第154章

He was succeeded on the throne by RAGNAR.At this time Fro (Frey?), the King of Sweden, after slaying Siward, the King of the Norwegians, put the wives of Siward's kinsfolk in bonds in a brothel, and delivered them to public outrage.When Ragnar heard of this, he went to Norway to avenge his grandfather.As he came, many of the matrons, who had either suffered insult to their persons or feared imminent peril to their chastity, hastened eagerly to his camp in male attire, declaring that they would prefer death to outrage.Nor did Ragnar, who was to punish this reproach upon the women, scorn to use against the author of the infamy the help of those whose shame he had come to avenge.

Among them was Ladgerda, a skilled amazon, who, though a maiden, had the courage of a man, and fought in front among the bravest with her hair loose over her shoulders.All-marvelled at her matchless deeds, for her locks flying 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 whom he had seen so forward in the fray, and declared that he had gained the victory by the might of one woman.Learning that she was of noble birth among the barbarians, he steadfastly wooed her by means of messengers.She spurned his mission in her heart, but feigned compliance.Giving false answers, she made her panting wooer confident that he would gain his desires; but ordered that a bear and a dog should be set at the porch of her dwelling, thinking to guard her own room against all the ardour of a lover by means of the beasts that blocked the way.Ragnar, comforted by the good news, embarked, crossed the sea, and, telling his men to stop in Gaulardale, as the valley is called, went to the dwelling of the maiden alone.

Here the beasts met him, and he thrust one through with a spear, and caught the other by the throat, wrung its neck, and choked it.Thus he had the maiden as the prize of the peril he had overcome.By this marriage he had two daughters, whose names have not come down to us, and a son Fridleif.Then he lived three years at peace.

The Jutlanders, a presumptuous race, thinking that because of his recent marriage he would never return, took the Skanians into alliance, and tried to attack the Zealanders, who preserved the most zealous and affectionate loyalty towards Ragnar.He, when he heard of it, equipped thirty ships, and, the winds favouring his voyage, crushed the Skanians, who ventured to fight, near the stead of Whiteby, and when the winter was over he fought successfully with the Jutlanders who dwelt near the Liim-fjord in that region.A third and a fourth time he conquered the Skanians and the Hallanders triumphantly.

Afterwards, changing his love, and desiring Thora, the daughter of the King Herodd, to wife, Ragnar divorced himself from Ladgerda; for he thought ill of her trustworthiness, remembering that she had long ago set the most savage beasts to destroy him.

Meantime Herodd, the King of the Swedes, happening to go and hunt in the woods, brought home some snakes, found by his escort, for his daughter to rear.She speedily obeyed the instructions of her father, and endured to rear a race of adders with her maiden hands.Moreover, she took care that they should daily have a whole ox-carcase to gorge upon, not knowing that she was privately feeding and keeping up a public nuisance.The vipers grew up, and scorched the country-side with their pestilential breath.Whereupon the king, repenting of his sluggishness, proclaimed that whosoever removed 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 from men who travelled to and fro how the matter stood, asked his nurse for a woolen mantle, and for some thigh-pieces that were very hairy, with which he could repel the snake-bites.

He thought that he ought to use a dress stuffed with hair to protect himself, and also took one that was not unwieldy, that he might move nimbly.And when he had landed in Sweden, he deliberately plunged his body in water, while there was a frost falling, and, wetting his dress, to make it the less penetrable, he let the cold freeze it.Thus attired, he took leave of his companions, exhorted them to remain loyal to Fridleif, and went on to the 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, an enormous snake glided up and met him.Another, equally huge, crawled up, following in the trail of the first.

They strove now to buffet the young man with the coils of their tails, and now to spit and belch their venom stubbornly upon him.

Meantime the courtiers, betaking themselves to safer hiding, watched the struggle from afar like affrighted little girls.The king was stricken with equal fear, and fled, with a few followers, to a narrow shelter.But Ragnar, trusting in the hardness of his frozen dress, foiled the poisonous assaults not only with his arms, but with his attire, and, singlehanded, in unweariable combat, stood up against the two gaping creatures, who stubbornly poured forth their venom upon him.For their teeth he repelled with his shield, their poison with his dress.

At last he cast his spear, and drove it against the bodies of the brutes, who were attacking him hard.He pierced both their hearts, and his battle ended in victory.