the gold as to accomplish vengeance for hisfather, promised that he would comply with his prayer, and would notrefuse the reward. Starkad eagerly handed him the sword, and at oncestooped his neck beneath it, counselling him not to do the smiter's worktimidly, or use the sword like a woman; and telling him that if, whenhe had killed him, he could spring between the head and the trunk beforethe corpse fell, he would be rendered proof against arms. It is notknown whether he said this in order to instruct his executioner or topunish him, for perhaps, as he leapt, the bulk of the huge body wouldhave crushed him. So Hather smote sharply with the sword and hacked offthe head of the old man. When the severed head struck the ground, it issaid to have bitten the earth; thus the fury of the dying lips declaredthe fierceness of the soul. But the smiter, thinking that the promisehid some treachery, warily refrained from leaping. Had he done sorashly, perhaps he would have been crushed by the corpse as it fell, andhave paid with his own life for the old man's murder. But he would notallow so great a champion to lie unsepulchred, and had his body buriedin the field that is commonly called Rolung. 

Now Omund, as I have heard, died most tranquilly, while peace wasunbroken, leaving two sons and two daughters. The eldest of these, SIWARD, came to the throne by right of birth, while his brother Budlewas still of tender years. At this time Gotar, King of the Swedes, conceived boundless love for one of the daughters of Omund, because ofthe report of her extraordinary beauty, and entrusted one Ebb, the sonof Sibb, with the commission of asking for the maiden. Ebb did his workskilfully, and brought back the good news that the girl had consented. Nothing was now lacking to Gotar's wishes but the wedding; but, as hefeared to hold this among strangers, he demanded that his betrothedshould be sent to him in charge of Ebb, whom he had before used asenvoy. 

Ebb was crossing Halland with a very small escort, and went for anight's lodging to a country farm, where the dwellings of two brothersfaced one another on the two sides of a river. Now these men used toreceive folk hospitably and then murder them, but were skilful tohide their brigandage under a show of generosity. For they had hung oncertain hidden chains, in a lofty part of the house, an oblong beam likea press, and furnished it with a steel point; they used to lower this inthe night by letting down the fastenings, and cut off the heads of thosethat lay below. Many had they beheaded in this way with the hangingmass. So when Ebb and his men had been feasted abundantly, the servantslaid them out a bed near the hearth, so that by the swing of thetreacherous beam they might mow off their heads, which faced the fire. When they departed, Ebb, suspecting the contrivance slung overhead, toldhis men to feign slumber and shift their bodies, saying that it would bevery wholesome for them to change their place. 

Now among these were some who despised the orders which the othersobeyed, and lay unmoved, each in the spot where he had chanced to liedown. Then towards the mirk of night the heavy hanging machine was setin motion by the doers of the treachery. Loosened from the knots of itsfastening, it fell violently on the ground, and slew those beneath it. Thereupon those who had the charge of committing the crime brought ina light, that they might learn clearly what had happened, and saw thatEbb, on whose especial account they had undertaken the affair, hadwisely been equal to the danger. He straightway set on them and punishedthem with death; and also, after losing his men in the mutual slaughter, he happened to find a vessel, crossed a river full of blocks of ice, and announced to Gotar the result, not so much of his mission as of hismishap. 

Gotar judged that this affair had been inspired by Siward, and preparedto avenge his wrongs by arms. Siward, defeated by him in Halland, retreated into Jutland, the enemy having taken his sister. Here heconquered the common people of the Sclavs, who ventured to fight withouta leader; and he won as much honour from this victory as he had gotdisgrace by his flight. But a little afterwards, the men whom he hadsubdued when they were ungeneraled, found a general and defeated Siwardin Funen. Several times he fought them in Jutland, but with ill-success. The result was that he lost both Skaane and Jutland, and only retainedthe middle of his realm without the head, like the fragments of somebody that had been consumed away. His son Jarmerik (Eormunrec), with hischild-sisters, fell into the hands of the enemy; one of these was soldto the Germans, the other to the Norwegians; for in old time marriageswere matters of purchase. Thus the kingdom of the Danes, which had beenenlarged with such valour, made famous by such ancestral honours, andenriched by so many conquests, fell, all by the sloth of one man, fromthe most illustrious fortune and prosperity into such disgrace that itpaid the tribute which it used to exact. But Siward, too often defeatedand guilty of shameful flights, could not endure, after that gloriouspast, to hold the troubled helm of state any longer in this shamefulcondition of his land; and, fearing that living longer might strip himof his last shred of glory, he hastened to win an honourable death inbattle. For his soul could not forget his calamity, it was fain to castoff its sickness, and was racked with weariness of life. So much didhe abhor the light of life in his longing to wipe out his shame. So hemustered his army for battle, and openly declared war with one Simon, who was governor of Skaane under Gotar. This war he pursued withstubborn rashness; he slew Simon, and ended his own life amid a greatslaughter of his foes. Yet his country could not be freed from theburden of the tribute. 

Jarmerik, meantime, with his foster-brother of the same age as himself, Gunn, was living in prison, in charge of Ismar, the King of the Sclavs. At last he was taken out and put to agriculture, doing the work of apeasant. So actively did he manage this matter that he was transferredand made master of the royal slaves. As he likewise did this businessmost uprightly, he was enrolled in the band of the king's retainers. Here he bore himself most pleasantly as courtiers use, and was soontaken into the number of the king's friends and obtained the first placein his intimacy; thus, on the strength of a series of great services, he passed from the lowest estate to the most distinguished height ofhonour. Also, loth to live a slack and enfeebled youth, he trainedhimself to the pursuits of war, enriching his natural gifts bydiligence. All men loved Jarmerik, and only the queen mistrusted theyoung man's temper. A sudden report told them that the king's brotherhad died. Ismar, wishing to give his body a splendid funeral, prepared abanquet of royal bounty to increase the splendour of the obsequies. 

But Jarmerik, who used at other times to look after the householdaffairs together with the queen, began to cast about for means ofescape; for a chance seemed to be offered by the absence of the king. For he saw that even in the lap of riches he would be the wretchedthrall of a king, and that he would draw, as it were, his very breathon sufferance and at the gift of another. Moreover, though he held thehighest offices with the king, he thought that freedom was better thandelights, and burned with a mighty desire to visit his country and learnhis lineage. But, knowing that the queen had provided sufficient guardsto see that no prisoner escaped, he saw that he must approach by craftwhere he could not arrive by force. So he plaited one of those basketsof rushes and withies, shaped like a man, with which countrymen used toscare the birds from the corn, and put a live dog in it; then he tookoff his own clothes, and dressed it in them, to give a more plausiblelikeness to a human being. Then he broke into the private treasury ofthe king, took out the money, and hid himself in places of which healone knew. 

Meantime Gunn, whom he had told to conceal the absence of his friend, took the basket into the palace and stirred up the dog to bark; and whenthe queen asked what this was, he answered that Jarmerik was out ofhis mind and howling. She, beholding the effigy, was deceived by thelikeness, and ordered that the madman should be cast out of the house. Then Gunn took the effigy out and put it to bed, as though it were hisdistraught friend. But towards night he plied the watch bountifully withwine and festal mirth, cut off their heads as they slept, and set themat their groins, in order to make their slaying more shameful. Thequeen, roused by the din, and wishing to learn the reason of it, hastilyrushed to the doors. But while she unwarily put forth her head, thesword of Gunn suddenly pierced her through. Feeling a mortal wound, shesank, turned her eyes on her murderer, and said, "Had it been grantedme to live unscathed, no screen or treachery should have let thee leavethis land unpunished. " A flood of such threats against her slayer pouredfrom her dying lips. 

Then Jarmerik, with Gunn, the partner of his noble deed, secretly setfire to the tent wherein the king was celebrating with a banquet theobsequies of his brother; all the company were overcome with liquor. Thefire filled the tent and spread all about; and some of them, shakingoff the torpor of drink, took horse and pursued those who had endangeredthem. But the young men fled at first on the beasts they had taken;and at last, when these were exhausted with their long gallop, took toflight on foot. They were all but caught, when a river saved them. Forthey crossed a bridge, of which, in order to delay the pursuer, theyfirst cut the timbers down to the middle, thus making it not onlyunequal to a burden, but ready to come down; then they retreated into adense morass. 

The Sclavs pressed on them hard and, not forseeing the danger, unwarilyput the weight of their horses on the bridge; the flooring sank, andthey were shaken off and flung into the river. But, as they swam upto the bank, they were met by Gunn and Jarmerik, and either drowned orslain. Thus the young men showed great cunning, and did a deed beyondtheir years, being more like sagacious old men than runaway slaves, andsuccessfully achieving their shrewd design. When they reached the strandthey seized a vessel chance threw in their way, and made for the deep. The barbarians who pursued them, tried, when they saw them sailing off, to bring them back by shouting promises after them that they should bekings if they returned; "for, by the public statute of the ancients, the succession was appointed to the slayers of the kings. " As theyretreated, their ears were long deafened by the Sclavs obstinatelyshouting their treacherous promises. 

At this time BUDLE, the brother of Siward, was Regent over the Danes, who forced him to make over the kingdom to JARMERIK when he came; sothat Budle fell from a king into a common man. At the same time Gotarcharged Sibb with debauching his sister, and slew him. Sibb's kindred, much angered by his death, came wailing to Jarmerik, and promised toattack Gotar with him, in order to avenge their kinsman. They kepttheir promise well, for Jarmerik, having overthrown Gotar by their help, gained Sweden. Thus, holding the sovereignty of both nations, he wasencouraged by his increased power to attack the Sclavs, forty of whom hetook and hung with a wolf tied to each of them. This kind of punishmentwas assigned of old to those who slew their own kindred; but he choseto inflict it upon enemies, that all might see plainly, just from theirfellowship with ruthless beasts, how grasping they had shown themselvestowards the Danes. 

When Jarmerik had conquered the country, he posted garrisons in all thefitting places, and departing thence, he made a slaughter of the Sembsand the Kurlanders, and many nations of the East. The Sclavs, thinkingthat this employment of the king gave them a chance of revolting, killedthe governors whom he had appointed, and ravaged Denmark. Jarmerik, on his way back from roving, chanced to intercept their fleet, anddestroyed it, a deed which added honour to his roll of conquests. Healso put their nobles to death in a way that one would weep to see;namely, by first passing thongs through their legs, and then tying themto the hoofs of savage bulls; then hounds set on them and dragged theminto miry swamps. This deed took the edge off the valour of the Sclavs, and they obeyed the authority of the king in fear and trembling. 

Jarmerik, enriched with great spoils, wished to provide a safestorehouse for his booty, and built on a lofty hill a treasure-house ofmarvellous handiwork. Gathering sods, he raised a mound, laying a massof rocks for the foundation, and girt the lower part with a rampart, thecentre with rooms, and the top with battlements. All round he posted aline of sentries without a break. Four huge gates gave free access onthe four sides; and into this lordly mansion he heaped all his splendidriches. Having thus settled his affairs at home, he again turned hisambition abroad. He began to voyage, and speedily fought a naval battlewith four brothers whom he met on the high seas, Hellespontines by race, and veteran rovers. After this battle had lasted three days, he ceasedfighting, having bargained for their sister and half the tribute whichthey had imposed on those they had conquered. 

After this, Bikk, the son of the King of the Livonians, escaped fromthe captivity in which he lay under these said brothers, and went toJarmerik. But he did not forget his wrongs, Jarmerik having long beforedeprived him of his own brothers. He was received kindly by the king, inall whose secret counsels he soon came to have a notable voice; and, assoon as he found the king pliable to his advice in all things, he ledhim, when his counsel was asked, into the most abominable acts, anddrove him to commit crimes and infamies. Thus he sought some device toinjure the king by a feint of loyalty, and tried above all to steel himagainst his nearest of blood; attempting to accomplish the revenge ofhis brother by guile, since he could not by force. So it came to passthat the king embraced filthy vices instead of virtues, and made himselfgenerally hated by the cruel deeds which he committed at the instance ofhis treacherous adviser. Even the Sclavs began to rise against him; and, as a means of quelling them, he captured their leaders, passed a ropethrough their shanks, and delivered them to be torn asunder by horsespulling different ways. So perished their chief men, punished for theirstubbornness of spirit by having their bodies rent apart. This kept theSclavs duly obedient in unbroken and steady subjugation. 

Meantime, the sons of Jarmerik's sister, who had all been born and bredin Germany, took up arms, on the strength of their grandsire's title, against their uncle, contending that they had as good a right to thethrone as he. The king demolished their strongholds in Germany withengines, blockaded or took several towns, and returned home with abloodless victory. The Hellespontines came to meet him, proffering theirsister for the promised marriage. After this had been celebrated, atBikk's prompting he again went to Germany, took his nephews in war, andincontinently hanged them. He also got together the chief men under thepretence of a banquet and had them put to death in the same fashion. 

Meantime, the king appointed Broder, his son by another marriage, tohave charge over his stepmother, a duty which he fulfilled with fullvigilance and integrity. But Bikk accused this man to his father ofincest; and, to conceal the falsehood of the charge, suborned witnessesagainst him. When the plea of the accusation had been fully declared, Broder could not bring any support for his defence, and his fatherbade his friends pass sentence upon the convicted man, thinking it lessimpious to commit the punishment proper for his son to the judgment ofothers. All thought that he deserved outlawry except Bikk, who did notshrink from giving a more terrible vote against his life, and declaringthat the perpetrator of an infamous seduction ought to be punished withhanging. But lest any should think that this punishment was due to thecruelty of his father, Bikk judged that, when he had been put in thenoose, the servants should hold him up on a beam put beneath him, sothat, when weariness made them take their hands from the burden, theymight be as good as guilty of the young man's death, and by their ownfault exonerate the king from an unnatural murder. He also pretendedthat, unless the accused were punished, he would plot against hisfather's life. The adulteress Swanhild, he said, ought to suffer ashameful end, trampled under the hoofs of beasts. 

The king yielded to Bikk; and, when his son was to be hanged, he madethe bystanders hold him up by means of a plank, that he might notbe choked. Thus his throat was only a little squeezed, the knot washarmless, and it was but a punishment in show. But the king had thequeen tied very tight on the ground, and delivered her to be crushedunder the hoofs of horses. The story goes that she was so beautiful, that even the beasts shrank from mangling limbs so lovely with theirfilthy feet. The king, divining that this proclaimed the innocence ofhis wife, began to repent of his error, and hastened to release theslandered lady. But meantime Bikk rushed up, declaring that when she wason her back she held off the beasts by awful charms, and could only becrushed if she lay on her face; for he knew that her beauty saved her. When the body of the queen was placed in this manner, the herd of beastswas driven upon it, and trod it down deep with their multitude of feet. Such was the end of Swanhild. 

Meantime, the favourite dog of Broder came creeping to the king makinga sort of moan, and seemed to bewail its master's punishment; and hishawk, when it was brought in, began to pluck out its breast-featherswith its beak. The king took its nakedness as an omen of hisbereavement, to frustrate which he quickly sent men to take his son downfrom the noose: for he divined by the featherless bird that he would bechildless unless he took good heed. Thus Broder was freed from death, and Bikk, fearing he would pay the penalty of an informer, went and toldthe men of the Hellespont that Swanhild had been abominably slain byher husband. When they set sail to avenge their sister, he came back toJarmerik, and told him that the Hellespontines were preparing war. 

The king thought that it would be safer to fight with walls than in thefield, and retreated into the stronghold which he had built. To standthe siege, he filled its inner parts with stores, and its battlementswith men-at-arms. Targets and shields flashing with gold were hung roundand adorned the topmost circle of the building. 

It happened that the Hellespontines, before sharing their booty, accuseda great band of their men of embezzling, and put them to death. Havingnow destroyed so large a part of their forces by internecine slaughter, they thought that their strength was not equal to storming the palace, and consulted a sorceress named Gudrun. She brought it to pass that thedefenders of the king's side were suddenly blinded and turned their armsagainst one another. When the Hellespontines saw this, they brought upa shield-mantlet, and seized the approaches of the gates. Then they toreup the posts, burst into the building, and hewed down the blinded ranksof the enemy. In this uproar Odin appeared, and, making for the thickof the ranks of the fighters, restored by his divine power to the Danesthat vision which they had lost by sleights; for he ever cherished themwith fatherly love. He instructed them to shower stones to batter theHellespontines, who used spells to harden their bodies against weapons. Thus both companies slew one another and perished. Jarmerik lost bothfeet and both hands, and his trunk was rolled among the dead. BRODER, little fit for it, followed him as king. 

The next king was SIWALD. His son SNIO took vigorously to roving in hisfather's old age, and not only preserved the fortunes of his country, but even restored them, lessened as they were, to their former estate. Likewise, when he came to the sovereignty, he crushed the insolenceof the champions Eskil and Alkil, and by this conquest reunited to hiscountry Skaane, which had been severed from the general jurisdiction ofDenmark. At last he conceived a passion for the daughter of the Kingof the Goths; it was returned, and he sent secret messengers to seek achance of meeting her. These men were intercepted by the father of thedamsel and hanged: thus paying dearly for their rash mission. Snio, wishing to avenge their death, invaded Gothland. Its king met him withhis forces, and the aforesaid champions challenged him to send strongmen to fight. Snio laid down as condition of the duel, that each of thetwo kings should either lose his own empire or gain that of the other, according to the fortune of the champions, and that the kingdom of theconquered should be staked as the prize of the victory. The result wasthat the King of the Goths was beaten by reason of the ill-success ofhis defenders, and had to quit his kingdom for the Danes. Snio, learningthat this king's daughter had been taken away at the instance of herfather to wed the King of the Swedes, sent a man clad in ragged attire, who used to ask alms on the public roads, to try her mind. And while helay, as beggars do, by the threshold, he chanced to see the queen, andwhined in a weak voice, "Snio loves thee. " She feigned not to have heardthe sound that stole on her ears, and neither looked nor stepped back, but went on to the palace, then returned straightway, and said in a lowwhisper, which scarcely reached his ears, "I love him who loves me"; andhaving said this she walked away. 

The beggar rejoiced that she had returned a word of love, and, as he saton the next day at the gate, when the queen came up, he said, brieflyas ever, "Wishes should have a tryst. " Again she shrewdly caught hiscunning speech, and passed on, dissembling wholly. A little latershe passed by her questioner, and said that she would shortly go toBocheror; for this was the spot to which she meant to flee. And when thebeggar heard this, he insisted, with his wonted shrewd questions, uponbeing told a fitting time for the tryst. The woman was as cunning ashe, and as little clear of speech, and named as quickly as she could thebeginning of the winter. 

Her train, who had caught a flying word of this love-message, took hergreat cleverness for the raving of utter folly. And when Snio had beentold all this by the beggar, he contrived to carry the queen off ina vessel; for she got away under pretence of bathing, and took herhusband's treasures. After this there were constant wars between Snioand the King of Sweden, whereof the issue was doubtful and the victorychangeful; the one king seeking to regain his lawful, the other to keephis unlawful love. 

At this time the yield of crops was ruined by most inclement weather, and a mighty dearth of corn befell. Victuals began to be scarce, andthe commons were distressed with famine, so that the king, anxiouslypondering how to relieve the hardness of the times, and seeing that thethirsty spent somewhat more than the hungry, introduced thrift among thepeople. He abolished drinking-bouts, and decreed that no drink should beprepared from gram, thinking that the bitter famine should be got ridof by prohibiting needless drinking, and that plentiful food could belevied as a loan on thirst. 

Then a certain wanton slave of his belly, lamenting the prohibitionagainst drink, adopted a deep kind of knavery, and found a new way toindulge his desires. He broke the public law of temperance by his ownexcess, contriving to get at what he loved by a device both cunningand absurd. For he sipped the forbidden liquor drop by drop, and sosatisfied his longing to be tipsy. When he was summoned for this by theking, he declared that there was no stricter observer of sobriety thanhe, inasmuch as he mortified his longing to quaff deep by this devicefor moderate drinking. He persisted in the fault with which he wastaxed, saying that he only sucked. At last he was also menaced withthreats, and forbidden not only to drink, but even to sip; yet he couldnot check his habits. For in order to enjoy the unlawful thing ina lawful way, and not to have his throat subject to the command ofanother, he sopped morsels of bread in liquor, and fed on the piecesthus soaked with drink; tasting slowly, so as to prolong the desireddebauch, and attaining, though in no unlawful manner, the forbiddenmeasure of satiety. 

Thus his stubborn and frantic intemperance risked his life, all forluxury; and, undeterred even by the threats of the king, he fortifiedhis rash appetite to despise every peril. A second time he was summonedby the king on the charge of disobeying his regulation. Yet he did noteven theft cease to defend his act, but maintained that he had in nowise contravened the royal decree, and that the temperance prescribedby the ordinance had been in no way violated by that which alluredhim; especially as the thrift ordered in the law of plain living was sodescribed, that it was apparently forbidden to drink liquor, but not toeat it. Then the king called heaven to witness, and swore by the generalgood, that if he ventured on any such thing hereafter he would punishhim with death. But the man thought that death was not so bad astemperance, and that it was easier to quit life than luxury; andhe again boiled the grain in water, and then fermented the liquor;whereupon, despairing of any further plea to excuse his appetite, heopenly indulged in drink, and turned to his cups again unabashed. Givingup cunning for effrontery, he chose rather to await the punishment ofthe king than to turn sober. Therefore, when the king asked him why hehad so often made free to use the forbidden thing, he said:

"O king, this craving is begotten, not so much of my thirst, as of mygoodwill towards thee! For I remembered that the funeral rites of a kingmust be paid with a drinking-bout. Therefore, led by good judgment morethan the desire to swill, I have, by mixing the forbidden liquid, takencare that the feast whereat thy obsequies are performed should not, byreason of the scarcity of corn, lack the due and customary drinking. NowI do not doubt that thou wilt perish of famine before the rest, andbe the first to need a tomb; for thou hast passed this strange law ofthrift in fear that thou wilt be thyself the first to lack food. Thouart thinking for thyself, and not for others, when thou bringest thyselfto start such strange miserly ways. "

This witty quibbling turned the anger of the king into shame; and whenhe saw that his ordinance for the general good came home in mockery tohimself, he thought no more of the public profit, but revoked the edict, relaxing his purpose sooner than anger his subjects. 

Whether it was that the soil had too little rain, or that it was toohard baked, the crops, as I have said, were slack, and the fields gavebut little produce; so that the land lacked victual, and was worn witha weary famine. The stock of food began to fail, and no help was leftto stave off hunger. Then, at the proposal of Agg and of Ebb, itwas provided by a decree of the people that the old men and the tinychildren should be slain; that all who were too young to bear armsshould be taken out of the land, and only the strong should bevouchsafed their own country; that none but able-bodied soldiers andhusbandmen should continue to abide under their own roofs and in thehouses of their fathers. When Agg and Ebb brought news of this to theirmother Gambaruk, she saw that the authors of this infamous decree hadfound safety in crime. Condemning the decision of the assembly, she saidthat it was wrong to relieve distress by murder of kindred, and declaredthat a plan both more honourable and more desirable for the good oftheir souls and bodies would be, to preserve respect towards theirparents and children, and choose by lot men who should quit the country. And if the lot fell on old men and weak, then the stronger should offerto go into exile in their place, and should of their own free willundertake to bear the burden of it for the feeble. But those men whohad the heart to save their lives by crime and impiety, and to prosecutetheir parents and their children by so abominable a decree, did notdeserve life; for they would be doing a work of cruelty and not of love. Finally, all those whose own lives were dearer to them than the loveof their parents or their children, deserved but ill of their country. These words were reported to the assembly, and assented to by the voteof the majority. So the fortunes of all were staked upon the lot andthose upon whom it fell were doomed to be banished. Thus those who hadbeen loth to obey necessity of their own accord had now to accept theaward of chance. So they sailed first to Bleking, and then, sailing pastMoring, they came to anchor at Gothland; where, according to Paulus, they are said to have been prompted by the goddess Frigg to take thename of the Longobardi (Lombards), whose nation they afterwards founded. In the end they landed at Rugen, and, abandoning their ships, began tomarch overland. They crossed and wasted a great portion of the world;and at last, finding an abode in Italy, changed the ancient name of thenation for their own. 

Meanwhile, the land of the Danes, where the tillers laboured less andless, and all traces of the furrows were covered with overgrowth, beganto look like a forest. Almost stripped of its pleasant native turf, itbristled with the dense unshapely woods that grew up. Traces of this areyet seen in the aspect of its fields. What were once acres fertile ingrain are now seen to be dotted with trunks of trees; and where of oldthe tillers turned the earth up deep and scattered the huge clods therehas now sprung up a forest covering the fields, which still bear thetracks of ancient tillage. Had not these lands remained untilled anddesolate with long overgrowth, the tenacious roots of trees could neverhave shared the soil of one and the same land with the furrows made bythe plough. Moreover, the mounds which men laboriously built up of oldon the level ground for the burial of the dead are now covered by a massof woodland. Many piles of stones are also to be seen interspersed amongthe forest glades. These were once scattered over the whole country, butthe peasants carefully gathered the boulders and piled them into a heapthat they might not prevent furrows being cut in all directions; forthey would sooner sacrifice a little of the land than find the whole ofit stubborn. From this work, done by the toil of the peasants forthe easier working of the fields, it is judged that the population inancient times was greater than the present one, which is satisfied withsmall fields, and keeps its agriculture within narrower limits thanthose of the ancient tillage. Thus the present generation is amazed tobehold that it has exchanged a soil which could once produce grain forone only fit to grow acorns, and the plough-handle and the cornstalksfor a landscape studded with trees. Let this account of Snio, which Ihave put together as truly as I could, suffice. 

Snio was succeeded by BIORN; and after him HARALD became sovereign. Harald's son GORM won no mean place of honour among the ancient generalsof the Danes by his record of doughty deeds. For he ventured into freshfields, preferring to practise his inherited valour, not in war, but insearching the secrets of nature; and, just as other kings are stirred bywarlike ardour, so his heart thirsted to look into marvels; either whathe could experience himself, or what were merely matters of report. Andbeing desirous to go and see all things foreign and extraordinary, hethought that he must above all test a report which he had heard from themen of Thule concerning the abode of a certain Geirrod. For they boastedpast belief of the mighty piles of treasure in that country, but saidthat the way was beset with peril, and hardly passable by mortal man. For those who had tried it declared that it was needful to sail over theocean that goes round the lands, to leave the sun and stars behind, tojourney down into chaos, and at last to pass into a land where no lightwas and where darkness reigned eternally. 

But the warrior trampled down in his soul all fear of the dangers thatbeset him. Not that he desired booty, but glory; for he hoped for agreat increase of renown if he ventured on a wholly unattempted quest. Three hundred men announced that they had the same desire as the king;and he resolved that Thorkill, who had brought the news, should bechosen to guide them on the journey, as he knew the ground and wasversed in the approaches to that country. Thorkill did not refuse thetask, and advised that, to meet the extraordinary fury of the sea theyhad to cross, strongly-made vessels should be built, fitted with manyknotted cords and close-set nails, filled with great store of provision, and covered above with ox-hides to protect the inner spaces of the shipsfrom the spray of the waves breaking in. Then they sailed off in onlythree galleys, each containing a hundred chosen men. 

Now when they had come to Halogaland (Helgeland), they lost theirfavouring breezes, and were driven and tossed divers ways over the seasin perilous voyage. At last, in extreme want of food, and lacking evenbread, they staved off hunger with a little pottage. Some days passed, and they heard the thunder of a storm brawling in the distance, as ifit were deluging the rocks. By this perceiving that land was near, theybade a youth of great nimbleness climb to the masthead and look out; andhe reported that a precipitous island was in sight. All were overjoyed, and gazed with thirsty eyes at the country at which he pointed, eagerlyawaiting the refuge of the promised shore. At last they managed to reachit, and made their way out over the heights that blocked their way, along very steep paths, into the higher ground. Then Thorkill told themto take no more of the herds that were running about in numbers on thecoast, than would serve once to appease their hunger. If they disobeyed, the guardian gods of the spot would not let them depart. But theseamen, more anxious to go on filling their bellies than to obey orders, postponed counsels of safety to the temptations of gluttony, and loadedthe now emptied holds of their ships with the carcases of slaughteredcattle. These beasts were very easy to capture, because they gathered inamazement at the unwonted sight of men, their fears being made bold. On the following night monsters dashed down upon the shore, filled theforest with clamour, and beleaguered and beset the ships. One of them, huger than the rest, strode over the waters, armed with a mighty club. Coming close up to them, he bellowed out that they should neversail away till they had atoned for the crime they had committed inslaughtering the flock, and had made good the losses of the herd of thegods by giving up one man for each of their ships. Thorkill yieldedto these threats; and, in order to preserve the safety of all byimperilling a few, singled out three men by lot and gave them up. 

This done, a favouring wind took them, and they sailed to furtherPermland. It is a region of eternal cold, covered with very deep snows, and not sensible to the force even of the summer heats; full of pathlessforests, not fertile in grain and haunted by beasts uncommon elsewhere. Its many rivers pour onwards in a hissing, foaming flood, because of thereefs imbedded in their channels. 

Here Thorkill drew up his ships ashore, and bade them pitch their tentson the beach, declaring that they had come to a spot whence the passageto Geirrod would be short. Moreover, he forbade them to exchange anyspeech with those that came up to them, declaring that nothing enabledthe monsters to injure strangers so much as uncivil words on their part:it would be therefore safer for his companions to keep silence; nonebut he, who had seen all the manners and customs of this nation before, could speak safely. As twilight approached, a man of extraordinarybigness greeted the sailors by their names, and came among them. Allwere aghast, but Thorkill told them to greet his arrival cheerfully, telling them that this was Gudmund, the brother of Geirrod, and the mostfaithful guardian in perils of all men who landed in that spot. When theman asked why all the rest thus kept silence, he answered that they werevery unskilled in his language, and were ashamed to use a speech theydid not know. Then Gudmund invited them to be his guests, and took themup in carriages. As they went forward, they saw a river which couldbe crossed by a bridge of gold. They wished to go over it, but Gudmundrestrained them, telling them that by this channel nature had dividedthe world of men from the world of monsters, and that no mortal trackmight go further. Then they reached the dwelling of their guide; andhere Thorkill took his companions apart and warned them to behave likemen of good counsel amidst the divers temptations chance might throw intheir way; to abstain from the food of the stranger, and nourish theirbodies only on their own; and to seek a seat apart from the natives, and have no contact with any of them as they lay at meat. For if theypartook of that food they would lose recollection of all things, andmust live for ever in filthy intercourse amongst ghastly hordes ofmonsters. Likewise he told them that they must keep their hands off theservants and the cups of the people. 

Round the table stood twelve noble sons of Gudmund, and as manydaughters of notable beauty. When Gudmund saw that the king barelytasted what his servants brought, he reproached him with repulsing hiskindness, and complained that it was a slight on the host. But Thorkillwas not at a loss for a fitting excuse. He reminded him that men whotook unaccustomed food often suffered from it seriously, and that theking was not ungrateful for the service rendered by another, but wasmerely taking care of his health, when he refreshed himself as he waswont, and furnished his supper with his own viands. An act, therefore, that was only done in the healthy desire to escape some bane, oughtin no wise to be put down to scorn. Now when Gudmund saw that thetemperance of his guest had baffled his treacherous preparations, he determined to sap their chastity, if he could not weaken theirabstinence, and eagerly strained every nerve of his wit to enfeebletheir self-control. For he offered the king his daughter in marriage, and promised the rest that they should have whatever women of hishousehold they desired. Most of them inclined to his offer: but Thorkillby his healthy admonitions prevented them, as he had done before, fromfalling into temptation. 

With wonderful management Thorkill divided his heed between thesuspicious host and the delighted guests. Four of the Danes, to whomlust was more than their salvation, accepted the offer; theinfection maddened them, distraught their wits, and blotted out theirrecollection: for they are said never to have been in their right mindafter this. If these men had kept themselves within the rightfulbounds of temperance, they would have equalled the glories of Hercules, surpassed with their spirit the bravery of giants, and been ennobled forever by their wondrous services to their country. 

Gudmund, stubborn to his purpose, and still spreading his nets, extolledthe delights of his garden, and tried to lure the king thither to gatherfruits, desiring to break down his constant wariness by the lust of theeye and the baits of the palate. The king, as before, was strengthenedagainst these treacheries by Thorkill, and rejected this feint of kindlyservice; he excused himself from accepting it on the plea that he musthasten on his journey. Gudmund perceived that Thorkill was shrewderthan he at every point; so, despairing to accomplish his treachery, he carried them all across the further side of the river, and let themfinish their journey. 

They went on; and saw, not far off, a gloomy, neglected town, lookingmore like a cloud exhaling vapour. Stakes interspersed among thebattlements showed the severed heads of warriors and dogs of greatferocity were seen watching before the doors to guard the entrance. Thorkill threw them a horn smeared with fat to lick, and so, at slightcost, appeased their most furious rage. High up the gates lay opento enter, and they climbed to their level with ladders, enteringwith difficulty. Inside the town was crowded with murky and misshapenphantoms, and it was hard to say whether their shrieking figures weremore ghastly to the eye or to the ear; everything was foul, and thereeking mire afflicted the nostrils of the visitors with its unbearablestench. Then they found the rocky dwelling which Geirrod was rumoured toinhabit for his palace. They resolved to visit its narrow and horribleledge, but stayed their steps and halted in panic at the very entrance. Then Thorkill, seeing that they were of two minds, dispelled theirhesitation to enter by manful encouragement, counselling them, torestrain themselves, and not to touch any piece of gear in the housethey were about to enter, albeit it seemed delightful to have orpleasant to behold; to keep their hearts as far from all covetousness asfrom fear; neither to desire what was pleasant to take, nor dreadwhat was awful to look upon, though they should find themselves amidstabundance of both these things. If they did, their greedy hands wouldsuddenly be bound fast, unable to tear themselves away from the thingthey touched, and knotted up with it as by inextricable bonds. Moreover, they should enter in order, four by four. 

Broder and Buchi (Buk?) were the first to show courage to attempt toenter the vile palace; Thorkill with the king followed them, and therest advanced behind these in ordered ranks. 

Inside, the house was seen to be ruinous throughout, and filled witha violent and abominable reek. And it also teemed with everything thatcould disgust the eye or the mind: the door-posts were begrimed with thesoot of ages, the wall was plastered with filth, the roof was made up ofspear-heads, the flooring was covered with snakes and bespattered withall manner of uncleanliness. Such an unwonted sight struck terror intothe strangers, and, over all, the acrid and incessant stench assailedtheir afflicted nostrils. Also bloodless phantasmal monsters huddledon the iron seats, and the places for sitting were railed off by leadentrellises; and hideous doorkeepers stood at watch on the thresholds. Some of these, armed with clubs lashed together, yelled, while othersplayed a gruesome game, tossing a goat's hide from one to the other withmutual motion of goatish backs. 

Here Thorkill again warned the men, and forbade them to stretch forththeir covetous hands rashly to the forbidden things. Going on throughthe breach in the crag, they beheld an old man with his body piercedthrough, sitting not far off, on a lofty seat facing the side of therock that had been rent away. Moreover, three women, whose bodies werecovered with tumours, and who seemed to have lost the strength of theirback-bones, filled adjoining seats. Thorkill's companions were verycurious; and he, who well knew the reason of the matter, told them thatlong ago the god Thor had been provoked by the insolence of the giantsto drive red-hot irons through the vitals of Geirrod, who strove withhim, and that the iron had slid further, torn up the mountain, andbattered through its side; while the women had been stricken by themight of his thunderbolts, and had been punished (so he declared) fortheir attempt on the same deity, by having their bodies broken. 

As the men were about to depart thence, there were disclosed to themseven butts hooped round with belts of gold; and from these hungcirclets of silver entwined with them in manifold links. Near these wasfound the tusk of a strange beast, tipped at both ends with gold. Closeby was a vast stag-horn, laboriously decked with choice and flashinggems, and this also did not lack chasing. Hard by was to be seen a veryheavy bracelet. One man was kindled with an inordinate desire for thisbracelet, and laid covetous hands upon the gold, not knowing that theglorious metal covered deadly mischief, and that a fatal bane layhid under the shining spoil. A second also, unable to restrain hiscovetousness, reached out his quivering hands to the horn. A third, matching the confidence of the others, and having no control over hisfingers, ventured to shoulder the tusk. The spoil seemed alike lovely tolook upon and desirable to enjoy, for all that met the eye was fair andtempting to behold. But the bracelet suddenly took the form of a snake, and attacked him who was carrying it with its poisoned tooth; the hornlengthened out into a serpent, and took the life of the man who bore it;the tusk wrought itself into a sword, and plunged into the vitals of itsbearer. 

The rest dreaded the fate of perishing with their friends, and thoughtthat the guiltless would be destroyed like the guilty; they durst nothope that even innocence would be safe. Then the side-door of anotherroom showed them a narrow alcove: and a privy chamber with a yet richertreasure was revealed, wherein arms were laid out too great for those ofhuman stature. Among these were seen a royal mantle, a handsome hat, anda belt marvellously wrought. Thorkill, struck with amazement at thesethings, gave rein to his covetousness, and cast off all his purposedself-restraint. He who so oft had trained others could not so much asconquer his own cravings. For he laid his hand upon the mantle, andhis rash example tempted the rest to join in his enterprise of plunder. Thereupon the recess shook from its lowest foundations, and begansuddenly to reel and totter. Straightway the women raised a shriek thatthe wicked robbers were being endured too long. Then they, who werebefore supposed to be half-dead or lifeless phantoms, seemed to obey thecries of the women, and, leaping suddenly up from their seats, attackedthe strangers with furious onset. The other creatures bellowed hoarsely. 

But Broder and Buchi fell to their old and familiar arts, and attackedthe witches, who ran at them, with a shower of spears from every side;and with the missiles from their bows and slings they crushed thearray of monsters. There could be no stronger or more successful wayto repulse them; but only twenty men out of all the king's companywere rescued by the intervention of this archery; the rest were torn inpieces by the monsters. The survivors returned to the river, and wereferried over by Gudmund, who entertained them at his house. Long andoften as he besought them, he could not keep them back; so at last hegave them presents and let them go. 

Buchi relaxed his watch upon himself; his self-control became unstrung, and he forsook the virtue in which he hitherto rejoiced. For heconceived an incurable love for one of the daughters of Gudmund, andembraced her; but he obtained a bride to his undoing, for soon his brainsuddenly began to whirl, and he lost his recollection. Thus the hero whohad subdued all the monsters and overcome all the perils was mastered bypassion for one girl; his soul strayed far from temperance, and he layunder a wretched sensual yoke. For the sake of respect, he started toaccompany the departing king; but as he was about to ford the riverin his carriage, his wheels sank deep, he was caught up in the violenteddies and destroyed. 

The king bewailed his friend's disaster and departed hastening on hisvoyage. This was at first prosperous, but afterwards he was tossed bybad weather; his men perished of hunger, and but few survived, so thathe began to feel awe in his heart, and fell to making vows to heaven, thinking the gods alone could help him in his extreme need. At last theothers besought sundry powers among the gods, and thought they ought tosacrifice to the majesty of divers deities; but the king, offering bothvows and peace-offerings to Utgarda-Loki, obtained that fair season ofweather for which he prayed. 

Coming home, and feeling that he had passed through all these seas andtoils, he thought it was time for his spirit, wearied with calamities, to withdraw from his labours. So he took a queen from Sweden, andexchanged his old pursuits for meditative leisure. His life wasprolonged in the utmost peace and quietness; but when he had almost cometo the end of his days, certain men persuaded him by likely argumentsthat souls were immortal; so that he was constantly turning over in hismind the questions, to what abode he was to fare when the breath lefthis limbs, or what reward was earned by zealous adoration of the gods. 

While he was thus inclined, certain men who wished ill to Thorkillcame and told Gorm that it was needful to consult the gods, and thatassurance about so great a matter must be sought of the oracles ofheaven, since it was too deep for human wit and hard for mortals todiscover. 

Therefore, they said, Utgarda-Loki must be appeased, and no manwould accomplish this more fitly than Thorkill. Others, again, laidinformation against him as guilty of treachery and an enemy of theking's life. Thorkill, seeing himself doomed to extreme peril, demandedthat his accusers should share his journey. Then they who had aspersedan innocent man saw that the peril they had designed against the life ofanother had recoiled upon themselves, and tried to take back their plan. But vainly did they pester the ears of the king; he forced them to sailunder the command of Thorkill, and even upbraided them with cowardice. Thus, when a mischief is designed against another, it is commonly sureto strike home to its author. And when these men saw that they wereconstrained, and could not possibly avoid the peril, they covered theirship with ox-hides, and filled it with abundant store of provision. 

In this ship they sailed away, and came to a sunless land, which knewnot the stars, was void of daylight, and seemed to overshadow them witheternal night. Long they sailed under this strange sky; at last theirtimber fell short, and they lacked fuel; and, having no place to boiltheir meat in, they staved off their hunger with raw viands. But most ofthose who ate contracted extreme disease, being glutted with undigestedfood. For the unusual diet first made a faintness steal graduallyupon their stomachs; then the infection spread further, and the maladyreached the vital parts. Thus there was danger in either extreme, whichmade it hurtful not to eat, and perilous to indulge; for it was foundboth unsafe to feed and bad for them to abstain. Then, when they werebeginning to be in utter despair, a gleam of unexpected help relievedthem, even as the string breaks most easily when it is stretchedtightest. For suddenly the weary men saw the twinkle of a fire at nogreat distance, and conceived a hope of prolonging their lives. Thorkillthought this fire a heaven-sent relief, and resolved to go and take someof it. 

To be surer of getting back to his friends, Thorkill fastened a jewelupon the mast-head, to mark it by the gleam. When he got to the shore, his eyes fell on a cavern in a close defile, to which a narrow way led. Telling his companions to await him outside, he went in, and saw twomen, swart and very huge, with horny noses, feeding their fire with anychance-given fuel. Moreover, the entrance was hideous, the door-postswere decayed, the walls grimy with mould, the roof filthy, and the floorswarming with snakes; all of which disgusted the eye as much as themind. Then one of the giants greeted him, and said that he had begun amost difficult venture in his burning desire to visit a strange god, andhis attempt to explore with curious search an untrodden region beyondthe world. Yet he promised to tell Thorkill the paths of the journey heproposed to make, if he would deliver three true judgments in theform of as many sayings. Then said Thorkill: "In good truth, I do notremember ever to have seen a household with more uncomely noses; norhave I ever come to a spot where I had less mind to live. " Also he said:"That, I think, is my best foot which can get out of this foremost. "

The giant was pleased with the shrewdness of Thorkill, and praised hissayings, telling him that he must first travel to a grassless land whichwas veiled in deep darkness; but he must first voyage for four days, rowing incessantly, before he could reach his goal. There he could visitUtgarda-Loki, who had chosen hideous and grisly caves for his filthydwelling. Thorkill was much aghast at being bidden to go on a voyage solong and hazardous; but his doubtful hopes prevailed over his presentfears, and he asked for some live fuel. Then said the giant: "If thouneedest fire, thou must deliver three more judgments in like sayings. "Then said Thorkill: "Good counsel is to be obeyed, though a mean fellowgave it. " Likewise: "I have gone so far in rashness, that if I can getback I shall owe my safety to none but my own legs. " And again: "Were Ifree to retreat this moment, I would take good care never to come back. "

Thereupon Thorkill took the fire along to his companions; and finding akindly wind, landed on the fourth day at the appointed harbour. Withhis crew he entered a land where an aspect of unbroken night checked thevicissitude of light and darkness. He could hardly see before him, but beheld a rock of enormous size. Wishing to explore it, he told hiscompanions, who were standing posted at the door, to strike a firefrom flints as a timely safeguard against demons, and kindle it in theentrance. Then he made others bear a light before him, and stooped hisbody through the narrow jaws of the cavern, where he beheld a number ofiron seats among a swarm of gliding serpents. Next there met his eye asluggish mass of water gently flowing over a sandy bottom. He crossedthis, and approached a cavern which sloped somewhat more steeply. Again, after this, a foul and gloomy room was disclosed to the visitors, wherein they saw Utgarda-Loki, laden hand and foot with enormous chains. Each of his reeking hairs was as large and stiff as a spear of cornel. Thorkill (his companions lending a hand), in order that his deeds mightgain more credit, plucked one of these from the chin of Utgarda-Loki, who suffered it. Straightway such a noisome smell reached thebystanders, that they could not breathe without stopping their noseswith their mantles. They could scarcely make their way out, and werebespattered by the snakes which darted at them on every side. 

Only five of Thorkill's company embarked with their captain: the poisonkilled the rest. The demons hung furiously over them, and cast theirpoisonous slaver from every side upon the men below them. But thesailors sheltered themselves with their hides, and cast back the venomthat fell upon them. One man by chance at this point wished to peep out;the poison touched his head, which was taken off his neck as if it hadbeen severed with a sword. Another put his eyes out of their shelter, and when he brought them back under it they were blinded. Another thrustforth his hand while unfolding his covering, and, when he withdrew hisarm, it was withered by the virulence of the same slaver. They besoughttheir deities to be kinder to them; vainly, until Thorkill prayed tothe god of the universe, and poured forth unto him libations as wellas prayers; and thus, presently finding the sky even as before and theelements clear, he made a fair voyage. 

And now they seemed to behold another world, and the way towards thelife of man. At last Thorkill landed in Germany, which had then beenadmitted to Christianity; and among its people he began to learn howto worship God. His band of men were almost destroyed, because ofthe dreadful air they had breathed, and he returned to his countryaccompanied by two men only, who had escaped the worst. But the corruptmatter which smeared his face so disguised his person and originalfeatures that not even his friends knew him. But when he wiped off thefilth, he made himself recognizable by those who saw him, and inspiredthe king with the greatest eagerness to hear about his quest. But thedetraction of his rivals was not yet silenced; and some pretended thatthe king would die suddenly if he learnt Thorkill's tidings. The kingwas the more disposed to credit this saying, because he was alreadycredulous by reason of a dream which falsely prophesied the same thing. Men were therefore hired by the king's command to slay Thorkill in thenight. But somehow he got wind of it, left his bed unknown to all, andput a heavy log in his place. By this he baffled the treacherous deviceof the king, for the hirelings smote only the stock. 

On the morrow Thorkill went up to the king as he sat at meat, and said:"I forgive thy cruelty and pardon thy error, in that thou hast decreedpunishment, and not thanks, to him who brings good tidings of hiserrand. For thy sake I have devoted my life to all these afflictions, and battered it in all these perils; I hoped that thou wouldst requitemy services with much gratitude; and behold! I have found thee, and theealone, punish my valour sharpliest. But I forbear all vengeance, andam satisfied with the shame within thy heart--if, after all, any shamevisits the thankless--as expiation for this wrongdoing towards me. Ihave a right to surmise that thou art worse than all demons in fury, and all beasts in cruelty, if, after escaping the snares of all thesemonsters, I have failed to be safe from thine. "

The king desired to learn everything from Thorkill's own lips; and, thinking it hard to escape destiny, bade him relate what had happenedin due order. He listened eagerly to his recital of everything, tillat last, when his own god was named, he could not endure him tobe unfavourably judged. For he could not bear to hear Utgarda-Lokireproached with filthiness, and so resented his shameful misfortunes, that his very life could not brook such words, and he yielded it up inthe midst of Thorkill's narrative. Thus, whilst he was so zealous in theworship of a false god, he came to find where the true prison of sorrowsreally was. Moreover, the reek of the hair, which Thorkill plucked fromthe locks of the giant to testify to the greatness of his own deeds, wasexhaled upon the bystanders, so that many perished of it. 

After the death of Gorm, GOTRIK his son came to the throne. He wasnotable not only for prowess but for generosity, and none can saywhether his courage or his compassion was the greater. He so chastenedhis harshness with mercy, that he seemed to counterweigh the one withthe other. At this time Gaut, the King of Norway, was visited by Ber(Biorn?) and Ref, men of Thule. Gaut treated Ref with attention andfriendship, and presented him with a heavy bracelet. 

One of the courtiers, when he saw this, praised the greatness of thegift over-zealously, and declared that no one was equal to King Gaut inkindliness. But Ref, though he owed thanks for the benefit, could notapprove the inflated words of this extravagant praiser, and said thatGotrik was more generous than Gaut. Wishing to crush the empty boast ofthe flatterer, he chose rather to bear witness to the generosity ofthe absent than tickle with lies the vanity of his benefactor who waspresent. For another thing, he thought it somewhat more desirable to becharged with ingratitude than to support with his assent such idle andboastful praise, and also to move the king by the solemn truth thanto beguile him with lying flatteries. But Ulf persisted not only instubbornly repeating his praises of the king, but in bringing them tothe proof; and proposed their gainsayer a wager. 

With his consent Ref went to Denmark, and found Gotrik seated in state, and dealing out the pay to his soldiers. When the king asked him whohe was, he said that his name was "Fox-cub" The answer filled some withmirth and some with marvel, and Gotrik said, "Yea, and it is fittingthat a fox should catch his prey in his mouth. " And thereupon he drewa bracelet from his arm, called the man to him, and put it between hislips. Straightway Ref put it upon his arm, which he displayed to themall adorned with gold, but the other arm he kept hidden as lackingornament; for which shrewdness he received a gift equal to the firstfrom that hand of matchless generosity. At this he was overjoyed, not somuch because the reward was great, as because he had won his contention. And when the king learnt from him about the wager he had laid, herejoiced that he had been lavish to him more by accident than of setpurpose, and declared that he got more pleasure from the giving than thereceiver from the gift. So Ref returned to Norway and slew his opponent, who refused to pay the wager. Then he took the daughter of Gaut captive, and brought her to Gotrik for his own. 

Gotrik, who is also called Godefride, carried his arms againstforeigners, and increased his strength and glory by his successfulgeneralship. Among his memorable deeds were the terms of tributehe imposed upon the Saxons; namely, that whenever a change of kingsoccurred among the Danes, their princes should devote a hundredsnow-white horses to the new king on his accession. But if the Saxonsshould receive a new chief upon a change in the succession, this chiefwas likewise to pay the aforesaid tribute obediently, and bow atthe outset of his power to the sovereign majesty of Denmark; therebyacknowledging the supremacy of our nation, and solemnly confessing hisown subjection. Nor was it enough for Gotrik to subjugate Germany: heappointed Ref on a mission to try the strength of Sweden. The Swedesfeared to slay him with open violence, but ventured to act like bandits, and killed him, as he slept, with the blow of a stone. For, hanging amillstone above him, they cut its fastenings, and let it drop upon hisneck as he lay beneath. To expiate this crime it was decreed that eachof the ringleaders should pay twelve golden talents, while each ofthe common people should pay Gotrik one ounce. Men called this "theFox-cub's tribute". (Refsgild). 

Meanwhile it befell that Karl, King of the Franks, crushed Germany inwar, and forced it not only to embrace the worship of Christianity, butalso to obey his authority. When Gotrik heard of this, he attacked thenations bordering on the Elbe, and attempted to regain under his sway asof old the realm of Saxony, which eagerly accepted the yoke of Karl, andpreferred the Roman to the Danish arms. Karl had at this time withdrawnhis victorious camp beyond the Rhine, and therefore forbore to engagethe stranger enemy, being prevented by the intervening river. But whenhe was intending to cross once more to subdue the power of Gotrik, hewas summoned by Leo the Pope of the Romans to defend the city. 

Obeying this command, Karl intrusted his son Pepin with the conduct ofthe war against Gotrik; so that while he himself was working against adistant foe, Pepin might manage the conflict he had undertaken with hisneighbour. For Karl was distracted by two anxieties, and had to furnishsufficient out of a scanty band to meet both of them. Meanwhile Gotrikwon a glorious victory over the Saxons. Then gathering new strength, andmustering a larger body of forces, he resolved to avenge the wrong hehad suffered in losing his sovereignty, not only upon the Saxons, butupon the whole people of Germany. He began by subduing Friesland withhis fleet. 

This province lies very low, and whenever the fury of the ocean burststhe dykes that bar its waves, it is wont to receive the whole mass ofthe deluge over its open plains. On this country Gotrik imposed a kindof tribute, which was not so much harsh as strange. I will brieflyrelate its terms and the manner of it. First, a building was arranged, two hundred and forty feet in length, and divided into twelve spaces;each of these stretching over an interval of twenty feet, and thusmaking together, when the whole room was exhausted, the aforesaid total. Now at the upper end of this building sat the king's treasurer, and in aline with him at its further end was displayed a round shield. When theFrisians came to pay tribute, they used to cast their coins one by oneinto the hollow of this shield; but only those coins which struck theear of the distant toll-gatherer with a distinct clang were chosen byhim, as he counted, to be reckoned among the royal tribute. The resultwas that the collector only reckoned that money towards the treasury ofwhich his distant ear caught the sound as it fell. But that of which thesound was duller, and which fell out of his earshot, was received indeedinto the treasury, but did not count as any increase to the sum paid. Now many coins that were cast in struck with no audible loudnesswhatever on the collector's ear, so that men who came to pay theirappointed toll sometimes squandered much of their money in uselesstribute. Karl is said to have freed them afterwards from the burden ofthis tax. After Gotrik had crossed Friesland, and Karl had now come backfrom Rome, Gotrik determined to swoop down upon the further districts ofGermany, but was treacherously attacked by one of his own servants, andperished at home by the sword of a traitor. When Karl heard this, heleapt up overjoyed, declaring that nothing more delightful had everfallen to his lot than this happy chance. 

 ENDNOTES: (1) Furthest Thule--The names of Icelanders have thus crept into the account of a battle fought before the discovery of Iceland. 

BOOK NINE. 

After Gotrik's death reigned his son OLAF; who, desirous to avenge hisfather, did not hesitate to involve his country in civil wars, puttingpatriotism after private inclination. When he perished, his body was putin a barrow, famous for the name of Olaf, which was built up close byLeire. 

He was succeeded by HEMMING, of whom I have found no deed worthy ofrecord, save that he made a sworn peace with Kaiser Ludwig; and yet, perhaps, envious antiquity hides many notable deeds of his time, albeitthey were then famous. 

After these men there came to the throne, backed by the Skanians andZealanders, SIWARD, surnamed RING. He was the son, born long ago, of thechief of Norway who bore the same name, by Gotrik's daughter. Now Ring, cousin of Siward, and also a grandson of Gotrik, was master of Jutland. Thus the power of the single kingdom was divided; and, as though its twoparts were contemptible for their smallness, foreigners began not onlyto despise but to attack it. These Siward assailed with greater hatredthan he did his rival for the throne; and, preferring wars abroad towars at home, he stubbornly defended his country against dangers forfive years; for he chose to put up with a trouble at home that hemight the more easily cure one which came from abroad. Wherefore Ring(desiring his) command, seized the opportunity, tried to transfer thewhole sovereignty to himself, and did not hesitate to injure in hisown land the man who was watching over it without; for he attacked theprovinces in the possession of Siward, which was an ungrateful requitalfor the defence of their common country. Therefore, some of theZealanders who were more zealous for Siward, in order to show him firmerloyalty in his absence, proclaimed his son Ragnar as king, when he wasscarcely dragged out of his cradle. Not but what they knew he was tooyoung to govern; yet they hoped that such a gage would serve to rousetheir sluggish allies against Ring. But, when Ring heard that Siward hadmeantime returned from his expedition, he attacked the Zealanders with alarge force, and proclaimed that they should perish by the sword if theydid not surrender; but the Zealanders, who were bidden to choose betweenshame and peril, were so few that they distrusted their strength, andrequested a truce to consider the matter. It was granted; but, since itdid not seem open to them to seek the favour of Siward, nor honourableto embrace that of Ring, they wavered long in perplexity between fearand shame. In this plight even the old were at a loss for counsel; butRagnar, who chanced to be present at the assembly, said: "The short bowshoots its shaft suddenly. Though it may seem the hardihood of a boythat I venture to forestall the speech of the elders, yet I pray youto pardon my errors, and be indulgent to my unripe words. Yet thecounsellor of wisdom is not to be spurned, though he seem contemptible;for the teaching of profitable things should be drunk in with an openmind. Now it is shameful that we should be branded as deserters andrunaways, but it is just as foolhardy to venture above our strength;and thus there is proved to be equal blame either way. We must, then, pretend to go over to the enemy, but, when a chance comes in our way, wemust desert him betimes. It will thus be better to forestall the wrathof our foe by reigned obedience than, by refusing it, to give him aweapon wherewith to attack us yet more harshly; for if we decline thesway of the stronger, are we not simply turning his arms against our ownthroat? Intricate devices are often the best nurse of craft. You needcunning to trap a fox. " By this sound counsel he dispelled the waveringof his countrymen, and strengthened the camp of the enemy to its ownhurt. 

The assembly, marvelling at the eloquence as much as at the wit of oneso young, gladly embraced a proposal of such genius, which they thoughtexcellent beyond his years. Nor were the old men ashamed to obey thebidding of a boy when they lacked counsel themselves; for, though itcame from one of tender years, it was full, notwithstanding, of weightyand sound instruction. But they feared to expose their adviser toimmediate peril, and sent him over to Norway to be brought up. Soonafterwards, Siward joined battle with Ring and attacked him. He slewRing, but himself received an incurable wound, of which he died a fewdays afterwards. 

He was succeeded on the throne by RAGNAR. At this time Fro (Frey?), theKing of Sweden, after slaying Siward, the King of the Norwegians, putthe wives of Siward's kinsfolk in bonds in a brothel, and deliveredthem to public outrage. When Ragnar heard of this, he went to Norway toavenge his grandfather. As he came, many of the matrons, who had eithersuffered insult to their persons or feared imminent peril to theirchastity, hastened eagerly to his camp in male attire, declaring thatthey would prefer death to outrage. Nor did Ragnar, who was to punishthis reproach upon the women, scorn to use against the author of theinfamy the help of those whose shame he had come to avenge. Among themwas Ladgerda, a skilled amazon, who, though a maiden, had the courageof a man, and fought in front among the bravest with her hair looseover her shoulders. All-marvelled at her matchless deeds, for her locksflying down her back betrayed that she was a woman. 

Ragnar, when he had justly cut down the murderer of his grandfather, asked many questions of his fellow soldiers concerning the maiden whomhe had seen so forward in the fray, and declared that he had gained thevictory by the might of one woman. Learning that she was of noble birthamong the barbarians, he steadfastly wooed her by means of messengers. She spurned his mission in her heart, but feigned compliance. Givingfalse answers, she made her panting wooer confident that he would gainhis desires; but ordered that a bear and a dog should be set at theporch of her dwelling, thinking to guard her own room against all theardour of a lover by means of the beasts that blocked the way. Ragnar, comforted by the good news, embarked, crossed the sea, and, telling hismen to stop in Gaulardale, as the valley is called, went to the dwellingof the maiden alone. Here the beasts met him, and he thrust one throughwith a spear, and caught the other by the throat, wrung its neck, andchoked it. Thus he had the maiden as the prize of the peril he hadovercome. By this marriage he had two daughters, whose names have notcome down to us, and a son Fridleif. Then he lived three years at peace. 

The Jutlanders, a presumptuous race, thinking that because of his recentmarriage he would never return, took the Skanians into alliance, andtried to attack the Zealanders, who preserved the most zealous andaffectionate loyalty towards Ragnar. He, when he heard of it, equippedthirty ships, and, the winds favouring his voyage, crushed the Skanians, who ventured to fight, near the stead of Whiteby, and when the winterwas over he fought successfully with the Jutlanders who dwelt near theLiim-fjord in that region. A third and a fourth time he conquered theSkanians and the Hallanders triumphantly. 

Afterwards, changing his love, and desiring Thora, the daughter of theKing Herodd, to wife, Ragnar divorced himself from Ladgerda; for hethought ill of her trustworthiness, remembering that she had long agoset the most savage beasts to destroy him. Meantime Herodd, the Kingof the Swedes, happening to go and hunt in the woods, brought home somesnakes, found by his escort, for his daughter to rear. She speedilyobeyed the instructions of her father, and endured to rear a race ofadders with her maiden hands. Moreover, she took care that they shoulddaily have a whole ox-carcase to gorge upon, not knowing that she wasprivately feeding and keeping up a public nuisance. The vipers grew up, and scorched the country-side with their pestilential breath. Whereuponthe king, repenting of his sluggishness, proclaimed that whosoeverremoved the pest should have his daughter. 

Many warriors were thereto attracted by courage as much as by desire;but all idly and perilously wasted their pains. Ragnar, learning frommen who travelled to and fro how the matter stood, asked his nurse fora woolen mantle, and for some thigh-pieces that were very hairy, withwhich he could repel the snake-bites. He thought that he ought to use adress stuffed with hair to protect himself, and also took one thatwas not unwieldy, that he might move nimbly. And when he had landed inSweden, he deliberately plunged his body in water, while there was afrost falling, and, wetting his dress, to make it the less penetrable, he let the cold freeze it. Thus attired, he took leave of hiscompanions, exhorted them to remain loyal to Fridleif, and went on tothe palace alone. When he saw it, he tied his sword to his side, and lashed a spear to his right hand with a thong. As he went on, anenormous snake glided up and met him. Another, equally huge, crawled up, following in the trail of the first. They strove now to buffet the youngman with the coils of their tails, and now to spit and belch their venomstubbornly upon him. Meantime the courtiers, betaking themselves tosafer hiding, watched the struggle from afar like affrighted littlegirls. The king was stricken with equal fear, and fled, with a fewfollowers, to a narrow shelter. But Ragnar, trusting in the hardness ofhis frozen dress, foiled the poisonous assaults not only with his arms, but with his attire, and, singlehanded, in unweariable combat, stoodup against the two gaping creatures, who stubbornly poured forth theirvenom upon him. For their teeth he repelled with his shield, theirpoison with his dress. At last he cast his spear, and drove it againstthe bodies of the brutes, who were attacking him hard. He pierced boththeir hearts, and his battle ended in victory. 

After Ragnar had thus triumphed the king scanned his dress closely, and saw that he was rough and hairy; but, above all, he laughed at theshaggy lower portion of his garb, and chiefly the uncouth aspect of hisbreeches; so that he gave him in jest the nickname of Lodbrog. Also heinvited him to feast with his friends, to refresh him after his labours. Ragnar said that he would first go back to the witnesses whom he hadleft behind. He set out and brought them back, splendidly attired forthe coming feast. At last, when the banquet was over, he receivedthe prize that was appointed for the victory. By her he begot twonobly-gifted sons, Radbard and Dunwat. These also had brothers--Siward, Biorn, Agnar, and Iwar. 

Meanwhile, the Jutes and Skanians were kindled with an unquenchable fireof sedition; they disallowed the title of Ragnar, and gave a certainHarald the sovereign power. Ragnar sent envoys to Norway, and besoughtfriendly assistance against these men; and Ladgerda, whose early lovestill flowed deep and steadfast, hastily sailed off with her husband andher son. She brought herself to offer a hundred and twenty ships to theman who had once put her away. And he, thinking himself destitute of allresources, took to borrowing help from folk of every age, crowded thestrong and the feeble all together, and was not ashamed to insert someold men and boys among the wedges of the strong. So he first tried tocrush the power of the Skanians in the field which in Latin is calledLaneus (Woolly); here he had a hard fight with the rebels. Here, too, Iwar, who was in his seventh year, fought splendidly, and showed thestrength of a man in the body of a boy. But Siward, while attacking theenemy face to face, fell forward upon the ground wounded. When his mensaw this, it made them look round most anxiously for means of flight;and this brought low not only Siward, but almost the whole army on theside of Ragnar. But Ragnar by his manly deeds and exhortations comfortedtheir amazed and sunken spirits, and, just when they were ready to beconquered, spurred them on to try and conquer. 

Ladgerda, who had a matchless spirit though a delicate frame, covered byher splendid bravery the inclination of the soldiers to waver. For shemade a sally about, and flew round to the rear of the enemy, taking themunawares, and thus turned the panic of her friends into the camp of theenemy. At last the lines of HARALD became slack, and HARALD himself wasrouted with a great slaughter of his men. LADGERDA, when she had gonehome after the battle, murdered her husband.... In the night with aspear-head, which she had hid in her gown. Then she usurped the wholeof his name and sovereignty; for this most presumptuous dame thoughtit pleasanter to rule without her husband than to share the throne withhim. 

Meantime, Siward was taken to a town in the neighbourhood, and gavehimself to be tended by the doctors, who were reduced to the depths ofdespair. But while the huge wound baffled all the remedies they applied, a certain man of amazing size was seen to approach the litter of thesick man, and promised that Siward should straightway rejoice and bewhole, if he would consecrate unto him the souls of all whom he shouldovercome in battle. Nor did he conceal his name, but said that he wascalled Rostar. Now Siward, when he saw that a great benefit could be gotat the cost of a little promise, eagerly acceded to this request. Thenthe old man suddenly, by the help of his hand, touched and banished thelivid spot, and suddenly scarred the wound over. At last he poured duston his eyes and departed. Spots suddenly arose, and the dust, to theamaze of the beholders, seemed to become wonderfully like little snakes. 

I should think that he who did this miracle wished to declare, bythe manifest token of his eyes, that the young man was to be cruel infuture, in order that the more visible part of his body might not lacksome omen of his life that was to follow. When the old woman, who hadthe care of his draughts, saw him showing in his face signs of littlesnakes; she was seized with an extraordinary horror of the young man, and suddenly fell and swooned away. Hence it happened that Siward gotthe widespread name of Snake-Eye. 

Meantime Thora, the bride of Ragnar, perished of a violent malady, whichcaused infinite trouble and distress to the husband, who dearlyloved his wife. This distress, he thought, would be best dispelled bybusiness, and he resolved to find solace in exercise and qualify hisgrief by toil. To banish his affliction and gain some comfort, he benthis thoughts to warfare, and decreed that every father of a familyshould devote to his service whichever of his children he thoughtmost contemptible, or any slave of his who was lazy at his work or ofdoubtful fidelity. And albeit that this decree seemed little fitted forhis purpose, he showed that the feeblest of the Danish race were betterthan the strongest men of other nations; and it did the young men greatgood, each of those chosen being eager to wipe off the reproach ofindolence. Also he enacted that every piece of litigation should bereferred to the judgment of twelve chosen elders, all ordinary methodsof action being removed, the accuser being forbidden to charge, and theaccused to defend. This law removed all chance of incurring litigationlightly. Thinking that there was thus sufficient provision made againstfalse accusations by unscrupulous men, he lifted up his arms againstBritain, and attacked and slew in battle its king, Hame, the father ofElla, who was a most noble youth. Then he killed the earls of Scotlandand of Pictland, and of the isles that they call the Southern orMeridional (Sudr-eyar), and made his sons Siward and Radbard masters ofthe provinces, which were now without governors. He also deprived Norwayof its chief by force, and commanded it to obey Fridleif, whom he alsoset over the Orkneys, from which he took their own earl. 

Meantime, some of the Danes who were most stubborn in their hatredagainst Ragnar were obstinately bent on rebellion. They rallied to theside of Harald, once an exile, and tried to raise the fallen fortunes ofthe tyrant. By this hardihood they raised up against the king the mostvirulent blasts of civil war, and entangled him in domestic perils whenhe was free from foreign troubles. Ragnar, setting out to check themwith a fleet of the Danes who lived in the isles, crushed the army ofthe rebels, drove Harald, the leader of the conquered army, a fugitiveto Germany, and forced him to resign unbashfully an honour which he hadgained without scruple. Nor was he content simply to kill his prisoners:he preferred to torture them to death, so that those who could not beinduced to forsake their disloyalty might not be so much as suffered togive up the ghost save under the most grievous punishment. Moreover, theestates of those who had deserted with Harald he distributed among thosewho were serving as his soldiers, thinking that the fathers would beworse punished by seeing the honour of their inheritance made over tothe children whom they had rejected, while those whom they had lovedbetter lost their patrimony. But even this did not sate his vengeance, and he further determined to attack Saxony, thinking it the refuge ofhis foes and the retreat of Harald. So, begging his sons to help him, hecame on Karl, who happened then to be tarrying on those borders of hisempire. Intercepting his sentries, he eluded the watch that was postedon guard. But while he thought that all the rest would therefore be easyand more open to his attacks, suddenly a woman who was a soothsayer, akind of divine oracle or interpreter of the will of heaven, warned theking with a saving prophecy, and by her fortunate presage forestalledthe mischief that impended, saying that the fleet of Siward had mooredat the mouth of the river Seine. The emperor, heeding the warning, andunderstanding that the enemy was at hand, managed to engage with andstop the barbarians, who were thus pointed out to him. A battle wasfought with Ragnar; but Karl did not succeed as happily in the fieldas he had got warning of the danger. And so that tireless conqueror ofalmost all Europe, who in his calm and complete career of victory hadtravelled over so great a portion of the world, now beheld his army, which had vanquished all these states and nations, turning its face fromthe field, and shattered by a handful from a single province. 

Ragnar, after loading the Saxons with tribute, had sure tidings fromSweden of the death of Herodd, and also heard that his own sons, owingto the slander of Sorle, the king chosen in his stead, had been robbedof their inheritance. He besought the aid of the brothers Biorn, Fridleif, and Ragbard (for Ragnald, Hwitserk, and Erik, his sons bySwanloga, had not yet reached the age of bearing arms), and went toSweden. Sorle met him with his army, and offered him the choice betweena public conflict and a duel; and when Ragnar chose personal combat, hesent against him Starkad, a champion of approved daring, with his bandof seven sons, to challenge and fight with him. Ragnar took his threesons to share the battle with him, engaged in the sight of both armies, and came out of the combat triumphant. 

Biorn, having inflicted great slaughter on the foe without hurt tohimself, gained from the strength of his sides, which were like iron, aperpetual name (Ironsides). This victory emboldened Ragnar to hope thathe could overcome any peril, and he attacked and slew Sorle with theentire forces he was leading. He presented Biorn with the lordshipof Sweden for his conspicuous bravery and service. Then for a littleinterval he rested from wars, and chanced to fall deeply in love witha certain woman. In order to find some means of approaching and winningher the more readily, he courted her father (Esbern) by showing him themost obliging and attentive kindness. He often invited him to banquets, and received him with lavish courtesy. When he came, he paid him therespect of rising, and when he sat, he honoured him with a set next tohimself. He also often comforted him with gifts, and at times with themost kindly speech. The man saw that no merits of his own could be thecause of all this distinction, and casting over the matter every way inhis mind, he perceived that the generosity of his monarch was causedby his love for his daughter, and that he coloured this lustful purposewith the name of kindness. But, that he might balk the cleverness ofthe lover, however well calculated, he had the girl watched all the morecarefully that he saw her beset by secret aims and obstinate methods. But Ragnar, who was comforted by the surest tidings of her consent, wentto the farmhouse in which she was kept, and fancying that love mustfind out a way, repaired alone to a certain peasant in a neighbouringlodging. In the morning he exchanged dress with the women, and wentin female attire, and stood by his mistress as she was unwinding wool. Cunningly, to avoid betrayal, he set his hands to the work of a maiden, though they were little skilled in the art. In the night he embracedthe maiden and gained his desire. When her time drew near, and the girlgrowing big, betrayed her outraged chastity, the father, not knowing towhom his daughter had given herself to be defiled, persisted in askingthe girl herself who was the unknown seducer. She steadfastly affirmedthat she had had no one to share her bed except her handmaid, and hemade the affair over to the king to search into. He would not allow aninnocent servant to be branded with an extraordinary charge, and was notashamed to prove another's innocence by avowing his own guilt. By thisgenerosity he partially removed the woman's reproach, and prevented anabsurd report from being sown in the ears of the wicked. Also he added, that the son to be born of her was of his own line, and that he wishedhim to be named Ubbe. When this son had grown up somewhat, his wit, despite his tender years, equalled the discernment of manhood. For hetook to loving his mother, since she had had converse with a noble bed, but cast off all respect for his father, because he had stooped to aunion too lowly. 

After this Ragnar prepared an expedition against the Hellespontines, and summoned an assembly of the Danes, promising that he would give thepeople most wholesome laws. He had enacted before that each father ofa household should offer for service that one among his sons whom heesteemed least; but now he enacted that each should arm the son who wasstoutest of hand or of most approved loyalty. Thereon, taking all thesons he had by Thora, in addition to Ubbe, he attacked, crushed insundry campaigns, and subdued the Hellespont with its king Dia. At lasthe involved the same king in disaster after disaster, and slew him. Dia's sons, Dia and Daxo, who had before married the daughters of theRussian king, begged forces from their father-in-law, and rushed withmost ardent courage to the work of avenging their father. But Ragnar, when he saw their boundless army, distrusted his own forces; and he putbrazen horses on wheels that could be drawn easily, took them round oncarriages that would turn, and ordered that they should be driven withthe utmost force against the thickest ranks of the enemy. This deviceserved so well to break the line of the foe, that the Danes' hope ofconquest seemed to lie more in the engine than in the soldiers: for itsinsupportable weight overwhelmed whatever it struck. Thus one of theleaders was killed, while one made off in flight, and the whole armyof the area of the Hellespont retreated. The Scythians, also, who wereclosely related by blood to Daxo on the mother's side, are said tohave been crushed in the same disaster. Their province was made overto Hwitserk, and the king of the Russians, trusting little in his ownstrength, hastened to fly out of the reach of the terrible arms ofRagnar. 

Now Ragnar had spent almost five years in sea-roving, and had quicklycompelled all other nations to submit; but he found the Perms in opendefiance of his sovereignty. He had just conquered them, but theirloyalty was weak. When they heard that he had come they cast spells uponthe sky, stirred up the clouds, and drove them into most furious storms. This for some time prevented the Danes from voyaging, and caused theirsupply of food to fail. Then, again, the storm suddenly abated, and nowthey were scorched by the most fervent and burning heat; nor was thisplague any easier to bear than the great and violent cold had been. Thus the mischievous excess in both directions affected their bodiesalternately, and injured them by an immoderate increase first of coldand then of heat. Moreover, dysentery killed most of them. So the massof the Danes, being pent in by the dangerous state of the weather, perished of the bodily plague that arose on every side. And when Ragnarsaw that he was hindered, not so much by a natural as by a factitioustempest, he held on his voyage as best he could, and got to the countryof the Kurlanders and Sembs, who paid zealous honour to his might andmajesty, as if he were the most revered of conquerors. This serviceenraged the king all the more against the arrogance of the men ofPermland, and he attempted to avenge his slighted dignity by a suddenattack. Their king, whose name is not known, was struck with panic atsuch a sudden invasion of the enemy, and at the same time had no heartto join battle with them; and fled to Matul, the prince of Finmark. He, trusting in the great skill of his archers, harassed with impunity thearmy of Ragnar, which was wintering in Permland. For the Finns, who arewont to glide on slippery timbers (snowskates), scud along at whateverpace they will, and are considered to be able to approach or depart veryquickly; for as soon as they have damaged the enemy they fly away asspeedily as they approach, nor is the retreat they make quicker thantheir charge. Thus their vehicles and their bodies are so nimble thatthey acquire the utmost expertness both in advance and flight. 

Ragnar was filled with amazement at the poorness of his fortunes whenhe saw that he, who had conquered Rome at its pinnacle of power, wasdragged by an unarmed and uncouth race into the utmost peril. He, therefore, who had signally crushed the most glorious flower of theRoman soldiery, and the forces of a most great and serene captain, nowyielded to a base mob with the poorest and slenderest equipment; and hewhose lustre in war the might of the strongest race on earth had failedto tarnish, was now too weak to withstand the tiny band of a miserabletribe. Hence, with that force which had helped him bravely to defeat themost famous pomp in all the world and the weightiest weapon of militarypower, and to subdue in the field all that thunderous foot, horse, andencampment; with this he had now, stealthily and like a thief, to endurethe attacks of a wretched and obscure populace; nor must he blush tostain by a treachery in the night that noble glory of his which had beenwon in the light of day, for he took to a secret ambuscade insteadof open bravery. This affair was as profitable in its issue as it wasunhandsome in the doing. 

Ragnar was equally as well pleased at the flight of the Finns as he hadbeen at that of Karl, and owned that he had found more strength in thatdefenceless people than in the best equipped soldiery; for he found theheaviest weapons of the Romans easier to bear than the light darts ofthis ragged tribe. Here, after killing the king of the Perms and routingthe king of the Finns, Ragnar set an eternal memorial of his victoryon the rocks, which bore the characters of his deeds on their face, andlooked down upon them. 

Meanwhile Ubbe was led by his grandfather, Esbern, to conceive an unholydesire for the throne; and, casting away all thought of the reverencedue to his father, he claimed the emblem of royalty for his own head. 

When Ragnar heard of his arrogance from Kelther and Thorkill, the earlsof Sweden, he made a hasty voyage towards Gothland. Esbern, finding thatthese men were attached with a singular loyalty to the side of Ragnar, tried to bribe them to desert the king. But they did not swerve fromtheir purpose, and replied that their will depended on that of Biorn, declaring that not a single Swede would dare to do what went against hispleasure. Esbern speedily made an attempt on Biorn himself, addressinghim most courteously through his envoys. Biorn said that he would neverlean more to treachery than to good faith, and judged that it would be amost abominable thing to prefer the favour of an infamous brother to thelove of a most righteous father. The envoys themselves he punished withhanging, because they counselled him to so grievous a crime. The Swedes, moreover, slew the rest of the train of the envoys in the same way, asa punishment for their mischievous advice. So Esbern, thinking that hissecret and stealthy manoeuvres did not succeed fast enough, mustered hisforces openly, and went publicly forth to war. But Iwar, the governor ofJutland, seeing no righteousness on either side of the impious conflict, avoided all unholy war by voluntary exile. 

Ragnar attacked and slew Esbern in the bay that is called in LatinViridis; he cut off the dead man's head and bade it be set upon theship's prow, a dreadful sight for the seditious. But Ubbe took toflight, and again attacked his father, having revived the war inZealand. Ubbe's ranks broke, and he was assailed single-handed from allsides; but he felled so many of the enemy's line that he was surroundedwith a pile of the corpses of the foe as with a strong bulwark, and easily checked his assailants from approaching. At last he wasoverwhelmed by the thickening masses of the enemy, captured, and takenoff to be laden with public fetters. By immense violence he disentangledhis chains and cut them away. But when he tried to sunder and rend thebonds that were (then) put upon him, he could not in any wise escapehis bars. But when Iwar heard that the rising in his country had beenquelled by the punishment of the rebel, he went to Denmark. Ragnarreceived him with the greatest honour, because, while the unnaturalwar had raged its fiercest, he had behaved with the most entire filialrespect. 

Meanwhile Daxo long and vainly tried to overcome Hwitserk, who ruledover Sweden; but at last he enrapped him under pretence of making apeace, and attacked him. Hwitserk received him hospitably, but Daxo hadprepared an army with weapons, who were to feign to be trading, rideinto the city in carriages, and break with a night-attack into the houseof their host. Hwitserk smote this band of robbers with such a slaughterthat he was surrounded with a heap of his enemies' bodies, and couldonly be taken by letting down ladders from above. Twelve of hiscompanions, who were captured at the same time by the enemy, were givenleave to go back to their country; but they gave up their lives fortheir king, and chose to share the dangers of another rather than bequit of their own. 

Daxo, moved with compassion at the beauty of Hwitserk, had not the heartto pluck the budding blossom of that noble nature, and offered him notonly his life, but his daughter in marriage, with a dowry of half hiskingdom; choosing rather to spare his comeliness than to punish hisbravery. But the other, in the greatness of his soul, valued as nothingthe life which he was given on sufferance, and spurned his safety asthough it were some trivial benefit. Of his own will he embraced thesentence of doom, saying, that Ragnar would exact a milder vengeancefor his son if he found that he had made his own choice in selecting themanner of his death. The enemy wondered at his rashness, and promisedthat he should die by the manner of death which he should choose forthis punishment. This leave the young man accepted as a great kindness, and begged that he might be bound and burned with his friends. Daxospeedily complied with his prayers that craved for death, and by way ofkindness granted him the end that he had chosen. When Ragnar heard ofthis, he began to grieve stubbornly even unto death, and not only put onthe garb of mourning, but, in the exceeding sorrow of his soul, tookto his bed and showed his grief by groaning. But his wife, who had morethan a man's courage, chid his weakness, and put heart into him with hermanful admonitions. Drawing his mind off from his woe, she bade him bezealous in the pursuit of war; declaring that it was better for so bravea father to avenge the bloodstained ashes of his son with weapons thanwith tears. She also told him not to whimper like a woman, and get asmuch disgrace by his tears as he had once earned glory by his valour. Upon these words Ragnar began to fear lest he should destroy his ancientname for courage by his womanish sorrow; so, shaking off his melancholygarb and putting away his signs of mourning, he revived his sleepingvalour with hopes of speedy vengeance. Thus do the weak sometimes nervethe spirits of the strong. So he put his kingdom in charge of Iwar, andembraced with a father's love Ubbe, who was now restored to his ancientfavour. Then he transported his fleet over to Russia, took Daxo, boundhim in chains, and sent him away to be kept in Utgard. (1)

Ragnar showed on this occasion the most merciful moderation towards theslayer of his dearest son, since he sufficiently satisfied the vengeancewhich he desired, by the exile of the culprit rather than his death. This compassion shamed the Russians out of any further rage againstsuch a king, who could not be driven even by the most grievous wrongsto inflict death upon his prisoners. Ragnar soon took Daxo back intofavour, and restored him to his country, upon his promising that hewould every year pay him his tribute barefoot, like a suppliant, with twelve elders, also unshod. For he thought it better to punisha prisoner and a suppliant gently, than to draw the axe of bloodshed;better to punish that proud neck with constant slavery than to sever itonce and for all. Then he went on and appointed his son Erik, surnamedWind-hat, over Sweden. Here, while Fridleif and Siward were servingunder him, he found that the Norwegians and the Scots had wrongfullyconferred the title of king on two other men. So he first overthrew theusurper to the power of Norway, and let Biorn have the country for hisown benefit. 

Then he summoned Biorn and Erik, ravaged the Orkneys, landed at laston the territory of the Scots, and in a three-days' battle wearied outtheir king Murial, and slew him. But Ragnar's sons, Dunwat and Radbard, after fighting nobly, were slain by the enemy. So that the victory theirfather won was stained with their blood. He returned to Denmark, andfound that his wife Swanloga had in the meantime died of disease. Straightway he sought medicine for his grief in loneliness, andpatiently confined the grief of his sick soul within the walls ofhis house. But this bitter sorrow was driven out of him by the suddenarrival of Iwar, who had been expelled from the kingdom. For the Gaulshad made him fly, and had wrongfully bestowed royal power on a certainElla, the son of Hame. Ragnar took Iwar to guide him, since he wasacquainted with the country, gave orders for a fleet, and approached theharbour called York. Here he disembarked his forces, and after a battlewhich lasted three days, he made Ella, who had trusted in the valour ofthe Gauls, desirous to fly. The affair cost much blood to the Englishand very little to the Danes. Here Ragnar completed a year of conquest, and then, summoning his sons to help him, he went to Ireland, slewits king Melbrik, besieged Dublin, which was filled with wealth of thebarbarians, attacked it, and received its surrender. There he lay incamp for a year; and then, sailing through the midland sea, he made hisway to the Hellespont. He won signal victories as he crossed all theintervening countries, and no ill-fortune anywhere checked his steadyand prosperous advance. 

Harald, meanwhile, with the adherence of certain Danes who werecold-hearted servants in the army of Ragnar, disturbed his country withrenewed sedition, and came forward claiming the title of king. He wasmet by the arms of Ragnar returning from the Hellespont; but beingunsuccessful, and seeing that his resources of defence at home wereexhausted, he went to ask help of Ludwig, who was then stationed atMainz. But Ludwig, filled with the greatest zeal for promoting hisreligion, imposed a condition on the Barbarian, promising him help if hewould agree to follow the worship of Christ. For he said there couldbe no agreement of hearts between those who embraced discordant creeds. Anyone, therefore, who asked for help, must first have a fellowship inreligion. No men could be partners in great works who were separated bya different form of worship. This decision procured not only salvationfor Ludwig's guest, but the praise of piety for Ludwig himself, who, assoon as Harald had gone to the holy font, accordingly strengthened himwith Saxon auxiliaries. Trusting in these, Harald built a temple in theland of Sleswik with much care and cost, to be hallowed to God. Thushe borrowed a pattern of the most holy way from the worship of Rome. Heunhallowed, pulled down the shrines that had been profaned by the errorof misbelievers, outlawed the sacrificers, abolished the (heathen)priesthood, and was the first to introduce the religion of Christianityto his uncouth country. Rejecting the worship of demons, he was zealousfor that of God. Lastly, he observed with the most scrupulous carewhatever concerned the protection of religion. But he began with morepiety than success. For Ragnar came up, outraged the holy rites he hadbrought in, outlawed the true faith, restored the false one to its oldposition, and bestowed on the ceremonies the same honour as before. Asfor Harald, he deserted and cast in his lot with sacrilege. For thoughhe was a notable ensample by his introduction of religion, yet he wasthe first who was seen to neglect it, and this illustrious promoter ofholiness proved a most infamous forsaker of the same. 

Meanwhile, Ella betook himself to the Irish, and put to the sword orpunished all those who were closely and loyally attached to Ragnar. ThenRagnar attacked him with his fleet, but, by the just visitation of theOmnipotent, was openly punished for disparaging religion. For when hehad been taken and cast into prison, his guilty limbs were given toserpents to devour, and adders found ghastly substance in the fibresof his entrails. His liver was eaten away, and a snake, like a deadlyexecutioner, beset his very heart. Then in a courageous voice herecounted all his deeds in order, and at the end of his recital addedthe following sentence: "If the porkers knew the punishment of theboar-pig, surely they would break into the sty and hasten to loose himfrom his affliction. " At this saying, Ella conjectured that some of hissons were yet alive, and bade that the executioners should stop and thevipers be removed. The servants ran up to accomplish his bidding; butRagnar was dead, and forestalled the order of the king. Surely we mustsay that this man had a double lot for his share? By one, he had a fleetunscathed, an empire well-inclined, and immense power as a rover; whilethe other inflicted on him the ruin of his fame, the slaughter of hissoldiers, and a most bitter end. The executioner beheld him beset withpoisonous beasts, and asps gorging on that heart which he had bornesteadfast in the face of every peril. Thus a most glorious conquerordeclined to the piteous lot of a prisoner; a lesson that no man shouldput too much trust in fortune. 

Iwar heard of this disaster as he happened to be looking on at thegames. Nevertheless, he kept an unmoved countenance, and in nowise brokedown. Not only did he dissemble his grief and conceal the news ofhis father's death, but he did not even allow a clamour to arise, andforbade the panic-stricken people to leave the scene of the sports. Thus, loth to interrupt the spectacle by the ceasing of the games, he neither clouded his countenance nor turned his eyes from publicmerriment to dwell upon his private sorrow; for he would not fallsuddenly into the deepest melancholy from the height of festal joy, orseem to behave more like an afflicted son than a blithe captain. 

But when Siward heard the same tidings, he loved his father more than hecared for his own pain, and in his distraction plunged deeply into hisfoot the spear he chanced to be holding, dead to all bodily troubles inhis stony sadness. For he wished to hurt some part of his body severely, that he might the more patiently bear the wound in his soul. By this acthe showed at once his bravery and his grief, and bore his lot like a sonwho was more afflicted and steadfast. But Biorn received the tidingsof his father's death while he was playing at dice, and squeezed soviolently the piece that he was grasping that he wrung the blood fromhis fingers and shed it on the table; whereon he said that assuredlythe cast of fate was more fickle than that of the very die which he wasthrowing. When Ella heard this, he judged that his father's death hadbeen borne with the toughest and most stubborn spirit by that son of thethree who had paid no filial respect to his decease; and therefore hedreaded the bravery of Iwar most. 

Iwar went towards England, and when he saw that his fleet was not strongenough to join battle with the enemy, he chose to be cunning rather thanbold, and tried a shrewd trick on Ella, begging as a pledge of peacebetween them a strip of land as great as he could cover with a horse'shide. He gained his request, for the king supposed that it would costlittle, and thought himself happy that so strong a foe begged for alittle boon instead of a great one; supposing that a tiny skin wouldcover but a very little land. But Iwar cut the hide out and lengthenedit into very slender thongs, thus enclosing a piece of ground largeenough to build a city on. Then Ella came to repent of his lavishness, and tardily set to reckoning the size of the hide, measuring the littleskin more narrowly now that it was cut up than when it was whole. Forthat which he had thought would encompass a little strip of ground, hesaw lying wide over a great estate. Iwar brought into the city, whenhe founded it, supplies that would serve amply for a siege, wishing thedefences to be as good against scarcity as against an enemy. 

Meantime, Siward and Biorn came up with a fleet of 400 ships, and withopen challenge declared war against the king. This they did at theappointed time; and when they had captured him, they ordered thefigure of an eagle to be cut in his back, rejoicing to crush their mostruthless foe by marking him with the cruellest of birds. Not satisfiedwith imprinting a wound on him, they salted the mangled flesh. Thus Ellawas done to death, and Biorn and Siward went back to their own kingdoms. 

Iwar governed England for two years. Meanwhile the Danes were stubbornin revolt, and made war, and delivered the sovereignty publicly to acertain SIWARD and to ERIK, both of the royal line. The sons of Ragnar, together with a fleet of 1, 700 ships, attacked them at Sleswik, anddestroyed them in a conflict which lasted six months. Barrows remain totell the tale. The sound on which the war was conducted has gainedequal glory by the death of Siward. And now the royal stock was almostextinguished, saving only the sons of Ragnar. Then, when Biorn and Erikhad gone home, Iwar and Siward settled in Denmark, that they might curbthe rebels with a stronger rein, setting Agnar to govern England. Agnar was stung because the English rejected him, and, with the helpof Siward, chose, rather than foster the insolence of the province thatdespised him, to dispeople it and leave its fields, which were matted indecay, with none to till them. He covered the richest land of the islandwith the most hideous desolation, thinking it better to be lord of awilderness than of a headstrong country. After this he wished to avengeErik, who had been slain in Sweden by the malice of a certain Osten. Butwhile he was narrowly bent on avenging another, he squandered hisown blood on the foe; and while he was eagerly trying to punish theslaughter of his brother, sacrificed his own life to brotherly love. 

Thus SIWARD, by the sovereign vote of the whole Danish assembly, received the empire of his father. But after the defeats he hadinflicted everywhere he was satisfied with the honour he received athome, and liked better to be famous with the gown than with the sword. He ceased to be a man of camps, and changed from the fiercest of despotsinto the most punctual guardian of peace. He found as much honour inease and leisure as he had used to think lay in many victories. Fortuneso favoured his change of pursuits, that no foe ever attacked him, norhe any foe. He died, and ERIK, who was a very young child, inherited hisnature, rather than his realm or his tranquillity. For Erik, the brotherof Harald, despising his exceedingly tender years, invaded the countrywith rebels, and seized the crown; nor was he ashamed to assail thelawful infant sovereign, and to assume an unrightful power. In thusbringing himself to despoil a feeble child of the kingdom he showedhimself the more unworthy of it. Thus he stripped the other of histhrone, but himself of all his virtues, and cast all manliness out ofhis heart, when he made war upon a cradle: for where covetousness andambition flamed, love of kindred could find no place. But this brutalitywas requited by the wrath of a divine vengeance. For the war betweenthis man and Gudorm, the son of Harald, ended suddenly with suchslaughter that they were both slain, with numberless others; and theroyal stock of the Danes, now worn out by the most terrible massacres, was reduced to the only son of the above Siward. 

This man (Erik) won the fortune of a throne by losing his kindred; itwas luckier for him to have his relations dead than alive. He forsookthe example of all the rest, and hastened to tread in the steps of hisgrandfather; for he suddenly came out as a most zealous practitioner ofroving. And would that he had not shown himself rashly to inheritthe spirit of Ragnar, by his abolition of Christian worship! For hecontinually tortured all the most religious men, or stripped them oftheir property and banished them. But it were idle for me to blame theman's beginnings when I am to praise his end. For that life is morelaudable of which the foul beginning is checked by a glorious close, than that which begins commendably but declines into faults andinfamies. For Erik, upon the healthy admonitions of Ansgarius, laidaside the errors of his impious heart, and atoned for whatsoever he haddone amiss in the insolence thereof; showing himself as strong in theobservance of religion as he had been in slighting it. Thus he not onlytook a draught of more wholesome teaching with obedient mind, but wipedoff early stains by his purity at the end. He had a son KANUTE by thedaughter of Gudorm, who was also the granddaughter of Harald; and him heleft to survive his death. 

While this child remained in infancy a guardian was required for thepupil and for the realm. But inasmuch it seemed to most people eitherinvidious or difficult to give the aid that this office needed, itwas resolved that a man should be chosen by lot. For the wisest of theDanes, fearing much to make a choice by their own will in so loftya matter, allowed more voice to external chance than to their ownopinions, and entrusted the issue of the selection rather to luck thanto sound counsel. The issue was that a certain Enni-gnup (Steep-brow), a man of the highest and most entire virtue, was forced to put hisshoulder to this heavy burden; and when he entered on the administrationwhich chalice had decreed, he oversaw, not only the early rearing of theking, but the affairs of the whole people. For which reason some whoare little versed in our history give this man a central place in itsannals. But when Kanute had passed through the period of boyhood, and had in time grown to be a man, he left those who had done him theservice of bringing him up, and turned from an almost hopeless youthto the practice of unhoped-for virtue; being deplorable for this reasononly, that he passed from life to death without the tokens of theChristian faith. 

But soon the sovereignty passed to his son FRODE. This man's fortune, increased by arms and warfare, rose to such a height of prosperitythat he brought back to the ancient yoke the provinces which had oncerevolted from the Danes, and bound them in their old obedience. He alsocame forward to be baptised with holy water in England, which had forsome while past been versed in Christianity. But he desired that hispersonal salvation should overflow and become general, and begged thatDenmark should be instructed in divinity by Agapete, who was then Popeof Rome. But he was cut off before his prayers attained this wish. Hisdeath befell before the arrival of the messengers from Rome: and indeedhis intention was better than his fortune, and he won as great a rewardin heaven for his intended piety as others are vouchsafed for theirachievement. 

His son GORM, who had the surname of "The Englishman, " because he wasborn in England, gained the sovereignty in the island on his father'sdeath; but his fortune, though it came soon, did not last long. He leftEngland for Denmark to put it in order; but a long misfortune was thefruit of this short absence. For the English, who thought that theirwhole chance of freedom lay in his being away, planned an open revoltfrom the Danes, and in hot haste took heart to rebel. But the greaterthe hatred and contempt of England, the greater the loyal attachment ofDenmark to the king. Thus while he stretched out his two hands to bothprovinces in his desire for sway, he gained one, but lost the lordshipof the other irretrievably; for he never made any bold effort to regainit. So hard is it to keep a hold on very large empires. 

After this man his son HARALD came to be king of Denmark; he ishalf-forgotten by posterity, and lacks all record for famous deeds, because he rather preserved than extended the possessions of the realm. 

After this the throne was obtained by GORM, a man whose soul was everhostile to religion, and who tried to efface all regard for Christ'sworshippers, as though they were the most abominable of men. All thosewho shared this rule of life he harassed with divers kinds of injuriesand incessantly pursued with whatever slanders he could. Also, inorder to restore the old worship to the shrines, he razed to its lowestfoundations, as though it were some unholy abode of impiety, a templewhich religious men had founded in a stead in Sleswik; and those whomhe did not visit with tortures he punished by the demolition of the holychapel. Though this man was thought notable for his stature, his minddid not answer to his body; for he kept himself so well sated with powerthat he rejoiced more in saving than increasing his dignity, and thoughtit better to guard his own than to attack what belonged to others:caring more to look to what he had than to swell his havings. 

This man was counselled by the elders to celebrate the rites ofmarriage, and he wooed Thyra, the daughter of Ethelred, the king ofthe English, for his wife. She surpassed other women in seriousnessand shrewdness, and laid the condition on her suitor that she would notmarry him till she had received Denmark as a dowry. This compact wasmade between them, and she was betrothed to Gorm. But on the first nightthat she went up on to the marriage-bed, she prayed her husband mostearnestly that she should be allowed to go for three days free fromintercourse with man. For she resolved to have no pleasure of love tillshe had learned by some omen in a vision that her marriage wouldbe fruitful. Thus, under pretence of self-control, she deferred herexperience of marriage, and veiled under a show of modesty her wish tolearn about her issue. She put off lustful intercourse, inquiring, underthe feint of chastity, into the fortune she would have in continuingher line. Some conjecture that she refused the pleasures of the nuptialcouch in order to win her mate over to Christianity by her abstinence. But the youth, though he was most ardently bent on her love, yet choseto regard the continence of another more than his own desires, andthought it nobler to control the impulses of the night than torebuff the prayers of his weeping mistress; for he thought that herbeseechings, really coming from calculation, had to do with modesty. Thus it befell that he who should have done a husband's part madehimself the guardian of her chastity so that the reproach of an infamousmind should not be his at the very beginning of his marriage; asthough he had yielded more to the might of passion than to his ownself-respect. Moreover that he might not seem to forestall by hislustful embraces the love which the maiden would not grant, he not onlyforbore to let their sides that were next one another touch, but evensevered them by his drawn sword, and turned the bed into a dividedshelter for his bride and himself. But he soon tasted in the joyous formof a dream the pleasure which he postponed from free loving kindness. For, when his spirit was steeped in slumber, he thought that two birdsglided down from the privy parts of his wife, one larger than the other;that they poised their bodies aloft and soared swiftly to heaven, and, when a little time had elapsed, came back and sat on either of hishands. A second, and again a third time, when they had been refreshedby a short rest, they ventured forth to the air with outspread wings. At last the lesser of them came back without his fellow, and with wingssmeared with blood. He was amazed with this imagination, and, being in adeep sleep, uttered a cry to betoken his astonishment, filling the wholehouse with an uproarious shout. When his servants questioned him, herelated his vision; and Thyra, thinking that she would be blest withoffspring, forbore her purpose to put off her marriage, eagerly relaxingthe chastity for which she had so hotly prayed. Exchanging celibacyfor love, she granted her husband full joy of herself, requiting hisvirtuous self-restraint with the fulness of permitted intercourse, andtelling him that she would not have married him at all, had she notinferred from these images in the dream which he had related, thecertainty of her being fruitful. 

By a device as cunning as it was strange, Thyra's pretended modestypassed into an acknowledgment of her future offspring. Nor did fatedisappoint her hopes. Soon she was the fortunate mother of Kanute andHarald. When these princes had attained man's estate, they put forth afleet and quelled the reckless insolence of the Sclavs. Neither didthey leave England free from an attack of the same kind. Ethelred wasdelighted with their spirit, and rejoiced at the violence his nephewsoffered him; accepting an abominable wrong as though it were the richestof benefits. For he saw far more merit in their bravery than in piety. Thus he thought it nobler to be attacked by foes than courted bycowards, and felt that he saw in their valiant promise a sample of theirfuture manhood. 

For he could not doubt that they would some day attack foreign realms, since they so boldly claimed those of their mother. He so much preferredtheir wrongdoing to their service, that he passed over his daughter, andbequeathed England in his will to these two, not scrupling to set thename of grandfather before that of father. Nor was he unwise; for heknew that it beseemed men to enjoy the sovereignty rather than women, and considered that he ought to separate the lot of his unwarlikedaughter from that of her valiant sons. Hence Thyra saw her sonsinheriting the goods of her father, not grudging to be disinheritedherself. For she thought that the preference above herself washonourable to her, rather than insulting. 

Kanute and Harald enriched themselves with great gains from sea-roving, and most confidently aspired to lay hands on Ireland. Dublin, which wasconsidered the capital of the country, was beseiged. Its king went intoa wood adjoining the city with a few very skilled archers, and withtreacherous art surrounded Kanute (who was present with a great throngof soldiers witnessing the show of the games by night), and aimed adeadly arrow at him from afar. It struck the body of the king in front, and pierced him with a mortal wound. But Kanute feared that the enemywould greet his peril with an outburst of delight. He therefore wishedhis disaster to be kept dark; and summoning voice with his last breath, he ordered the games to be gone through without disturbance. By thisdevice he made the Danes masters of Ireland ere he made his own deathknown to the Irish. 

Who would not bewail the end of such a man, whose self-mastery served togive the victory to his soldiers, by reason of the wisdom that outlastedhis life? For the safety of the Danes was most seriously endangered, andwas nearly involved in the most deadly peril; yet because they obeyedthe dying orders of their general they presently triumphed over thosethey feared. 

Germ had now reached the extremity of his days, having been blind formany years, and had prolonged his old age to the utmost bounds of thehuman lot, being more anxious for the life and prosperity of his sonsthan for the few days he had to breathe. But so great was his lovefor his elder son that he swore that he would slay with his own handwhosoever first brought him news of his death. As it chanced, Thyraheard sure tidings that this son had perished. But when no man durstopenly hint this to Germ, she fell back on her cunning to defend her, and revealed by her deeds the mischance which she durst not speakplainly out. For she took the royal robes off her husband and dressedhim in filthy garments, bringing him other signs of grief also, toexplain the cause of her mourning; for the ancients were wont to usesuch things in the performance of obsequies, bearing witness by theirgarb to the bitterness of their sorrow. Then said Germ: "Dost thoudeclare to me the death of Kanute?" (2) And Thyra said: "That isproclaimed by thy presage, not by mine. " By this answer she made out herlord a dead man and herself a widow, and had to lament her husband assoon as her son. Thus, while she announced the fate of her son to herhusband, she united them in death, and followed the obsequies of bothwith equal mourning; shedding the tears of a wife upon the one and ofa mother upon the other; though at that moment she ought to have beencheered with comfort rather than crushed with disasters. 

 ENDNOTES: (1) Utgard. Saxo, rationalising as usual, turns the mythical home of the giants into some terrestrial place in his vaguely-defined Eastern Europe. (2) Kanute. Here the vernacular is far finer. The old king notices "Denmark is drooping, dead must my son be!", puts on the signs of mourning, and dies.