aver was dripping on the food from the
open mouths of the serpents. And some of the maidens would, for kindness
sake, have given Hother a share of the dish, had not eldest of the three
forbidden them, declaring that Balder would be cheated if they increased
the bodily powers of his enemy. He had said, not that he was Hother, but
that he was one of his company. Now the same nymphs, in their gracious
kindliness, bestowed on him a belt of perfect sheen and a girdle which
assured victory.

Retracing the path by which he had come, he went back on the same road,
and meeting Balder plunged his sword into his side, and laid him low
half dead. When the news was told to the soldiers, a cheery shout of
triumph rose from all the camp of Hother, while the Danes held a public
mourning for the fate of Balder. He, feeling no doubt of his impending
death, and stung by the anguish of his wound, renewed the battle on
the morrow; and, when it raged hotly, bade that he should be borne on a
litter into the fray, that he might not seem to die ignobly within his
tent. On the night following, Proserpine was seen to stand by him in a
vision, and to promise that on the morrow he should have her embrace.
The boding of the dream was not idle; for when three days had passed,
Balder perished from the excessive torture of his wound; and his body
given a royal funeral, the army causing it to be buried in a barrow
which they had made.

Certain men of our day, Chief among whom was Harald, (2) since the story
of the ancient burial-place still survived, made a raid on it by night
in the hope of finding money, but abandoned their attempt in sudden
panic. For the hill split, and from its crest a sudden and mighty
torrent of loud-roaring waters seemed to burst; so that its flying mass,
shooting furiously down, poured over the fields below, and enveloped
whatsoever it struck upon, and at its onset the delvers were dislodged,
flung down their mattocks, and fled divers ways; thinking that if they
strove any longer to carry through their enterprise they would be caught
in the eddies of the water that was rushing down. Thus the guardian gods
of that spot smote fear suddenly into the minds of the youths, taking
them away from covetousness, and turning them to see to their safety;
teaching them to neglect their greedy purpose and be careful of their
lives. Now it is certain that this apparent flood was not real but
phantasmal; not born in the bowels of the earth (s