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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 beginning of his life. For if the earlier years of his

career are not doomed to silence, the latter ones can be more

fully and fairly narrated.

When Helgi had slain Hodbrodd, his son Hother passed the length

of his boyhood under the tutelage of King Gewar. While a

stripling, he excelled in strength of body all his foster-

brethren and compeers. Moreover, he was gifted with many

accomplishments of mind. He was very skilled in swimming and

archery, and also with the gloves; and further was as nimble as

such a youth could be, his training being equal to his strength.

Though his years were unripe, his richly-dowered spirit surpassed

them. None was more skilful on lyre or harp; and he was cunning

on the timbrel, on the lute, and in every modulation of string

instruments. With his changing measures he could sway the

feelings of men to what passions he would; he knew how to fill

human hearts with joy or sadness, with pity or with hatred, and

used to enwrap the soul with the delight or terror of the ear.

All these accomplishments of the youth pleased Nanna, the

daughter of Gewar, mightily, and she began to seek his embraces.

For the valour of a youth will often kindle a maid, and the

courage of those whose looks are not so winning is often

acceptable. For love hath many avenues; the path of pleasure is

opened to some by grace, to others by bravery of soul, and to

some by skill in accomplishments. Courtesy brings to some stores

of Love, while most are commended by brightness of beauty. Nor

do the brave inflict a shallower wound on maidens than the

comely.

Now it befell that Balder the son of Odin was troubled at the

sight of Nanna bathing, and was seized with boundless love. He

was kindled by her fair and lustrous body, and his heart was set

on fire by her manifest beauty; for nothing exciteth passion like

comeliness. Therefore he resolved to slay with the sword Hother,

who, he feared, was likeliest to baulk his wishes; so that his

love, which brooked no postponement, might not be delayed in the

enjoyment of its desire by any obstacle.

About this time Hother chanced, while hunting, to be led astray

by a mist, and he came on a certain lodge in which were wood-

maidens; and when they greeted him by his own name, he asked who

they were. They declared that it was their guidance and

government that mainly determined the fortunes of war. For they

often invisibly took part in battles, and by their secret

assistance won for their friends the coveted victories. They

averted, indeed, that they could win triumphs and inflict defeats

as they would; and further told him how Balder had seen his

foster-sister Nanna while she bathed, and been kindled with

passion for her; but counselled Hother not to attack him in war,

worthy as he was of his deadliest hate, for they declared that

Balder was a demigod, sprung secretly from celestial seed. When

Hother had heard this, the place melted away and left him

shelterless, and he found himself standing in the open and out in

the midst of the fields, without a vestige of shade. Most of all

he marvelled at the swift flight of the maidens, the shifting of

the place, and the delusive semblance of the building. For he

knew not that all that had passed around him had been a mere

mockery and an unreal trick of the arts of magic.

Returning thence, he related to Gewar the mystification that had

followed on his straying, and straightway asked him for his

daughter. Gewar answered that he would most gladly favour him,

but that he feared if he rejected Balder he would incur his

wrath; for Balder, he said, had proffered him a like request.

For he said that the sacred strength of Balder's body was proof

even against steel; adding, however, that he knew of a sword

which could deal him his death, which was fastened up in the

closest bonds; this was in the keeping of Miming, the Satyr of

the woods, who also had a bracelet of a secret and marvellous

virtue, that used to increase the wealth of the owner. Moreover,

the way to these regions was impassable and filled with

obstacles, and therefore hard for mortal men to travel. For the

greater part of the road was perpetually beset with extraordinary

cold. So he advised him to harness a car with reindeer, by means

of whose great speed he could cross the hard-frozen ridges. And

when he had got to the place, he should set up his tent away from

the sun in such wise that it should catch the shadow of the cave

where Miming was wont to be; while he should not in return cast a

shade upon Miming, so that no unaccustomed darkness might be

thrown and prevent the Satyr from going out. Thus both the

bracelet and the sword would be ready to his hand, one being

attended by fortune in wealth and the other by fortune in war,

and each of them thus bringing a great prize to the owner. Thus

much said Gewar; and Hother was not slow to carry out his

instructions. Planting his tent in the manner aforesaid, he

passed the nights in anxieties and the days in hunting. But

through either season he remained very wakeful and sleepless,

allotting the divisions of night and day so as to devote the one

to reflection on events, and to spend the other in providing food

for his body. Once as he 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, he brought him down with the

blow, stopped him, and bound him, while he could not make his

escape. Then in the most dreadful words he threatened him with

the worst, and demanded the sword and bracelets. The Satyr was

not 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 cherished more among mortals than the breath of their own

life. Hother, exulting in 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

these things, he kept constantly urging his soldiers to go and

carry off such glorious booty; and the warriors speedily equipped

a fleet in obedience to their king. Gewar, being very learned in

divining and an expert in the knowledge of omens, foresaw this;

and summoning Hother, told him, when Gelder should join battle

with him, to receive his spears with patience, and not let his

own fly until he saw the enemy's missiles exhausted; and further,

to bring up the curved scythes wherewith the vessels could be

rent and the helmets and shields plucked from the soldiers.

Hother followed his advice and found its result fortunate. For

he bade his men, when Gelder began to charge, to stand their

ground and defend their bodies with their shields, affirming that

the victory in that battle must be won by patience. But the

enemy nowhere kept back their missiles, spending them all in

their extreme eagerness to fight; and the more patiently they

found Hother bear himself in his reception of 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 were

the wounds they inflicted; many of them were seen to be shaken

off idly and to do no hurt. For the soldiers of Hother performed

the bidding of their king, and kept off the attack of the spears

by a penthouse of interlocked shields; while not a few of the

spears smote lightly on the bosses and fell into the waves. When

Gelder was emptied of all his store, and saw the enemy picking it

up, and swiftly hurling it back at him, he covered the summit of

the mast with a crimson shield, as a signal of peace, and

surrendered to save his life. Hother received him with the

friendliest face and the kindliest words, and conquered him as

much by his gentleness as he had by his skill.

At this time Helgi, King of Halogaland, was sending frequent

embassies to press his suit for Thora, daughter of Kuse,

sovereign of the Finns and 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 with their own lips, this man

was afflicted with so faulty an utterance that he was ashamed to

be heard not only by strangers, but by those of his own house.

So much doth calamity shun all witnesses; for natural defects are

the more vexing the more manifest they are. Kuse despised his

embassy, answering that that man did not deserve a wife who

trusted too little to his own manhood, and borrowed by entreaty

the aid of others in order to gain his suit. When Helgi heard

this, be besought Hother, whom he knew to be an accomplished

pleader, to favour his desires, promising that he would promptly

perform whatsoever he should command him. The earnest entreaties

of the youth prevailed on Hother, and he went to Norway with an

armed fleet, intending to achieve by arms the end which he could

ly: not by words. And when he had pleaded for Helgi with the most

dulcet eloquence, Kuse rejoined that his daughter's wish must be

consulted, in order that no paternal strictness might forestall

anything against her will. He called her in and asked her

whether she felt a liking 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-turned oratory, opened the ears of Kuse,

which were before deaf to the suit he urged.

While this was passing in Halogaland, Balder entered the country

of Gewar armed, in order to sue for Nanna. Gewar bade him learn

Nanna's own mind; so he approached the maiden with the most

choice and cajoling words; and when he could win no hearing for

his prayers, he persisted in asking the reason of his refusal.

She replied, that a god could not wed with a mortal, because the

vast difference of their natures prevented any bond of

intercourse. Also the gods sometimes used to break their

pledges; and the bond contracted between unequals was apt to snap

suddenly. There was no firm tie between those of differing

estate; for beside the great, the fortunes of the lowly were

always dimmed. Also lack and plenty dwelt in diverse tents, nor

was there any fast bond of intercourse between gorgeous wealth

and obscure poverty. In fine, the things of earth would not mate

with those of heaven, being sundered by a great original gulf

through a difference in nature; inasmuch as mortal man was

infinitely far from the glory of the divine majesty. With this

shuffling answer she eluded the suit of Balder, and shrewdly wove

excuses to refuse his hand.

When Hother heard this from Gewar, he complained long to Helgi of

Balder's insolence. Both were in doubt as to what should be

done, and beat their brains over divers plans; for converse with

a friend in the day of trouble, though it removeth not the peril,

yet maketh the heart less sick. Amid all the desires of their

souls the passion of valour prevailed, and a naval battle was

fought with Balder. One would have thought it a contest of men

against gods, for Odin and Thor and the holy array of the gods

fought for Balder. There one could have beheld a war in which

divine and human might were mingled. But Hother was clad in his

steel-defying tunic, and charged the closest bands of the gods,

assailing them as vehemently as a son of earth could assail the

powers above. However, Thor was swinging his club with

marvellous might, and shattered all interposing shields, calling

as loudly on his foes to attack him as upon his friends to back

him up. No kind of armour withstood his onset, no man could

receive his stroke and live. Whatsoever his blow fended off it

crushed; neither shield nor helm endured the weight of its dint;

no greatness of body or of strength could serve. Thus the

victory would have passed to the gods, but that Hother, though

his line had already fallen back, darted up, hewed off the club

at the haft, and made it useless. And the gods, when they had

lost this weapon, fled incontinently. But that antiquity vouches

for it, it were quite against common belief to think that men

prevailed against gods. (We call them gods in a supposititious

rather than in a real sense; 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

either hacked his ships with their swords or sunk them in the

sea; not content to have defeated gods, they pursued the wrecks

of the fleet with such rage, as if they would destroy them to

satiate their deadly passion for war. 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 Hother

upon the corpses of his oarsmen, and then laid on a pyre built of

vessels, and magnificently honoured in his funeral by Hother, who

not only put his ashes in a noble barrow, treating them as the

remains of a king, but also graced them with most reverent

obsequies. Then, to prevent 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 queen back to Sweden,

being as much honoured by all for his victory as Balder was

laughed at for his flight.

At this time the nobles of the Swedes repaired to Demnark to pay

their tribute; but Hother, who had been honoured as a king by his

countrymen for the splendid deeds of his father, experienced what

a lying pander Fortune is. For he was conquered in the field by

Balder, whom a little before he had crushed, and was forced to

flee to Gewar, thus losing while a king that victory which he had

won as a common man. The conquering Balder, in order to slake

his soldiers, who were parched with thirst, with the blessing of

a timely draught, pierced the earth deep and disclosed a fresh

spring. The thirsty ranks made with gaping lips for 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

was continually 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 a four-wheeled carriage. So great was the love that had

steeped his heart and now had brought him down almost to the

extremity of decline. For he thought that his victory had

brought him nothing if Nanna was not his prize. Also Frey, the

regent of the gods, took his abode not far from Upsala, where he

exchanged for a ghastly and infamous sin-offering the old custom

of prayer by sacrifice, which had been used by so many ages and

generations. For he paid to the gods abominable offerings, by

beginning to slaughter human victims.

Meantime Hother (1) learned that Denmark lacked leaders, and that

Hiartuar had swiftly expiated the death of Rolf; and he used to

say that chance had thrown into his hands that to which he could

scarce have aspired. For first, Rolf, whom he ought to have

killed, since he remembered that Rolf's father had slain his own,

had been punished by the help of another; and also, by the

unexpected bounty of events, a chance had been opened to him of

winning Denmark. In truth, if the pedigree of his forefathers

were rightly traced, that realm was his by ancestral right!

Thereupon he took possession, with a very great fleet, of

Isefjord, a haven of Zealand, so as to make use of his impending

fortune. 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, whom he had bidden rule the Swedes, he joined the Swedish

empire to that of Denmark. But Athisl was cut off by an

ignominious death. For whilst, in great jubilation of spirit, he

was honouring the funeral rites of Rolf with a feast, he drank

too greedily, and paid for his filthy intemperance by his sudden

end. And so, while he was celebrating the death 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 asked concerning the supreme power. With such

wavering judgment was the opinion of our forefathers divided.

Hother returned from Sweden and attacked him. They both coveted

sway, and the keenest contest for the sovereignty began between

them; but it was cut short by the flight of Hother. He retired

to Jutland, and caused to be named after him the village 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 the

grandees, and told them that he was weary of the light of life

because of the misfortunes wherewith Balder had twice

victoriously stricken him. Then he took farewell of all, and

went by a circuitous path to a place that was hard of access,

traversing forests uncivilised. For it oft happens that those

upon whom has come some inconsolable trouble of spirit seek, as

though it were a medicine to drive away their sadness, far and

sequestered retreats, and cannot bear the greatness of their

grief amid the fellowship of men; so dear, for the most part, is

solitude to sickness. For filthiness and grime are chiefly

pleasing to those who have been stricken with ailments of the

soul. Now he had been wont to give out from the top of a hill

decrees to the people when they came to consult him; and hence

when they came they upbraided the sloth of the king for hiding

himself, and his absence was railed at by all with the bitterest

complaints.

But Hother, when he had wandered through remotest byways and

crossed an uninhabited forest, chanced to come upon a cave where

dwelt some maidens whom he knew not; but they proved to be the

same who had once given him the invulnerable coat. Asked by them

wherefore he had come thither, he related the disastrous issue of

the war. So he began to bewail the ill luck of his failures and

his dismal misfortunes, condemning their breach of faith, and

lamenting that it had not turned out for him as they had promised

him. But the maidens said that though he had seldom come off

victorious, he had nevertheless inflicted as much defeat on the

enemy as 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 first lay hands upon a food of extraordinary

delightsomeness which had been devised to increase the strength

of Balder. For nothing would be difficult if he could only get

hold of the dainty which was meant to enhance the rigour of his

foe.

Hard as it sounded for earthborn endeavours to make armed assault

upon the gods, the words of the maidens inspired Hother's mind

with instant confidence to fight with Balder. Also some of his

own people said that he could not safely contend with those

above; but all regard for their majesty was expelled by the

boundless fire of his spirit. For in brave souls vehemence is

not always sapped by reason, nor doth counsel defeat rashness.

Or perchance it was that Hother remembered how the might of the

lordliest oft proveth unstable, and how a little clod can batter

down great chariots.

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On the other side, Balder mustered the Danes to arms and met

Hother in the field. Both sides made a great slaughter; the

carnage of the opposing parties was nearly equal, and night

stayed the battle. About the third watch, Hother, unknown to any

man, went out to spy upon the enemy, anxiety about the impending

peril having banished sleep. This strong excitement favours not

bodily rest, and inward disquiet suffers not outward repose. So,

when he came to the camp of the enemy he heard that three maidens

had gone out carrying the secret feast of Balder. He ran after

them (for their footsteps in the dew betrayed their flight), and

at last entered their accustomed dwelling. When they asked him

who he was, he answered, a lutanist, nor did the trial belie his

profession. For when the lyre was offered him, he tuned its

strings, ordered and governed the chords with his quill, and with

ready modulation poured forth a melody pleasant to the ear. Now

they had three snakes, of whose venom they were wont to mix a

strengthening compound for the food of Balder, and even now a

flood of slaver was dripping on the food from the open mouths of

the serpents. And some of the maidens would, for kindness sake,

have given Hother a share of the dish, had not eldest of the

three forbidden them, declaring that Balder would be cheated if

they increased the bodily powers of his enemy. He had said, not

that he was Hother, but that he was one of his company. Now the

same nymphs, in their gracious kindliness, bestowed on him a belt

of perfect sheen and a girdle which assured 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 low half dead. When the news was told to the soldiers,

a cheery shout of triumph rose from all the camp of Hother, while

the Danes held a public mourning for the fate of Balder. He,

feeling no doubt of his impending death, and stung by the anguish

of his wound, renewed the battle on the morrow; and, when it

raged hotly, bade that he should be borne on a litter into the

fray, that he might not seem to die ignobly within his tent. On

the night following, Proserpine was seen to stand by him in a

vision, 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 body given a royal funeral, the army causing

it to be buried in a barrow which they had made.

Certain men of our day, Chief among whom was Harald, (2) since

the story of the ancient burial-place still survived, made a raid

on it by night in the hope of finding money, but abandoned their

attempt in sudden panic. For the hill split, and from its crest

a sudden and mighty torrent of loud-roaring waters seemed to

burst; so that its flying mass, shooting furiously down, poured

over the fields below, and enveloped whatsoever it struck upon,

and at its onset the delvers were dislodged, flung down their

mattocks, and fled divers ways; thinking that if they strove any

longer to carry through their enterprise they would be caught in

the eddies of the water that was rushing down. Thus the guardian

gods of that spot smote fear suddenly into the minds of the

youths, taking them away from covetousness, and turning them to

see to their safety; teaching them to neglect their greedy

purpose and be careful of their lives. Now it is certain that

this apparent flood was not real but phantasmal; not born in the

bowels of the earth (since Nature suffereth not liquid springs to

gush forth in a dry place), but produced by some magic agency.

All men afterwards, to whom the story of that breaking in had

come down, left this hill undisturbed. Wherefore it has never

been made sure whether it really contains any wealth; for the

dread of peril has daunted anyone since Harald from probing its

dark foundations.

But Odin, though he was accounted the chief of the gods, began to

inquire of the prophets and diviners concerning the way to

acomplish vengeance for his son, as well as all others whom he

had beard were skilled in the most recondite arts of soothsaying.

For godhead that is incomplete 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 destined to exact punishment for the

slaying of his brother. For the gods had appointed to the

brother that was yet to be born the task of avenging his kinsman.

Odin, when he heard this, muffled his face with a cap, that his

garb might not betray him, and entered the service of the said

king as a soldier; and being made by him captain of the soldiers,

and given an army, won a splendid victory over the enemy. And

for his stout achievement in this battle the king admitted him

into the chief place in his friendship, distinguishing him as

generously with gifts as with honours. A very little while

afterwards Odin routed the enemy single-handed, and returned, at

once the messenger and the doer of the deed. All marvelled that

the strength of one man could deal such slaughter upon a

countless host. Trusting in these services, he privily let the

king into the secret of his love, and was refreshed by his most

gracious favour; but when he sought a kiss from the maiden, he

received a cuff. But he was not driven from his purpose either

by anger at the slight or by the odiousness of the insult.

Next year, loth to quit ignobly the quest he had taken up so

eagerly, he put on the dress of a foreigner and went back to

dwell with the king. It was hard for those who met him to

recognise him; for his assumed filth obliterated his true

features, and new grime hid his ancient aspect. He said that his

name was Roster (Hrosstheow), and that he was skilled in

smithcraft. And his handiwork did honour to his professions: for

he portrayed in bronze many and many a shape most beautifully, so

that he received a great mass of gold from the king, and was

ordered to hammer out the ornaments of the matrons. So, after

having wrought many adornments for women's wearing, he at last

offered to the maiden a bracelet which he had polished more

laboriously than the rest and several rings which were adorned

with equal care. But no services could assuage 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 tendered by

a friend are far more grateful: so much doth the value of the

offering oft turn on the offerer. For this stubborn-hearted

maiden never doubted that the crafty old man was feigning

generosity in order to seize an opening to work his lust. His

temper, moreover, was keen and indomitable; for she knew that his

homage covered guile, and that under the devotion of his gifts

there lay a desire for crime. Her father fell to upbraiding her

heavily for refusing the match; but she loathed to wed an old

man, and the plea of her tender years lent her some support in

her scorning of his hand; for she said that a young girl ought

not to marry prematurely.

But Odin, who had found that nothing served the wishes of lovers

more than tough persistency, though he was stung with the shame

of his double rebuff, nevertheless, effacing the form he had worn

before, went to the king 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 to wipe out his disgrace.

For of old those who were skilled in magic gained this power of

instantly changing their aspect and exhibiting the most different

shapes. Indeed, they were clever at imitating any age, not only

in its natural bodily appearance, but also in its stature; and so

the old man, in order to exhibit his calling agreeably, used to

ride proudly up and down among the briskest of them. But not

even such a tribute could move the rigour of the maiden; for it

is hard for the mind to come back to a genuine liking for one

against whom it has once borne heavy dislike. When he tried to

kiss her at his departure, she repulsed him so that he tottered

and smote his chin upon the ground. Straightway he touched her

with a piece of bark whereon spells were written, and made her

like unto one in frenzy: which was a gentle revenge to take for

all the insults he had received.

But still he did not falter in the fulfilment of his purpose; for

trust in his divine majesty buoyed him up with confidence; so,

assuming the garb of a maiden, this indefatigable journeyer

repaired for the fourth time to the king, and, on being received

by him, showed himself assiduous and even forward. Most people

believed him to be a woman, as he was dressed almost in female

attire. Also he declared that his name wa s Wecha, and his

calling that of a physician: and this assertion he confirmed by

the readiest services. At last he was taken into the household

of the queen, and played the part of a waiting-woman to the

princess, and even used to wash the soil off her feet at

eventide; and as he was applying the water he was suffered to

touch her calves and the upper part of the thighs. But fortune

goes with mutable steps, and thus chance put into his hand what

his address had never won. For it happened that the girl fell

sick, and looked around for a cure; and she summoned to 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 use a certain drugged draught; but

that it was so bitterly compounded, that the girl could never

endure so violent a cure unless she submitted to be bound; since

the stuff of the malady must be ejected from the very innermost

tissues. When her father heard this he did not hesitate to bind

his daughter; and laying her on the bed, he bade her endure

patiently all the applications of the doctor. For the king was

tricked by the sight of the female dress, which the old man was

using to disguise his persistent guile; and thus the seeming

remedy became an opportunity of outrage. For the physician

seized the chance of love, and, abandoning his business of

healing, sped to the work, not of expelling the fever, but of

working his lust; making use of the sickness of the princess,

whom in sound health he had found adverse to him. It will not be

wearisome if I subjoin another version of this affair. For there

are certain who say that the king, when he saw the physician

groaning with love, but despite all his expense of mind and body

accomplishing nothing, did not wish to rob of his due reward one

justify'>

that he might be seen to be the lawful heir to the dignity, and

no mere deputy doing another's work. Also, to omit no

circumstance of greatness, they further gave his the name of

Odin, trying by the prestige of that title to be rid of the

obloquy of innovation. For nearly ten years Oller held the

presidency of the divine senate; but at last the gods pitied the

horrible exile of Odin, and thought that he had now been punished

heavily enough; so he exchanged his foul and unsightly estate for

his ancient splendour; for the 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 approach and resume his rank,

because by his stage-tricks and his assumption of a woman'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 with

money; 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 the distinction which he had long quitted. If you ask

how much he paid for them, inquire of those who have found out

what is the price of a godhead. I own that to me it is but

little worth.

Thus Oller was driven out from Byzantium by Odin and retired into

Sweden. Here, while he was trying, as if in a new world, to

repair the records of his glory, the Danes slew him. The story

goes that he was such a cunning wizard that he used a certain

bone, which he had marked with 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 as quickly as by rowing.

But Odin, now that he had regained the emblems of godhead, shone

over all parts of the world with such a lustre of renown that all

nations welcomed him as though he were light restored to the

universe; nor was any 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 hardships of war, he called him, and bade

him bear in mind the slaying of his brother: saying that it would

be better for him to take vengeande on the murderers of Balder

than to overcome the im~occ~}t in battle; for warfare was most

fitting and wholesome when a holy occ,tsion fot' waging it was

furnished by a righteous opening for vengeande.

News came meantime that Gewar had been slain by the guile of his

own satrap (jarl), Gunne. Hother determined to visit his murder

with the strongest and sharpest revenge. So he surprised Gunne,

cast him on a blazing pyre, and burnt him; for Gunne had himself

treacherously waylaid Gewar, and burnt him alive in the night.

This was his offering of vengeance 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

would perish in the war wherein he was bound to meet Boe, and

said that he knew this by no doubtful guesswork, but by sure

prophecies of seers. So he besought them to make his son RORIK

king, so that the judgment of wicked men should not transfer the

royalty to strange and unknown houses; averring that he would

reap more joy from the succession of his son than bitterness from

his own impending death. This request was speedily granted.

Then he met Boe in battle and was killed; but small joy the

victory gave Boe. Indeed, he left the battle so sore stricken

that he was lifted on his shield and carried home by his foot-

soldiers supporting 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 in a splendid howe, which it piled in his

name, to save the record of so mighty a warrior from slipping out

of the recollection of after ages.

So the Kurlanders and the Swedes, as though the death of Hother

set them free from the burden of their subjection, resolved to

attack Denmark, to which they were accustomed to do homage with a

yearly tax. By this the Slavs also were emboldened to revolt,

and a number of others were turned from 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 the barbarians,

loth to engage without a general, and seeing that they needed a

head, appointed a king over them; and, displaying all the rest of

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 a certain narrow creek among the shoal water, took it

out from the sands where it was lying, and brought it forth to

sea; lest it should strike on 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, where they could stay and

suddenly fall on the invaders of his ships. He said that

perchance the guile might in the end recoil on the heads of its

devisors. And in fact the barbarians who had been appointed to

the ambuscade knew nothing of the wariness of the Danes, and

sallying against them rashly, were all destroyed. The remaining

force of the Slavs, knowing nothing of the slaughter of their

friends, hung in doubt wondering over the reason of Rorik's

tarrying. And after waiting long for him as the months wearily

rolled by, and finding delay every day more burdensome, they at

last thought they should attack him with their fleet.

Now among them there was a man of remarkable stature, a wizard by

calling. He, when he beheld the squadrons of the Danes, said:

"Suffer a private combat to forestall a public slaughter, so that

the danger of many may be bought off at the cost of a few. And

if any of you shall take heart to fight it out with me, I will

not flinch from these terms of conflict. But first of all I

demand that you accept the terms I prescribe, the form whereof I

have devised as follows: If I conquer, let freedom be granted us

from taxes; if I am conquered, let the tribute be paid you as of

old: For to-day I will either free my country from the yoke of

slavery by my victory or bind her under it by my defeat. Accept

me as the surety and the pledge for either issue." One of the

Danes, whose spirit was stouter than his strength, heard this,

and proceeded to ask Rorik, what would be the reward for the man

who met the challenger in combat? Rorik chanced to have six

bracelets, which were so intertwined that they could not be

parted from one another, the chain of knots being inextricaly

laced; and he promised them as a reward for the man who would

venture on the combat. But the youth, who doubted his fortune,

said: "Rorik, if I prove successful, let thy generosity award the

prize of the conqueror, do thou decide and allot the palm; but if

my enterprise go little to my liking, what prize canst thou owe

to the beaten, who will be wrapped either in cruel death or in

bitter shame? These things commonly go with feebleness, these

are the wages of the defeated, for whom naught remains but utter

infamy. What guerdon must be paid, what thanks offered, to him

who lacks the prize of courage? Who has ever garlanded with ivy

the weakling in War, or decked him with a conqueror's wage?

Valour wins the prize, not sloth, and failure lacks renown. For

one is followed by triumph and honour, the other by an unsightly

life or by a stagnant end. I, who know not which way the issue

of this duel inclines, dare not boldly anticipate that as a

reward, of which I know not whether it be rightly mine. For one

whose victory is doubtful 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 my life. It is folly to lay

hands on the fruit before it is ripe, and to be fain to pluck

that which one is not yet sure is one's title. This hand shall

win me the prize, or death." Having thus spoken, he smote the

barbarian 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 the first blow. Thus he was a sorry sight unto the

Danes, but the Slavs granted their triumphant comrade a great

procession, and received him with splendid dances. On the morrow

the same man, whether he was elated with the good fortune of his

late victory, or was fired with the wish to win another, came

close to the enemy, and set to girding at them in the words of

his former challenge. For, supposing that he had laid low the

bravest of the Danes, he did not think that any of them would

have any heart left to fight further with him upon his challenge.

Also, trusting that, now one champion had fallen, he had

shattered the strength of the whole army, he thought that naught

would be hard to achieve upon which his later endeavours were

bent. For nothing pampers arrogance more than success, or

prompts to pride more surely than prosperity.

So Rorik was vexed that the general courage should be sapped by

the impudence 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 one man should be found so quick of

spirit or so vigorous of arm, that he longed to sacrifice his

life for his country. It was the high-hearted Ubbe who first

wiped off this infamous reproach upon the hesitating Danes. For

he was of great bodily strength and powerful in incantations. He

also purposely asked the prize of the combat, and the king

promised him the bracelets. Then said he: "How can I trust the

promise when thou keepest the pledge in thine own hands, and dost

not deposit the gift in the charge of another? Let there be some

one to whom thou canst entrust the pledge, that thou mayst not be

able to take thy promise back. For the courage of the champion

is kindled by the irrevocable certainty of the prize." Of course

it was plain that he had said this in jest; sheer courage had

armed him to repel the insult to his country. But Rorik thought

he was tempted by avarice, and was loth to seem as if, contrary

to royal fashion, he meant to take back the gift or revoke his

promise; so, being stationed on his vessel, he resolved to shake

off the bracelets, and with a mighty swing send them to the

asker. But his attempt was baulked by the width of the gap

between them; for the bracelets fell short of the intended spot,

the impulse being too faint and slack, and were reft away by the

waters. For this nickname of Slyngebond, (swing-bracelet) clung

to Rorik. But this event testified much to the valour of Ubbe.

For the loss of his drowned prize never turned his mind from his

bold venture; he would not seem to let his courage be tempted by

the wages of covetousness. So he eagerly went to fight, showing

that he was a seeker of honour and not thc slave of lucre, and

that he set bravery before lust of pelf; and intent to prove that

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 with

soldiers; the champions engage; a din arises; the crowd of

onlookers shouts in discord, each backing his own. And so the

valour of the champions blazes to white-heat; falling dead under

the wounds dealt by one another, they end together the combat and

their lives. I think that it was a provision of fortune that

neither of them should reap joy and honour by the other's death.

This event won back to Rorik the hearts of the insurgents and

regained him the tribute.

At this time Horwendil and Feng, whose father Gerwendil had been

governor of the Jutes, were appointed in his place by Rorik to

defend Jutland. But Horwendil held the monarchy for three years,

and then, to will the height of glory, devoted himself to roving.

Then Koller, King of Norway, in rivalry of his great deeds and

renown, deemed it would be a handsome deed if by his greater

strength in arms he could bedim the far-famed glory of the rover;

and cruising about the sea, he watched for Horwendil's fleet and

came up with it. There was an island lying in the middle of the

sea, which each of the rovers, bringing his ships up on either

side, was holding. The captains were tempted by the pleasant

look of the beach, and the comeliness of the shores led them to

look through the interior of the springtide woods, to go through

the glades, and roam over the sequestered forests. It was here

that the advance of Koller and Horwendil brought them face to

face without any witness. Then Horwendil endeavoured to address

the king first, asking him in what way it was his pleasure to

fight, and declaring that one best which needed the courage of as

few as possible. For, said he, the duel was the surest of all

modes of combat for winning the meed of bravery, because it

relied only upon native courage, and excluded all help from the

hand of another. Koller marvelled at so brave a judgment in a

youth, and said: "Since thou hast granted me the choice of

battle, I think it is best to employ that kind which needs only

the endeavours of two, and is free from all the tumult.

Certainly it is more venturesome, and allows of a speedier award

of the victory. This thought we share, in this opinion we agree

of our own accord. But since the issue remains doubtful, we must

pay some regard to gentle dealing, and must not give way so far

to our inclinations as to leave the last offices undone. Hatred

is in our hearts; yet let piety be there also, which in its due

time may take the place of rigour. For the rights of nature

reconcile us, though we are parted by differences of purpose;

they link us together, howsoever rancour estrange our spirit.

Let us, therefore, have this pious stipulation, that the

conqueror shall give funeral rites to the conquered. For all

allow that these are the last duties of human kind, from which no

righteous man shrinks. Let each army lay aside its sternness and

perform this function in harmony. Let jealousy depart at death,

let the feud be buried in the tomb. Let us not show such an

example of cruelty as to persecute one another's dust, though

hatred has come between us in our lives. It will be a boast for

the victor if he has borne his beaten foe in a lordly funeral.

For the man who pays the rightful dues over his dead enemy wins

the goodwill of the survivor; and whoso devotes gentle dealing to

him who is no more, conquers the living by 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 hap

that may befall. For often those who fight keep their lives

safe, but suffer maiming; and this lot is commonly thought more

dismal than any death; for death cuts off memory of all things,

while the living cannot forget the devastation of his own body.

Therefore this mischief also must be helped somehow; so let it be

agreed, that the injury of either of 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's

prompting; and he who slights it is a self-murderer."

After mutually pledging their faiths to these terms, they began

the battle. Nor was their strangeness his meeting one another,

nor the sweetness of that spring-green spot, so heeded as to

prevent them from the fray. Horwendil, in his too great ardour,

became keener to attack his enemy than to defend his own body;

and, heedless of his shield, had grasped his sword with both

hands; and his boldness did not fail. For by his 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

howe of lordly make and pompous obsequies. Then he pursued and

slew Koller's sister Sela, who was a skilled warrior and

experienced in roving.

He had now passed three years in valiant deeds of war; and, in

order to win higher rank in Rorik's favour, he assigned to him

the best trophies and the pick of the plunder. His friendship

with Rorik enabled him to woo and will in marriage his daughter

Gerutha, who bore him a son Amleth.

Such great good fortune stung Feng with jealousy, so that he

resolved treacherously to waylay his brother, thus showing that

goodness is not safe even from those of a man's own house. And

behold, when a chance came to murder him, his bloody hand sated

the deadly passion of his soul. Then he took the wife of the

brother he had butchered, capping unnatural murder with incest.

For whoso yields to one iniquity, speedily falls an easier victim

to the next, the first being an incentive to the second. Also,

the man veiled the monstrosity of his deed with such hardihood of

cunning, that he made up a mock pretence of goodwill to excuse

his crime, and glossed over fratricide with a show of

righteousness. Gerutha, said he, though so gentle that she would

do no man the slightest hurt, had been visited with her husband's

extremest hate; and it was all to save her that he had slain his

brother; for he thought it shameful that a lady so meek and

unrancorous should suffer the heavy disdain of her husband. Nor

did his smooth words fail in their intent; for at courts, where

fools are sometimes favoured and backbiters preferred, a lie

lacks not credit. Nor did Feng keep from shameful embraces the

hands that had slain a brother; pursuing with equal guilt both of

his wicked and impious deeds.

Amleth beheld all this, but feared lest too shrewd a behaviour

might make his uncle suspect him. So he chose to feign dulness,

and pretend an utter lack of wits. This cunning course not only

concealed his intelligence but ensured his safety. Every day he

remained in his mother's house utterly listless and unclean,

flinging himself on the ground and bespattering his person with

foul and filthy dirt. His discoloured face and visage smutched

with slime denoted foolish and grotesque madness. All he said

was of a piece with these follies; all he did savoured of utter

lethargy. In a word, you would not have thought him 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

with his hands, to fashion wooden crooks, and harden them in the

fire, shaping at their lips certain barbs, to make them hold more

tightly to their fastenings. When asked what he was about, he

said that he was preparing sharp javelins to avenge his father.

This answer was not a little scoffed at, all men deriding his

idle and ridiculous pursuit; but the thing helped his purpose

afterwards. Now it was his craft in this matter that first

awakened in the deeper observers a suspicion of his cunning. For

his skill in a trifling art betokened the hidden talent of the

craftsman; nor could they believe the spirit dull where the hand

had acquired so cunning a workmanship. Lastly, he always watched

with the most punctual care over his pile of stakes that he had

pointed in the fire. Some people, therefore, declared that his

mind was quick enough, and fancied that he only played the

simpleton in order to hide his understanding, and veiled some

deep purpose under a cunning feint. His wiliness (said these)

would be most readily detected, if a fair woman were put in his

way in some secluded place, who should provoke his mind to the

temptations of love; all men's natural temper being too blindly

amorous to be artfully dissembled, and this passion being also

Roman";mso-fareast-font-family: too impetuous to be checked by cunning. Therefore, if his

lethargy were feigned, he would seize the opportunity, and yield

straightway to violent delights. So men were commissioned to

draw the young man in his rides into a remote part of the forest,

and there assail him with a temptation of this nature. Among

these chanced to be a foster-brother of Amleth, who had not

ceased to have regard to their common nurture; and who esteemed

his present orders less than the memory of their past fellowship.

He attended Amleth among his appointed train, being anxious not

to entrap, but to warn him; and was persuaded that he would

suffer the worst if he showed the slightest glimpse of sound

reason, and above all if he did the act of love openly. This was

also plain enough to Amleth himself. For when he was bidden

mount his horse, he deliberately set himself in such a fashion

that he turned his back to the neck and faced about, fronting the

tail; which he proceeded to encompass with the reins, just as if

on that side he would check the horse in its furious pace. By

this cunning thought he eluded the trick, and overcame the

treachery of his uncle. The reinless steed galloping on, with

rider directing its tail, was ludicrous enough to behold.

Amleth went on, and a wolf crossed his path amid the thicket.

When his companions told him that a young colt had met him, he

retorted, that in Feng's stud there were too few of that kind

fighting. This was a gentle but witty fashion of invoking a

curse upon his uncle's riches. When they averred that he had

given a cunning answer, he answered that he had spoken

deliberately; for he was loth, to be thought prone to lying about

any matter, and wished to be held a stranger to falsehood; and

accordingly he mingled craft and candour in such wise that,

though his words did lack truth, yet there was nothing to betoken

the truth and betray how far his keenness went.

Again, as he passed along the beach, his companions found the

rudder of a ship, which had been wrecked, and said they had

discovered a huge knife. "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, this enormous rudder matched.

Also, as they passed the sandhills, and bade him look at the

meal, meaning the sand, he replied that it had been ground small

by the hoary tempests of the ocean. His companions praising his

answer, he said that he had spoken it wittingly. Then they

purposely left him, that he might pluck up more courage to

practise wantonness. The woman whom his uncle had dispatched met

him in a dark spot, as though she had crossed him by chance; and

he took her and would have ravished her, had not his foster-

brother, by a secret device, given him an inkling of the trap.

For this man, while pondering the fittest way to play privily the

prompter's part, and forestall the young man's hazardous

lewdness, found a straw on the ground and fastened it underneath

the tail of a gadfly that was flying past; which he then drove

towards the particular quarter where he knew Amleth to be: an act

which served the unwary prince exceedingly well. The token was

interpreted as shrewdly as it had been sent. For Amleth saw the

gadfly, espied with curiosity the straw which it wore embedded in

its tail, and perceived that it was a secret warning to beware of

treachery. Alarmed, scenting a trap, and fain to possess his

desire in greater safety, he caught up the woman in his arms and

dragged her off to a distant and impenetrable fen. Moreover,

when they had lain together, he conjured her earnestly to

disclose the matter to none, and the promise of silence was

accorded as heartily as it was asked. For both of them had been

under the same fostering in their childhood; and this early

rearing in common had brought Amleth and the girl into great

intimacy.

So, when he had returned home, they all jeeringly asked him

whether he had given way to love, and he avowed that he had

ravished the maid. When he was next asked where he did it, and

what had been his pillow, he said that 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, he had

gathered fragments of all these things, in order to avoid lying.

And though his jest did not take aught of the truth out of the

story, the answer was greeted with shouts of merriment from the

bystanders. The maiden, too, when questioned on the matter,

declared that he had done no such thing; and her denial was the

more readily credited when it was found that the escort had not

witnessed the deed. Then he who had marked the gadfly in order

to give a hint, wishing to show Amleth that to his trick he owed

his salvation, observed that latterly he had been singly devoted

to Amleth. The young man's reply was apt. Not to seem forgetful

of his informant's service, he said that he had seen a certain

thing bearing a straw flit by suddenly, wearing a stalk of chaff

fixed in its hinder parts. The cleverness of this speech, which

made the rest split with laughter, rejoiced the heart of Amleth's

friend.

Thus all were worsted, and none could open the secret lock of the

young man's wisdom. But a friend of Feng, gifted more with

assurance than judgment, declared that the unfathomable cunning

of such a mind could not be detected by any vulgar plot, for the

man's obstinacy was so great that it ought not to be assailed

with any mild measures; there were many sides to his wiliness,

and it ought not to be entrapped by any one method. Accordingly,

said he, his own profounder acuteness had hit on a more delicate

way, which was well fitted to be put in practice, and would

effectually discover what they desired to know. Feng was

purposely to absent himself, pretending affairs of great import.

Amleth should be closeted alone with his mother in her chamber;

but a man should first be commissioned to place himself in a

concealed part of the room and listen heedfully to what they

talked about. For if the son had any wits at all he would not

hesitate to speak out in the hearing of his mother, or fear to

trust himself to the fidelity of her who bore him. The speaker,

loth to seem readier to devise than to carry out the plot,

zealously proffered himself as the agent of the eavesdropping.

Feng rejoiced at the scheme, and departed on pretence of a long

journey. Now he who had given this counsel repaired privily to

the room where Amleth was shut up with his mother, and lay flown

skulking in the straw. But Amleth had his antidote for the

treachery. Afraid of being overheard by some eavesdropper, he at

first resorted to his usual imbecile ways, and crowed like a

noisy cock, beating his arms together to mimic the flapping of

wings. Then he mounted the straw and began to swing his body and

jump again and again, wishing to try if aught lurked there in

hiding. Feeling a lump beneath his feet, he drove his sword into

the spot, and impaled him who lay hid. Then he dragged him from

his concealment and slew him. Then, cutting his body into

morsels, he seethed it in boiling water, and flung it through the

mouth of an open sewer for the swine to eat, bestrewing the

stinking mire with his hapless limbs. Having in this wise eluded

the snare, he went back to the room. Then his mother set up a

great wailing, and began to lament her son's folly to his face;

but he said: "Most infamous of women; dost thou seek with such

lying lamentations to hide thy most heavy guilt? Wantoning like

a harlot, thou hast entered a wicked and abominable state of

wedlock, embracing with incestuous bosom thy husband's slayer,

and wheedling with filthy lures of blandishment him who had slain

the father of thy son. This, forsooth, is the way that the mares

couple with the vanquishers of their mates; for brute beasts are

naturally incited to pair indiscriminately; and it would seem

that thou, like them, hast clean forgot thy first husband. As

for me, not idly do I wear the mask of folly; for I doubt not

that he who destroyed his brother will riot as ruthlessly in the

blood of his kindred. Therefore it is better to choose the garb

of dulness than that of sense, and to borrow some protection from

a show of utter frenzy. Yet the passion to avenge my father

still burns in my heart; but I am watching the chances, I await

the fitting hour. There is a place for all things; against so

merciless and dark spirit must be used the deeper devices of the

mind. And thou, who hadst been better employed in lamenting

thine own disgrace, know it is superfluity to bewail my

witlessness; thou shouldst weep for the blemish in thine own

mind, not for that in another's. On the rest see thou keep

silence." With such reproaches he rent the heart of his mother

and redeemed her to walk in the ways of virtue; teaching her to

set the fires of the past above the seductions of the present.

When Feng returned, nowhere could he find the man who had

suggested the treacherous espial; he searched for him long and

carefully, but none said they had seen him anywhere. Amleth,

among others, was asked in jest if he had come on any trace of

him, and replied that the man had gone to the sewer, but had

fallen through its bottom and been stifled by the floods of

filth, and that he had then been devoured by the swine that came

up all about that place. This speech was flouted by those who

heard; for it seemed senseless, though really it expressly avowed

the truth.

Feng now suspected that his stepson was certainly full of guile,

and desired to make away with him, but durst not do the deed for

fear of the displeasure, not only of Amleth's grandsire Rorik,

but also of his own wife. So he thought that the King of Britain

should be employed to slay him, so that another could do the

deed, and he be able to feign innocence. Thus, desirous to hide

his cruelty, he chose rather to besmirch his friend than to bring

disgrace on his own head. Amleth, on departing, gave secret

orders to his mother to hang the hall with woven knots, and to

perform pretended obsequies for him a year thence; promising that

he would then return. Two retainers of Feng then accompanied

him, bearing a letter graven on wood -- a kind of writing

material frequent in old times; this letter enjoined the king of

the Britons to put to death the youth who was sent over to him.

While they were reposing, Amleth searched their coffers, found

the letter, and read the instructions therein. Whereupon he

erased all the writing on the surface, substituted fresh

characters, and so, changing the purport of the instructions,

shifted his own doom upon his companions. Nor was he satisfied

ont-size:14.0pt; with removing from himself the sentence of death and passing the

beril on to others, but added an entreaty that the King of

Britain would grant his daughter in marriage to a youth of great

judgment whom he was sending to him. Under this was falsely

marked the signature of Feng.

Now when they had reached Britain, the envoys went to the king,

and proffered him the letter which they supposed was an implement

of destruction 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 vulgar viands, and abstaining very

strangely, rejected that plenteous feast, refraining from the

drink even as from the banquet. All marvelled that a youth and a

foreigner should disdain the carefully cooked dainties of the

royal board and the luxurious banquet provided, as if it were

some peasant's relish. So, when the revel broke up, and the king

was dismissing his friends to rest, he had a man sent into the

sleeping-room to listen secretly, in order that he might hear the

midnight conversation of his guests. Now, when Amleth's

companions asked him why he had refrained from the feast of

yestereve, as if it were poison, he answered that the bread was

flecked with blood and tainted; that there was a tang of iron in

the liquor; while the meats of the feast reeked of the stench of

a human carcase, and were infected by a kind of smack of the

odour of the charnel. He further said that the king had the eyes

of a slave, and that the queen had in three ways shown the

behaviour of a bondmaid. Thus he reviled with insulting

invective not so much the feast as its givers. And presently his

companions, taunting him with his old defect of wits, began to

flout him with many saucy jeers, because he blamed and cavilled

at seemly and worthy things, and because he attacked thus ignobly

an illustrous 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

who could say such things had either more than mortal wisdom or

more than mortal folly; in these few words fathoming the full

depth of Amleth's penetration. Then he summoned his steward and

asked him whence he had procured the bread. The steward declared

that it had been made by the king's own baker. The king asked

where the corn had grown of which it was 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 the ancient bones of

slaughtered men, and still bearing plainly all the signs of

ancient carnage; and that he had himself planted this field with

grain in springtide, thinking it more fruitful than the rest, and

hoping for plenteous abundance; and so, for aught he knew, the

bread had caught some evil savour from this bloodshed. The king,

on hearing this, surmised that Amleth had spoken truly, and took

the pains to learn also what had been the source of the lard.

The other declared that his hogs had, through negligence, strayed

from keeping, and battened on the rotten carcase of a robber, and

that perchance their pork had thus come to have something of a

corrupt smack. The king, finding that Amlet11's judgment was

right in this thing also, asked of what liquor the steward had

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 digging deep down; and there he found, rusted away, several

swords, the tang whereof it was thought had tainted the waters.

Others relate that Amleth blamed the drink because, while

quaffing it, he had detected some bees that had fed in the paunch

of a dead man; and that the taint, which had formerly been

imparted to the combs, had reappeared in the taste. The king,

seeing that Amleth had rightly given the causes of the taste he

had found so faulty, and learning that the ignoble eyes wherewith

Amleth had reproached him concerned some stain upon his birth,

had a secret interview with his mother, and asked her who his

father had really been. She said she had submitted to no man but

the king. But when he threatened that he would have the truth

out of her by a trial, he was told that he was the offspring of a

slave. By the evidence of the avowal thus extorted he understood

the whole mystery of the reproach upon his origin. Abashed as he

was with shame for his low estate, he was so ravished with the

young man's cleverness, that he asked him why he had aspersed the

queen with the reproach that she had demeaned herself like a

slave? But while resenting that the courtliness of his wife had

been accused in the midnight gossip of guest, he found that her

mother had been a bondmaid. For Amleth said he had noted in her

three blemishes showing the demeanor of a slave; first, she had

muffled her head in her mantle as handmaids do; next, that she

had gathered up her gown for walking; and thirdly, that she had

first picked out with a splinter, and then chewed up, the remnant

of food that stuck in the crevices between her teeth. Further,

he mentioned that the king's mother had been brought into slavery

from captivity, lest she should seem servile only in her habits,

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 it were a witness from the skies. Moreover, in

order to fulfil the bidding of his friend, he hanged Amleth's

companions on the morrow. Amleth, feigning offence, treated this

piece of kindness as a grievance, and received from the king, as

compensation, some gold, which he afterwards melted in the fire,

and secretly caused to be poured into some hollowed sticks.

When he had passed a whole year with the king he obtained leave

to make a journey, and returned to his own land, carrying away of

all his princely wealth and state only the sticks which held the

gold. On reaching Jutland, he exchanged his present attire for

his ancient demeanour, which he had adopted for righteous ends,

purposely assuming an aspect of absurdity. Covered with filth,

he entered the banquet-room where his own obsequies were being

held, and struck all men utterly aghast, rumour having falsely

noised abroad his death. At last terror melted into mirth, and

the guests jeered and taunted one another, that he 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

the one and the other." This he observed with equal truth and

pleasantry; for his speech, though most thought it idle, yet

departed not from the truth; for it pointed at the weregild of

the slain as though it were themselves. Thereon, wishing to

bring the company into a gayer mood, he jollied the cupbearers,

and diligently did the office of plying the drink. Then, to

prevent his loose dress hampering his walk, he girdled his sword

upon his side, and purposely drawing it several times, pricked

his fingers with its point. The bystantlers accordingly had both

sword and scabbard riveted across with all iron nail. Then, to

smooth the way more safely to his plot, he went to the lords and

plied them heavily with draught upon draught, and drenched them

all so deep in wine, that their feet were made feeble with

drunkenness, and they turned to rest within the palace, making

their bed where they had revelled. Then he saw they were in a

fit state for his plots, and thought that here was a chance

offered to do his purpose. So he took out of his bosom the

stakes he has long ago prepared, and went into the building,

where the ground lay covered with the bodies of the nobles

wheezing off their sleep and their debauch. Then, cutting away

its support, he brought dlown the hanging his mother had knitted,

which covered the inner as well as the outer walls of the hall.

This he flung upon the snorers, and then applying the crooked

stakes, he knotted and bound them up in such insoluble intricacy,

that not one of the men beneath, however hard he might struggle,

could contrive to rise. After this he set fire to the palace.

The flames spread, scattering the conflagration far and wide. It

enveloped the whole dwelling, destroyed the palace, and burnt

them all while 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 conducted by his train into his pavilion;

plucked up a sword that chanced to be hanging to the bed, and

planted his own in its place. Then, awakening his uncle, he told

him that his nobles were perishing in the flames, and that Amleth

was here, armed with his crooks to help him, and thirsting to

exact the vengeance, now long overdue, for his father's murder.

Feng, on hearing this, leapt from his couch, but was cut down

while deprived of his own sword, and as he strove in vain to draw

the strange one. O valiant Amleth, and worthy of immortal fame,

who being shrewdly armed with a feint of folly, covered a wisdom

too high for human wit under a marvellous disguise of silliness!

And not only found in his subtlety means to protect his own

safety, but also by its guidance found opportunity to avenge his

father. By this skilful defence of himself, and strenuous

revenge for his parent, he has left it doubtful whether we are 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 4