d!

_Jatgeir_--I overheard some townsfolk at my lodging talking darkly
of--

_King Skule_--Let that wait. Tell me, Skald, you who have fared far
abroad in strange lands--have you ever seen a woman love another's
child? Not only be kind to it--'tis not that I mean; but _love_ it,
love it with the warmest passion of her soul.

_Jatgeir_--That can only those women do who have no child of their own
to love.

_King Skule_--Only those women--?

_Jatgeir_--And chiefly women who are barren.

_King Skule_--Chiefly the barren--? They love the children of others
with all their warmest passion?

_Jatgeir_--That will oftentimes befall.

_King Skule_--And does it not sometimes befall that such a barren
woman will slay another's child, because she herself has none?

_Jatgeir_--Ay, ay; but in that she does unwisely.

_King Skule_--Unwisely?

_Jatgeir_--Ay, for she gives the gift of sorrow to her whose child she
slays.

_King Skule_--Think you the gift of sorrow is a great good?

_Jatgeir_--Yes, lord.

_King Skule_ [_looking fixedly at him_]--Methinks there are two men in
you, Icelander. When you sit amid the household at the merry feast,
you draw cloak and hood over all your thoughts; when one is alone with
you, sometimes you seem to be of those among whom one were fain to
choose his friend. How comes it?

_Jatgeir_--When you go to swim in the river, my lord, you would scarce
strip you where the people pass by to church: you seek a sheltered
privacy.

_King Skule_--True, true.

_Jatgeir_--My soul has a like shyness; therefore I do not strip me
when there are many in the hall.

_King Skule_--Hm. [_A short pause._] Tell me, Jatgeir, how came you to
be a skald? Who taught you skaldcraft?

_Jatgeir_--Skaldcraft can not be taught, my lord.

_King Skule_--Can not be taught? How came it then?

_Jatgeir_--I got the gift of sorrow, and I was a skald.

_King Skule_--Then 'tis the gift of sorrow the skald has need of?

_Jatgeir_--I needed sorrow; others there may be who need faith, or
joy--or doubt--

_King Skule_--Doubt, as well?

_Jatgeir_--Ay; but then must the doubter be strong and sound.

_King Skule_--And whom call you the unsound doubter?

_Jatgeir_--He who doubts his own doubt.

_King Skule_ [_slowly_]--That, methinks, were death.

_Jatgeir_--'Tis worse; 'tis neither day nor night.

_King Skule_ [_quickly, as if shaking off his thoughts_]--Where are my
weapons? I will fight and act, not think. What