sisters, and likewise wishing to mar their gifts, marked
the future character of the boy with the slur of niggardliness. Thus the
benefits of the others were spoilt by the poison of a lamentable doom;
and hence, by virtue of the twofold nature of these gifts Olaf got his
surname from the meanness which was mingled with his bounty. So it came
about that this blemish which found its way into the gift marred the
whole sweetness of its first benignity.

When Fridleif had returned from Norway, and was traveling through
Sweden, he took on himself to act as ambassador, and sued successfully
for Hythin's daughter, whom he had once rescued from a monster, to
be the wife of Halfdan, he being still unwedded. Meantime his wife
Frogertha bore a son FRODE, who afterwards got his surname from
his noble munificence. And thus Frode, because of the memory of his
grandsire's prosperity, which he recalled by his name, became from his
very cradle and earliest childhood such a darling of all men, that
he was not suffered even to step or stand on the ground, but was
continually cherished in people's laps and kissed. Thus he was not
assigned to one upbringer only, but was in a manner everybody's
fosterling. And, after his father's death, while he was in his twelfth
year, Swerting and Hanef, the kings of Saxony, disowned his sway, and
tried to rebel openly. He overcame them in battle, and imposed on the
conquered peoples a poll-tax of a coin, which they were to pay as his
slaves. For he showed himself so generous that he doubled the ancient
pay of the soldiers: a fashion of bounty which then was novel. For he
did not, as despots do, expose himself to the vulgar allurements of
vice, but strove to covet ardently whatsoever he saw was nearest honour;
to make his wealth public property; to surpass all other men in bounty,
to forestall them all in offices of kindness; and, hardest of all, to
conquer envy by virtue. By this means the youth soon won such favour
with all men, that he not only equalled in renown the honours of his
forefathers, but surpassed the most ancient records of kings.

At the same time one Starkad, the son of Storwerk, escaped alone, either
by force or fortune, from a wreck in which his friends perished, and
was received by Frode as his guest for his incredible excellence both of
mind and body. And, after being for some little time his comrade, he was
dressed in a better and more comely fashion every day, and was at last
given a