shall shelter him. His
final fate carries off every living man; doom is not to be averted by
skulking. But I, who have shaken the whole world with my slaughters,
shall I enjoy a peaceful death? Shall I be taken up to the stars in a
quiet end? Shall I die in my bed without a wound?"

BOOK SEVEN.

We are told by historians of old, that Ingild had four sons, of whom
three perished in war, while OLAF alone reigned after his father; but
some say that Olaf was the son of Ingild's sister, though this opinion
is doubtful. Posterity has but an uncertain knowledge of his deeds,
which are dim with the dust of antiquity; nothing but the last counsel
of his wisdom has been rescued by tradition. For when he was in the last
grip of death he took thought for his sons FRODE and HARALD, and bade
them have royal sway, one over the land and the other over the sea, and
receive these several powers, not in prolonged possession, but in yearly
rotation. Thus their share in the rule was made equal; but Frode, who
was the first to have control of the affairs of the sea, earned disgrace
from his continual defeats in roving. His calamity was due to his
sailors being newly married, and preferring nuptial joys at home to the
toils of foreign warfare. After a time Harald, the younger son, received
the rule of the sea, and chose soldiers who were unmarried, fearing to
be baffled like his brother. Fortune favoured his choice; for he was as
glorious a rover as his brother was inglorious; and this earned him his
brother's hatred. Moreover, their queens, Signe and Ulfhild, one of
whom was the daughter of Siward, King of Sweden, the other of Karl, the
governor of Gothland, were continually wrangling as to which was the
nobler, and broke up the mutual fellowship of their husbands. Hence
Harald and Frode, when their common household was thus shattered,
divided up the goods they held in common, and gave more heed to the
wrangling altercations of the women than to the duties of brotherly
affection.

Moreover, Frode, judging that his brother's glory was a disgrace to
himself and brought him into contempt, ordered one of his household to
put him to death secretly; for he saw that the man of whom he had the
advantage in years was surpassing him in courage. When the deed
was done, he had the agent of his treachery privily slain, lest the
accomplice should betray the crime. Then, in order to gain the credit of
innocence and escape the brand of crime, he ord