way: When
Halfdan had gone back into Sweden, he hid his fleet craftily, and went
to meet Erik with two vessels. Erik attacked him with ten; and Halfdan,
sailing through sundry winding channels, stole back to his concealed
forces. Erik pursued him too far, and the Danish fleet came out on
the sea. Thus Erik was surrounded; but he rejected the life, which was
offered him under condition of thraldom. He could not bear to think more
of the light of day than liberty, and chose to die rather than serve;
lest he should seem to love life so well as to turn from a slave into
a freeman; and that he might not court with new-born obeisance the man
whom fortune had just before made only his equal. So little knows virtue
how to buy life with dishonour. Wherefore he was put in chains, and
banished to a place haunted by wild beasts; an end unworthy of that
lofty spirit.

Halfdan had thus become sovereign of both kingdoms, and graced his fame
with a triple degree of honour. For he was skillful and eloquent in
composing poems in the fashion of his country; and he was no less
notable as a valorous champion than as a powerful king. But when he
heard that two active rovers, Toke and Anund, were threatening the
surrounding districts, he attacked and routed them in a sea-fight. For
the ancients thought that nothing was more desirable than glory which
was gained, not by brilliancy of wealth, but by address in arms.
Accordingly, the most famous men of old were so minded as to love
seditions, to renew quarrels, to loathe ease, to prefer fighting to
peace, to be rated by their valour and not by their wealth, to find
their greatest delight in battles, and their least in banquetings.

But Halfdan was not long to seek for a rival. A certain Siwald, of
most illustrious birth, related with lamentation in the assembly of the
Swedes the death of Frode and his queen; and inspired in almost all of
them such a hatred of Halfdan, that the vote of the majority granted him
permission to revolt. Nor was he content with the mere goodwill of their
voices, but so won the heart of the commons by his crafty canvassing
that he induced almost all of them to set with their hands the royal
emblem on his head. Siwald had seven sons, who were such clever
sorcerers that often, inspired with the force of sudden frenzy, they
would roar savagely, bite their shields, swallow hot coals, and go
through any fire that could be piled up; and their frantic passion could
only be