So the girl was given him as prize of the combat, and bore him a son Omund.Then he gained his father-in-law's leave to revisit his father.But when he heard that his country was being attacked by Thore, with the help of Toste Sacrificer, and Leotar, surnamed....he went to fight them, content with a single servant, who was dressed as a woman.When he was near the house of Thore, he concealed his own and his attendant's swords in hollowed staves.And when he entered the palace, he disguised his true countenance, and feigned to be a man broken with age.
He said that with Siward he had been king of the beggars, but that he was now in exile, having been stubbornly driven forth by the hatred of the king's son Ole.Presently many of the courtiers greeted him with the name of king, and began to kneel and offer him their hands in mockery.He told them to bear out in deeds what they had done in jest; and, plucking out the swords which he and his man kept shut in their staves, attacked the king.So some aided Ole, taking it more as jest than earnest, and would not be false to the loyalty which they mockingly yielded him; but most of them, breaking their idle vow, took the side of Thore.Thus arose an internecine and undecided fray.At last Thore was overwhelmed and slain by the arms of his own folk, as much as by these of his guests; and Leotar, wounded to the death, and judging that his conqueror, Ole, was as keen in mind as he was valorous in deeds, gave him the name of the Vigorous, and prophesied that he should perish by the same kind of trick as he had used with Thore; for, without question he should fall by the treachery of his own house.And, as he spoke, he suddenly passed away.Thus we can see that the last speech of the dying man expressed by its shrewd divination the end that should come upon his conqueror.
After these deeds Ole did not go back to his father till he had restored peace to his house.His father gave him the command of the sea, and he destroyed seventy sea-kings in a naval battle.
The most distinguished among these were Birwil and Hwirwil, Thorwil, Nef and Onef, Redward (?), Rand and Erand (?).By the honour and glory of this exploit he excited many champions, whose whole heart's desire was for bravery, to join in alliance with him.He also enrolled into a bodyguard the wild young warriors who were kindled with a passion for glory.Among these he received Starkad with the greatest honour, and cherished him with more friendship than profit.Thus fortified, he checked, by the greatness of his name, the wantonness of the neighbouring kings, in that he took from them all their forces and all liking and heart for mutual warfare.
After this he went to Harald, who made him commander of the sea;and at last he was transferred to the service of Ring.At this time one Brun was the sole partner and confidant of all Harald's councils.To this man both Harald and Ring, whenever they needed a secret messenger, used to entrust their commissions.This degree of intimacy he obtained because he had been reared and fostered with them.But Brun, amid the toils of his constant journeys to and fro, was drowned in a certain river; and Odin, disguised under his name and looks, shook the close union of the kings by his treacherous embassage; and he sowed strife so guilefully that he engendered in men, who were bound by friendship and blood, a bitter mutual hate, which seemed unappeasable except by war.Their dissensions first grew up silently; at last both sides betrayed their leanings, and their secret malice burst into the light of day.So they declared their feuds, and seven years passed in collecting the materials of war.Some say that Harald secretly sought occasions to destroy himself, not being moved by malice or jealousy for the crown, but by a deliberate and voluntary effort.His old age and his cruelty made him a burden to his subjects; he preferred the sword to the pangs of disease, and liked better to lay down his life in the battle-field than in his bed, that he might have an end in harmony with the deeds of his past life.Thus, to make his death more illustrious, and go to the nether world in a larger company, he longed to summon many men to share his end;and he therefore of his own will prepared for war, in order to make food for future slaughter.For these reasons, being seized with as great a thirst to die himself as to kill others, and wishing the massacre on both sides to be equal, he furnished both sides with equal resources; but let Ring have a somewhat stronger force, preferring he should conquer and survive him.
ENDNOTES:
(1) A parallel is the Lionel-Lancelot story of children saved by being turned into dogs.
BOOK EIGHT.
STARKAD was the first to set in order in Danish speech the history of the Swedish war, a conflict whereof he was himself a mighty pillar; the said history being rather an oral than a written tradition.He set forth and arranged the course of this war in the mother tongue according to the fashion of our country;but I purpose to put it into Latin, and will first recount the most illustrious princes on either side.For I have felt no desire to include the multitude, which are even past exact numbering.And my pen shall relate first those on the side of Harald, and presently those who served under Ring.
