ne
any service to the soil of an enemy, he put timbers under the carcases
of the slain, fastened them thereto, and stretched them so as to
counterfeit an upright standing position; so that in their death they
might menace in seeming those whom their life had harmed in truth; and
that, terrible even after their decease, they might block the road
in effigy as much as they had once in deed. Whence it appears that in
slaying the robbers he took thought for himself and not for Sweden: for
he betokened by so singular an act how great a hatred of Sweden filled
him. Having heard from the diviners that Sigtryg could only be conquered
by gold, he straightway fixed a knob of gold to a wooden mace, equipped
himself therewith in the war wherein he attacked the king, and obtained
his desire. This exploit was besung by Bess in a most zealous strain of
eulogy:

"Gram, the fierce wielder of the prosperous mace, knowing not the steel,
rained blows on the outstretched sword, and with a stock beat off the
lances of the mighty.

"Following the decrees and will of the gods, he brought low the glory
of the powerless Swedes, doing their king to death and crushing him with
the stiff gold.

"For he pondered on the arts of war: he wielded in his clasp the
ruddy-flashing wood, and victoriously with noble stroke made their
fallen captain writhe.

"Shrewdly he conquered with the hardness of gold him whom fate forbade
should be slain by steel; unsworded, waging war with the worthier metal.

"This treasure, for which its deviser claims glory and the height of
honour, shall abide yet more illustrious hereafter, known far and wide
in ampler fame."

Having now slain Sigtryg, the King of Sweden, Gram desired to confirm
his possession of the empire which he had won in war; and therefore,
suspecting Swarin the governor of Gothland of aspiring to the crown, he
challenged him to combat, and slew him. This man's brethren, of whom
he had seven lawfully born, and nine the sons of a concubine, sought to
avenge their brother's death, but Gram, in an unequal contest, cut them
off.

Gram, for his marvellous prowess, was granted a share in the sovereignty
by his father, who was now in extreme age, and thought it better
and likewise more convenient to give his own blood a portion of
the supremacy of the realm, than now in the setting of his life to
administer it without a partner. Therefore Ring, a nobly-born Zealander,
stirred the greater part of the Danes