and loved her so
passionately that he forgot his kingdom, and all that belonged to his
high dignity. They had four sons: the one was Sigurd Hrise; the others
Halfdan Haleg, Gudrod Ljome and Ragnvald Rettilbeine. Thereafter
Snaefrid died; but her corpse never changed, but was as fresh and red
as when she lived. The king sat always beside her, and thought she
would come to life again. And so it went on for three years that he
was sorrowing over her death, and the people over his delusion. At
last Thorleif the Wise succeeded, by his prudence, in curing him of his
delusion by accosting him thus:--"It is nowise wonderful, king, that
thou grievest over so beautiful and noble a wife, and bestowest costly
coverlets and beds of down on her corpse, as she desired; but these
honours fall short of what is due, as she still lies in the same
clothes. It would be more suitable to raise her, and change her dress."
As soon as the body was raised in the bed all sorts of corruption and
foul smells came from it, and it was necessary in all haste to gather a
pile of wood and burn it; but before this could be done the body turned
blue, and worms, toads, newts, paddocks, and all sorts of ugly reptiles
came out of it, and it sank into ashes. Now the king came to his
understanding again, threw the madness out of his mind, and after that
day ruled his kingdom as before. He was strengthened and made joyful by
his subjects, and his subjects by him and the country by both.

26. OF THJODOLF OF HVIN, THE SKALD.

After King Harald had experienced the cunning of the Fin woman, he was
so angry that he drove from him the sons he had with her, and would not
suffer them before his eyes. But one of them, Gudrod Ljome, went to his
foster-father Thjodolf of Hvin, and asked him to go to the king, who was
then in the Uplands; for Thjodolf was a great friend of the king. And
so they went, and came to the king's house late in the evening, and sat
down together unnoticed near the door. The king walked up and down
the floor casting his eye along the benches; for he had a feast in the
house, and the mead was just mixed. The king then murmured out these
lines:--

"Tell me, ye aged gray-haired heroes,
Who have come here to seek repose,
Wherefore must I so many keep
Of such a set, who, one and all,
Right dearly love their souls to steep,
From morn till night, in the mead-bowl?"

Then Thjodolf replies:--

"A certain wealt