the self-restraint which was his greatest
strength. He would not suffer his repute as a soldier to be impaired
by the allurements of an orgy. For his valour loved thrift, and was a
stranger to all superfluity of food, and averse to feasting in excess.
For his was a courage which never at any moment had time to make luxury
of aught account, and always forewent pleasure to pay due heed to
virtue. So, when he saw that the antique character of self-restraint,
and all good old customs, were being corrupted by new-fangled luxury
and sumptuosity, he wished to be provided with a morsel fitter for a
peasant, and scorned the costly and lavish feast.

Spurning profuse indulgence in food, Starkad took some smoky and rather
rancid fare, appeasing his hunger with a bitter relish because more
simply; and being unwilling to enfeeble his true valour with the tainted
sweetness of sophisticated foreign dainties, or break the rule of
antique plainness by such strange idolatries of the belly. He was also
very wroth that they should go, to the extravagance of having the same
meat both roasted and boiled at the same meal; for he considered an
eatable which was steeped in the vapours of the kitchen, and which the
skill of the cook rubbed over with many kinds of flavours, in the light
of a monstrosity.

Unlike Starkad Ingild flung the example of his ancestors to the winds,
and gave himself freer licence of innovation in the fashions of the
table than the custom of his fathers allowed. For when he had once
abandoned himself to the manners of Teutonland, he did not blush to
yield to its unmanly wantonness. No slight incentives to debauchery have
flowed down our country's throat from that sink of a land. Hence came
magnificent dishes, sumptuous kitchens, the base service of cooks, and
all sorts of abominable sausages. Hence came our adoption, wandering
from the ways of our fathers, of a more dissolute dress. Thus our
country, which cherished self-restraint as its native quality, has
gone begging to our neighbours for luxury; whose allurements so charmed
Ingild, that he did not think it shameful to requite wrongs with
kindness; nor did the grievous murder of his father make him heave one
sigh of bitterness when it crossed his mind.

But the queen would not depart without effecting her purpose. Thinking
that presents would be the best way to banish the old man's anger, she
took off her own head a band of marvellous handiwork, and put it in his
la