leys with a manifold clamour of waters; but, being
straightway rebuffed by the rocks that bar the way, it keeps the speed
of its current ever at the same even pace. And so, along the whole
length of the channel, the waves are one turbid mass, and the white foam
brims over everywhere. But, after rolling out of the narrows between the
rocks, it spreads abroad in a slacker and stiller flood, and turns into
an island a rock that lies in its course. On either side of the rock
juts out a sheer ridge, thick with divers trees, which screen the river
from distant view. Biorn had also a dog of extraordinary fierceness,
a terribly vicious brute, dangerous for people to live with, which had
often singly destroyed twelve men. But, since the tale is hearsay rather
than certainty, let good judges weigh its credit. This dog, as I have
heard, was the favourite of the giant Offot (Un-foot), and used to watch
his herd amid the pastures.

Now the warriors, who were always pillaging the neighbourhood, used
often to commit great slaughters. Plundering houses, cutting down
cattle, sacking everything, making great hauls of booty, rifling houses,
then burning them, massacring male and female promiscuously--these, and
not honest dealings, were their occupations. Fridleif surprised them
while on a reckless raid, and drove them all back for refuge to the
stronghold; he also seized the immensely powerful horse, whose rider, in
the haste of his panic, had left it on the hither side of the river in
order to fly betimes; for he durst not take it with him over the bridge.
Then Fridleif proclaimed that he would pay the weight of the dead body
in gold to any man who slew one of those brothers. The hope of the prize
stimulated some of the champions of the king; and yet they were fired
not so much with covetousness as with valour; so, going secretly to
Fridleif, they promised to attempt the task, vowing to sacrifice their
lives if they did not bring home the severed heads of the robbers.
Fridleif praised their valour and their vows, but bidding the onlookers
wait, went in the night to the river, satisfied with a single companion.
For, not to seem better provided with other men's valour than with his
own, he determined to forestall their aid by his own courage. Thereupon
he crushed and killed his companion with a shower of flints, and flung
his bloodless corpse into the waves, having dressed it in his own
clothes; which he stripped off, borrowing the cast-of