an had vanished in flames, and all people held Halfred for
dead, the Skalds composed many songs about him. But that was later.

At that time Halfred thus roamed about everywhere, singing and
triumphing, winning fights at sea, and contests in palaces. And because
he was victor over all the Skalds in singing competitions, the people
named him "Sigskald," and from that, the heathen people, prophesying
backwards, invented, perhaps, that fable about the elf which had given
him honey, and his name, in the cradle.

And he amassed great spoils, and many hundred rings of red gold, and
gave them all away again to his sailing comrades. And yet he still
heaped up rich hords upon the Singing Swan; and brought also much
treasure to Hamund's hall, where he was wont to pass the winter.

And he splendidly improved the hall, and built over against it a great
Mead hall, in which a thousand men could drink: and six steps led to
the seat of honour in the Mead hall.

But the most costly thing among all his spoils was a
candelabrum--"Lampas" the Greeks call it--half as high as a man, of
pure gold, with seven flaming arms, which far away, in the land of
Greece, he had borne away from a marble city that he had burned.

And this treasure Halfred himself prized highly, who otherwise cared
nothing for gold. And at the Yule feast, and the Midsummer feast, and
at all high festivals, it must stand close before him upon the table,
with its sevenfold flame.

But that at which everyone wondered most was, that all people who saw
Halfred, and heard him sing, seemed to be forced to be friendly to him.
It often happened that even the Skalds whom he vanquished in song
contests, themselves conceived great love for him, and praised his
strains more than their own.

But this is truly the most incredible thing that can be told of Skalds.
Compared to this it is a small thing that a wooer whom he had
supplanted in a woman's favour should become his friend and blood
brother. But that was later.

And, indeed, because everything seemed miraculous, those heathen people
invented that legend that he was the son of Oski, and that therefore
neither men's wrath nor maiden's pride could withstand him; that a god
was throned upon his forehead, who dazzled all eyes; with many more
such fables.

Above all they say that his smile could conquer all hearts, as the
midsummer sun melts the ice.

And about this also they tell a story.

That is, that once, in the depth