yage so much that they had to lie still
most of the year, they thought that the gods must be appeased with human
blood. When the lots were cast into the urn it so fell that the king was
required for death as a victim. Then Starkad made a noose of withies and
bound the king in it; saying that for a brief instant he should pay
the mere semblance of a penalty. But the tightness of the knot acted
according to its nature, and cut off his last breath as he hung. And
while he was still quivering Starkad rent away with his steel the
remnant of his life; thus disclosing his treachery when he ought to
have brought aid. I do not think that I need examine the version which
relates that the pliant withies, hardened with the sudden grip, acted
like a noose of iron.

When Starkad had thus treacherously acted he took Wikar's ship and went
to one Bemon, the most courageous of all the rovers of Denmark, in order
to take up the life of a pirate. For Bemon's partner, named Frakk, weary
of the toil of sea-roving, had lately withdrawn from partnership with
him, after first making a money-bargain. Now Starkad and Bemon were so
careful to keep temperate, that they are said never to have indulged
in intoxicating drink, for fear that continence, the greatest bond of
bravery, might be expelled by the power of wantonness. So when, after
overthrowing provinces far and wide, they invaded Russia also in their
lust for empire, the natives, trusting little in their walls or arms,
began to bar the advance of the enemy with nails of uncommon sharpness,
that they might check their inroad, though they could not curb their
onset in battle; and that the ground might secretly wound the soles of
the men whom their army shrank from confronting in the field. But not
even such a barrier could serve to keep off the foe. The Danes were
cunning enough to foil the pains of the Russians. For they straightway
shod themselves with wooden clogs, and trod with unhurt steps upon the
points that lay beneath their soles. Now this iron thing is divided into
four spikes, which are so arranged that on whatsoever side chance may
cast it, it stands steadily on three equal feet. Then they struck into
the pathless glades, where the woods were thickets, and expelled Flokk,
the chief of the Russians, from the mountain hiding-places into which
he had crept. And here they got so much booty, that there was not one of
them but went back to the fleet laden with gold and silver.

Now when