steel. The beast
tried to retaliate by biting, but only struck the sharp point of its
mouth upon the shield. Then it shot out its flickering tongue again and
again, and gasped away life and venom together.

The money which the King found made him rich; and with this supply he
approached in his fleet the region of the Kurlanders, whose king Dorn,
dreading a perilous war, is said to have made a speech of the following
kind to his soldiers:

"Nobles! Our enemy is a foreigner, begirt with the arms and the wealth
of almost all the West; let us, by endeavouring to defer the battle for
our profit, make him a prey to famine, which is all inward malady; and
he will find it very hard to conquer a peril among his own people. It is
easy to oppose the starving. Hunger will be a better weapon against our
foe than arms; famine will be the sharpest lance we shall hurl at him.
For lack of food nourishes the pestilence that eats away men's strength,
and lack of victual undermines store of weapons. Let this whirl the
spears while we sit still; let this take up the prerogative and the duty
of fighting. Unimperilled, we shall be able to imperil others; we can
drain their blood and lose no drop of ours. One may defeat an enemy by
inaction. Who would not rather fight safely than at a loss? Who would
strive to suffer chastisement when he may contend unhurt? Our success
in arms will be more prosperous if hunger joins battle first. Let hunger
captain us, and so let us take the first chance of conflict. Let it
decide the day in our stead, and let our camp remain free from the stir
of war; if hunger retreat beaten, we must break off idleness. He who is
fresh easily overpowers him who is shaken with languor. The hand that
is flaccid and withered will come fainter to the battle. He whom any
hardship has first wearied, will bring slacker hands to the steel. When
he that is wasted with sickness engages with the sturdy, the victory
hastens. Thus, undamaged ourselves, we shall be able to deal damage to
others."

Having said this, he wasted all the places which he saw would be hard to
protect, distrusting his power to guard them, and he so far forestalled
the ruthlessness of the foe in ravaging his own land, that he left
nothing untouched which could be seized by those who came after. Then he
shut up the greater part of his forces in a town of undoubted strength,
and suffered the enemy to blockade him. Frode, distrusting his power of
attacking this t