第141章

"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 throat with the avenging steel.For my soul chooses the service of a noble smiter, and shrinks to ask its doom at a coward's hand.Righteously may a man choose to forstall the ordinance of doom.What cannot be escaped it 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 is near its doom and strikes down what cannot stand.Death is best when it is sought: and when the end is loved, life is wearisome.Let not the troubles 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 his father, promised that he would comply with his prayer, and would not refuse the reward.Starkad eagerly handed him the sword, and at once stooped his neck beneath it, counselling him not to do the smiter's work timidly, or use the sword like a woman; and telling him that if, when he had killed him, he could spring between the head and the trunk before the corpse fell, he would be rendered proof against arms.It is not known whether he said this in order to instruct his executioner or to punish him, for perhaps, as he leapt, the bulk of the huge body would have crushed him.So Hather smote sharply with the sword and hacked off the head of the old man.When the severed head struck the ground, it is said to have bitten the earth; thus the fury of the dying lips declared the fierceness of the soul.

But the smiter, thinking that the promise hid some treachery, warily refrained from leaping.Had he done so rashly, perhaps he would have been crushed by the corpse as it fell, and have paid with his own life for the old man's murder.But he would not allow so great a champion to lie unsepulchred, and had his body buried in the field that is commonly called Rolung.

Now Omund, as I have heard, died most tranquilly, while peace was unbroken, leaving two sons and two daughters.The eldest of these, SIWARD, came to the throne by right of birth, while his brother Budle was still of tender years.At this time Gotar, King of the Swedes, conceived boundless love for one of the daughters of Omund, because of the report of her extraordinary beauty, and entrusted one Ebb, the son of Sibb, with the commission of asking for the maiden.Ebb did his work skilfully, and brought back the good news that the girl had consented.

Nothing was now lacking to Gotar's wishes but the wedding; but, as he feared to hold this among strangers, he demanded that his betrothed should be sent to him in charge of Ebb, whom he had before used as envoy.

Ebb was crossing Halland with a very small escort, and went for a night's lodging to a country farm, where the dwellings of two brothers faced one another on the two sides of a river.Now these men used to receive folk hospitably and then murder them, but were skilful to hide their brigandage under a show of generosity.For they had hung on certain hidden chains, in a lofty part of the house, an oblong beam like a press, and furnished it with a steel point; they used to lower this in the night by letting down the fastenings, and cut off the heads of those that lay below.Many had they beheaded in this way with the hanging mass.So when Ebb and his men had been feasted abundantly, the servants laid them out a bed near the hearth, so that by the swing of the treacherous beam they might mow off their heads, which faced the fire.When they departed, Ebb, suspecting the contrivance slung overhead, told his men to feign slumber and shift their bodies, saying that it would be very wholesome for them to change their place.

Now among these were some who despised the orders which the others obeyed, and lay unmoved, each in the spot where he had chanced to lie down.Then towards the mirk of night the heavy hanging machine was set in motion by the doers of the treachery.

Loosened from the knots of its fastening, it fell violently on the ground, and slew those beneath it.Thereupon those who had the charge of committing the crime brought in a light, that they might learn clearly what had happened, and saw that Ebb, on whose especial account they had undertaken the affair, had wisely been equal to the danger.He straightway set on them and punished them 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 his mishap.

Gotar judged that this affair had been inspired by Siward, and prepared to avenge his wrongs by arms.Siward, defeated by him in Halland, retreated into Jutland, the enemy having taken his sister.Here he conquered the common people of the Sclavs, who ventured to fight without a leader; and he won as much honour from this victory as he had got disgrace by his flight.But a little afterwards, the men whom he had subdued when they were ungeneraled, found a general and defeated Siward in Funen.

Several times he fought them in Jutland, but with ill-success.