him to take a draught to quench his
thirst. This was given him; and Wermund also bade him keep the cup,
which was of gold, saying that men who were weary with the heat of
wayfaring found it handier to take up the water in a goblet than in the
palms, and that it was better to use a cup for drinking than the hand.
When the king accompanied his great gift with such gracious words, the
young man, overjoyed at both, promised that, before the king should see
him turn and flee, he would take a draught of his own blood to the full
measure of the liquor he had drunk.

With this doughty vow Wermund accounted himself well repaid, and got
somewhat more joy from giving the boon than the soldier had from gaining
it. Nor did he find that Folk's talk was braver than his fighting.

For, when battle had begun, it came to pass that amidst divers charges
of the troops Folk and Athisl met and fought a long while together; and
that the host of the Swedes, following the fate of their captain, took
to flight, and Athisl also was wounded and fled from the battle to his
ships. And when Folk, dazed with wounds and toils, and moreover steeped
alike in heat and toil and thirst, had ceased to follow the rout of the
enemy, then, in order to refresh himself, he caught his own blood in
his helmet, and put it to his lips to drain: by which deed he gloriously
requited the king's gift of the cup. Wermund, who chanced to see this,
praised him warmly for fulfilling his vow. Folk answered, that a noble
vow ought to be strictly performed to the end: a speech wherein he
showed no less approval of his own deed than Wermund.

Now, while the conquerors had laid down their arms, and, as is usual
after battle, were exchanging diverse talk with one another, Ket, the
governor of the men of Sleswik, declared that it was a matter of great
marvel to him how it was that Athisl, though difficulties strewed his
path, had contrived an opportunity to escape, especially as he had been
the first and foremost in the battle, but last of all in the retreat;
and though there had not been one of the enemy whose fall was so
vehemently desired by the Danes. Wermund rejoined that he should know
that there were four kinds of warrior to be distinguished in every army.
The fighters of the first order were those who, tempering valour with
forbearance, were keen to slay those who resisted, but were ashamed to
bear hard on fugitives. For these were the men who had won undoubted
proofs of