ders, but he drove them off with threats, saying
that Gurid should not find that fear had made him refuse to fight.
Presently he cut down an oak-tree and fashioned it into a club, fought
the twelve single-handed, and killed them. After their destruction, not
content with the honours of so splendid an action, and meaning to do one
yet greater, he got from his mother the swords of his grandfather, one
of which was called Lyusing.... and the other Hwyting, after the sheen
of its well-whetted point. But when he heard that war was raging between
Alver, the King of Sweden, and the Ruthenians (Russians), he instantly
went to Russia, offered help to the natives, and was received by all
with the utmost honour. Alver was not far off, there being only a little
ground to cross to cover the distance between the two. Alver's soldier
Hildiger, the son of Gunnar, challenged the champions of the Ruthenians
to fight him; but when he saw that Halfdan was put up against him,
though knowing well that he was Halfdan's brother, he let natural
feeling prevail over courage, and said that he, who was famous for the
destruction of seventy champions, would not fight with an untried
man. Therefore he told him to measure himself in enterprises of lesser
moment, and thenceforth to follow pursuits fitted to his strength. He
made this announcement not from distrust in his own courage, but in
order to preserve his uprightness; for he was not only very valiant, but
also skilled at blunting the sword with spells. For when he remembered
that Halfdan's father had slain his own, he was moved by two
feelings--the desire to avenge his father, and his love for his brother.
He therefore thought it better to retire from the challenge than to be
guilty of a very great crime. Halfdan demanded another champion in
his place, slew him when he appeared, and was soon awarded the palm
of valour even by the voice of the enemy, being accounted by public
acclamation the bravest of all. On the next day he asked for two men to
fight with, and slew them both. On the third day he subdued three; on
the fourth he overcame four who met him; and on the fifth he asked for
five.

When Halfdan conquered these, and when the eighth day had been reached
with an equal increase in the combatants and in the victory, he laid low
eleven who attacked him at once. Hildiger, seeing that his own record of
honours was equalled by the greatness of Halfdan's deeds could not bear
to decline to meet h