第128章

Meanwhile Gurid, the daughter of Alf, seeing that the royal line was reduced to herself alone, and having no equal in birth whom she could marry, proclaimed a vow imposing chastity on herself, thinking it better to have no husband than to take one from the commons.Moreover, to escape outrage, she guarded her room with a chosen band of champions.Once Halfdan happened to come to see her.The champions, whose brother he had himself slain in his boyhood, were away.He told her that she ought to loose her virgin zone, and exchange her austere chastity for deeds of love;that she ought not to give in so much to her inclination for modesty as to be too proud to make a match, and so by her service repair the fallen monarchy.So he bade her look on himself, who was of eminently illustrious birth, in the light of a husband, since it appeared 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 of the royal line to a man of meaner rank.Not content with reproaching his obscure birth, she also taunted his unsightly countenance.Halfdan rejoined that she brought against him two faults: one that his blood was not illustrious enough; another, that he was blemished with a cracked lip whose scar had never healed.Therefore he would not come back to ask for her before he had wiped away both marks of shame by winning glory in war.

Halfdan entreated her to suffer no man to be privy to her bed until she heard certain tidings either of his return or his death.The champions, whom he had bereaved of their brother long ago, were angry that he had spoken to Gurid, and tried to ride after him as he went away.When he saw it, he told his comrades to go into ambush, and said he would encounter the champions alone.His followers lingered, and thought it shameful to obey his orders, but he drove them off with threats, saying that 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, fought the twelve single-handed, and killed them.After their destruction, not content with the honours of so splendid an action, and meaning to do one yet greater, he got from his mother the swords of his grandfather, one of which was called Lyusing....and the other Hwyting, after the sheen of its well-whetted point.But when he heard that war was raging between Alver, the King of Sweden, and the Ruthenians (Russians), he instantly went to Russia, offered help to the natives, and was received by all with the utmost honour.Alver was not far off, there being only a little ground to cross to cover the distance between the two.Alver's soldier Hildiger, the son of Gunnar, challenged the champions of the Ruthenians to fight him; but when he saw that Halfdan was put up against him, though knowing well that he was Halfdan's brother, he let natural feeling prevail over courage, and said that he, who was famous for the destruction of seventy champions, would not fight with an untried man.Therefore he told him to measure himself in enterprises of lesser moment, and thenceforth to follow pursuits fitted to his strength.He made this announcement not from distrust in his own courage, but in order to preserve his uprightness; for he was not only very valiant, but also skilled at blunting the sword with spells.For when he remembered that Halfdan's father had slain his own, he was moved by two feelings -- the desire to avenge his father, and his love for his brother.He therefore thought it better to retire from the challenge than to be guilty of a very great crime.Halfdan demanded another champion in his place, slew him when he appeared, and was soon awarded the palm of valour even by the voice of the enemy, being accounted by public acclamation the bravest of all.On the next day he asked for two men to fight with, and slew them both.On the third day he subdued three; on the fourth he overcame four who met him; and on the fifth he asked for five.

When Halfdan conquered these, and when the eighth day had been reached with an equal increase in the combatants and in the victory, he laid low eleven who attacked him at once.Hildiger, seeing that his own record of honours was equalled by the greatness of Halfdan's deeds could not bear to decline to meet him any longer.And when he felt that Halfdan had dealt him a deadly wound with a sword wrapped in rags, he threw away his arms, and, lying on the earth, addressed his brother as follows:

"It is pleasing to pass an hour away in mutual talk; and, while the sword rests, to sit a little on the ground and while away the time by speaking in turn, and keep ourselves in good heart.Time is left for our purpose; our two destinies have a different lot;one is surely doomed to die by a fatal weird, while triumph and glory and all the good of living await the other in better years.

Thus our omens differ, and our portions are distinguished.Thou art a son of the Danish land, I of the country of Sweden.Once, Drota thy mother had her breast swell for thee; she bore me, and by her I am thy foster-brother.Lo now, there perishes a 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, they will go to Styx in a common death.

Fast by my head stands my Swedish shield, which is adorned with (as) a fresh mirror of diverse chasing, and ringed with layers of marvellous fretwork.There a picture of really hues shows slain nobles and conquered champions, and the wars also and the notable deed of my right hand.In the midst is to be seen, painted in bright relief, the figure of my son, whom this hand bereft of his span of life.He was our only heir, the only thought of his father's mind, and given to his mother with comfort from above.