Three Northern Love Stories and Other Tales
Frithiof at the Orkneys
"Men see I a-baling
Amid the storm's might;
Six bale of Ellidi
Seven are a-rowing;
Like is he in the stem,
Straining hard at the oars,
To Frithiof the Bold,
The brisk in the battle."
So when he had drunk out the horn, he cast it in through the window, and spake to the woman who gave him drink:---
"Take up from the floor,
O fair-going woman,
The horn cast adown
Drunk out to the end!
I behold men at sea
Who, storm-beaten, shall need
Help at our hands
Ere the haven they make."
Now the Earl heard what Hallward sang; so he asked for tidings, and Hallward said: "Men are come a-land here, much forewearied, yet brave lads belike: but one of them is so hardy that he beareth the others ashore."
Then said the Earl, "Go ye, and meet them, and welcome them in seemly wise; if this be Frithiof, the son of Hersir Thorstein, my friend, he is a man famed far and wide for all prowess."
Then there took up the word a man named Atli, a great viking, and he spake: "Now shall that be proven which is told of, that Frithiof hath sworn never to be first in the craving of peace."
There were ten men in company with him, all evil and outrageous, who often wrought berserksgang.
So when they met Frithiof they took to their weapons.
But Atli said----
"Good to turn hither, Frithiof! Clutching ernes should claw; and we no less, Frithiof! Yea, and now may'st thou hold to thy word, and not crave first for peace."
So Frithiof turned to meet them, and sang a stave:---
"Nay, nay, in nought
Now shall ye cow us.
Blenching hearts
Isle-abiders!
Alone with you ten
The fight will I try,
Rather than pray
For peace at your hands."
Then came Hallward thereto, and spake---
"The Earl wills that ye all be made welcome here: neither shall any set on you."
Frithiof said he would take that with a good heart; howsoever he was ready for either peace or war.
So thereon they went to the Earl, and he made Frithiof and all his men right welcome, and they abode with him, in great honour holden, through the wintertide; and oft would the Earl ask of their voyage: so Biorn sang:----
"There baled we, wight fellows,
Washed over and over
On both boards
By billows;
For ten days we baled there,
And eight thereunto."
The Earl said: "Well nigh did the king undo you; it is ill seem of such-like kings as are meet for nought but to overcome men by wizardry. But now I wot," says Angantyr, "of thine errand hither, Frithiof, that thou art sent after the scat: whereto I give thee a speedy answer, that never shall King Helgi get scat of me, but to thee will I give money, even as much as thou wilt; and thou mayest call it scat if thou has a mind to, or whatso else thou wilt."
So Frithiof said that he would take the money.
King Ring weddeth Ingibiorg
That autumn came King Ring north to Sogn to his wedding, and there at a noble feast drank his bridal with Ingibiorg.
"Whence came that goodly ring which thou hast on thine arm?" said King Ring to Ingibiorg.
She said her father had owned it, but he answered and said---
"Nay, for Frithiof's gift it is: so take it off thine arm straightaway; for no gold shalt thou lack whenas thou comest to Elfhome."
So he gave the ring to King Helgi's wife, and bade her give it to Frithiof when he came back.
Then King Ring wended home with his wife, and loved her with exceeding great love.
Frithiof brings the tribute to the kings
But when they came to Norway they heard tell of the burning of Frithiof's stead.
So when he was gotten to Foreness, Frithiof said: "Black is my house waxen now; no friends have been at work here." And he sang withal:---
"Frank and free,
With my father dead,
In Foreness old
We drank aforetime.
Now my abode
Behold I burned;
For many ill deeds
The kings must I pay."
Then he sought rede of his men what was to be done; but they bade him look to it: then he said that the scat must first be paid out of hand. So they rowed over the Firth to Sowstrand; and there they heard that the kings were gone to Baldur's Meads to sacrifice to the gods; so Frithiof and Biorn went up thither, and bade Hallward and Asmund break up meanwhile all ships, both great and small, that were anigh; and they did so. Then went Frithiof and his fellow to the door at Baldur's Meads, and Frithiof would go in. Biorn bade him fare warily, since he must needs go in alone; but Frithiof charged him to abide without, and keep watch; and he sang a stave:----
"All alone go I
Unto the stead;
No folk I need
For the finding of kings;
But cast ye the fire
O'er the kings' dwelling,
If I come not again
In the cool of the even."
"Ah," said Biorn, "a goodly singing!"
Then went Frithiof in, and saw but few folk in the Hall of the Goddesses; there were the kings at their blood-offering, sitting a-drinking; a fire was there on the floor, and the wives of the kings sat thereby, a-warming the gods, while others anointed them, and wiped them with napkins.
So Frithiof went up to King Helgi and said: "Have here thy scat!"
And therewith he heaved up the purse wherein was the silver, and drave it on to the face of the king; whereby were two of his teeth knocked out, and he fell down stunned in his high seat; but Halfdan got hold of him, so that he fell not into the fire. Then sang Frithiof:---
"Have here thy scat,
High lord of the warriors!
Heed that and thy teeth,
Lest all tumble about thee!
Lo the silver abideth
At the bight of this bag here,
That Biorn and I
Betwixt us have borne thee."
Now there were but few folk in the chamber because the drinking was in another place; so Frithiof went out straightway along the floor, and beheld therein that goodly ring of his on the arm of Helgi's wife as she warmed Baldur at the fire; so he took hold of the ring, but it was fast to her arm, and he dragged her by it over the pavement toward the door, and Baldur fell from her into the fire; then Halfdan's wife caught hastily at Baldur, whereby the god that she was warming fell likewise into the fire, and the fire caught both the gods, for they had been anointed, and ran up thence into the roof, so that the house was all ablaze: but Frithiof got the ring to him ere he came out.
So then Biorn asked him what had come of his going in there; but Frithiof held up the ring and sang a stave:----
"The heavy purse smote Helgi
Hard 'midst his scoundrel's visage:
Lowly bowed Halfdan's brother,
Fell bundling 'mid the high seat:
There Baldur fell a-burning.
But first my bright ring gat I.
Fast from the roaring fire
I dragged the bent crone forward."
Men say that Frithiof cast a firebrand up on to the roof, so that the hall was all ablaze, and therewith sang a stave:----
"Down stride we toward the sea-strand,
And strong deeds set a-going,
For now the blue flame bickers
Amidst of Baldur's Meadow."
And therewith they went down to the sea.
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