e with gold for ransom. Thus, when he might have cut off
his foe, he preferred to grant him the breath of life; so far did his
mercy qualify his rage.

After this he prevailed over a great force of men of the East, and came
back to Sweden. Swipdag met him with a great fleet off Gottland; but
Hadding attacked and destroyed him. And thus he advanced to a lofty
pitch of renown, not only by the fruits of foreign spoil, but by
the trophies of his vengeance for his brother and his father. And he
exchanged exile for royalty, for he became king of his own land as soon
as he regained it.

At this time there was one Odin, who was credited over all Europe with
the honour, which was false, of godhead, but used more continually
to sojourn at Upsala; and in this spot, either from the sloth of the
inhabitants or from its own pleasantness, he vouchsafed to dwell with
somewhat especial constancy. The kings of the North, desiring more
zealously to worship his deity, embounded his likeness in a golden
image; and this statue, which betokened their homage, they transmitted
with much show of worship to Byzantium, fettering even the effigied arms
with a serried mass of bracelets. Odin was overjoyed at such notoriety,
and greeted warmly the devotion of the senders. But his queen Frigga,
desiring to go forth more beautified, called smiths, and had the gold
stripped from the statue. Odin hanged them, and mounted the statue upon
a pedestal, which by the marvellous skill of his art he made to speak
when a mortal touched it. But still Frigga preferred the splendour of
her own apparel to the divine honours of her husband, and submitted
herself to the embraces of one of her servants; and it was by this
man's device she broke down the image, and turned to the service of her
private wantonness that gold which had been devoted to public idolatry.
Little thought she of practicing unchastity, that she might the easier
satisfy her greed, this woman so unworthy to be the consort of a god;
but what should I here add, save that such a godhead was worthy of such
a wife? So great was the error that of old befooled the minds of men.
Thus Odin, wounded by the double trespass of his wife, resented the
outrage to his image as keenly as that to his bed; and, ruffled by these
two stinging dishonours, took to an exile overflowing with noble shame,
imagining so to wipe off the slur of his ignominy.

When he had retired, one Mit-othin, who was famous for his juggling