prithee, what
makes thee tarry? Come out, or the fire will overcome thee. Ho! Choose
the better way, charge with me! Bears may be kept off with fire; let
us spread fire in the recesses, and let the blaze attack the door-posts
first. Let the firebrand fall upon the bedchamber, let the falling roof
offer fuel for the flames and serve to feed the fire. It is right to
scatter conflagration on the doomed gates. But let us who honour our
king with better loyalty form the firm battle-wedges, and, having
measured the phalanx in safe rows, go forth in the way the king taught
us: our king, who laid low Rorik, the son of Bok the covetous, and
wrapped the coward in death. He was rich in wealth, but in enjoyment
poor, stronger in gain than bravery; and thinking gold better than
warfare, he set lucre above all things, and ingloriously accumulated
piles of treasure, scorning the service of noble friends. And when he
was attacked by the navy of Rolf, he bade his servants take the gold
from the chests and spread it out in front of the city gates, making
ready bribes rather than battle, because he knew not the soldier, and
thought that the foe should be attempted with gifts and not with arms:
as though he could fight with wealth alone, and prolong the war by
using, not men, but wares! So he undid the heavy coffers and the rich
chests; he brought forth the polished bracelets and the heavy caskets;
they only fed his destruction. Rich in treasure, poor in warriors, he
left his foes to take away the prizes which he forebore to give to the
friends of his own land. He who once shrank to give little rings of his
own will, now unwillingly squandered his masses of wealth, rifling his
hoarded heap. But our king in his wisdom spurned him and the gifts he
proffered, and took from him life and goods at once; nor was his foe
profited by the useless wealth which he had greedily heaped up through
long years. But Rolf the righteous assailed him, slew him, and captured
his vast wealth, and shared among worthy friends what the hand of
avarice had piled up in all those years; and, bursting into the camp
which was wealthy but not brave, gave his friends a lordly booty without
bloodshed. Nothing was so fair to him that he would not lavish it, or so
dear that he would not give it to his friends, for he used treasure like
ashes, and measured his years by glory and not by gain. Whence it is
plain that the king who hath died nobly lived also most nobly, that the
h