whole foul contrivance, he bade his men keep
silent and behave warily; no man was to be rash or hasty of speech, lest
by some careless outburst they might give some opening to the sorceries;
adding that if talking happened to be needed, he would speak for all.
And they were now parted by a river; when the wizards, in order to
dislodge Erik from the approach to the bridge, set up close to the
river, on their own side, the pole on which they had fixed the horse's
head. Nevertheless Erik made dauntlessly for the bridge, and said: "On
the bearer fall the ill-luck of what he bears! May a better issue attend
our steps! Evil befall the evil-workers! Let the weight of the ominous
burden crush the carrier! Let the better auguries bring us safety!" And
it happened according to his prayer. For straightway the head was shaken
off, the stick fell and crushed the bearer. And so all that array
of sorceries was baffled at the bidding of a single curse, and
extinguished.

Then, as Erik advanced a little, it came into his mind that strangers
ought to fix on gifts for the king. So he carefully wrapped up in his
robe a piece of ice which he happened to find, and managed to take it to
the king by way of a present. But when they reached the palace he sought
entrance first, and bade his brother follow close behind. Already the
slaves of the king, in order to receive him with mockery as he entered,
had laid a slippery hide on the threshold; and when Erik stepped upon
it, they suddenly jerked it away by dragging a rope, and would have
tripped him as he stood upon it, had not Roller, following behind,
caught his brother on his breast as he tottered. So Erik, having half
fallen, said that "bare was the back of the brotherless." And when
Gunwar said that such a trick ought not to be permitted by a king,
the king condemned the folly of the messenger who took no heed against
treachery. And thus he excused his flout by the heedlessness of the man
he flouted.

Within the palace was blazing a fire, which the aspect of the season
required: for it was now gone midwinter. By it, in different groups, sat
the king on one side and the champions on the other. These latter, when
Erik joined them, uttered gruesome sounds like things howling. The king
stopped the clamour, telling them that the noises of wild beasts ought
not to be in the breasts of men. Erik added, that it was the way of
dogs, for all the others to set up barking when one started it; for all