gendered in men, who were bound by friendship and blood,
a bitter mutual hate, which seemed unappeasable except by war. Their
dissensions first grew up silently; at last both sides betrayed their
leanings, and their secret malice burst into the light of day. So they
declared their feuds, and seven years passed in collecting the materials
of war. Some say that Harald secretly sought occasions to destroy
himself, not being moved by malice or jealousy for the crown, but by a
deliberate and voluntary effort. His old age and his cruelty made him a
burden to his subjects; he preferred the sword to the pangs of disease,
and liked better to lay down his life in the battle-field than in his
bed, that he might have an end in harmony with the deeds of his past
life. Thus, to make his death more illustrious, and go to the nether
world in a larger company, he longed to summon many men to share his
end; and he therefore of his own will prepared for war, in order to make
food for future slaughter. For these reasons, being seized with as great
a thirst to die himself as to kill others, and wishing the massacre on
both sides to be equal, he furnished both sides with equal resources;
but let Ring have a somewhat stronger force, preferring he should
conquer and survive him.

ENDNOTES:
(1) A parallel is the Lionel-Lancelot story of children saved by
being turned into dogs.

BOOK EIGHT.

STARKAD was the first to set in order in Danish speech the history of
the Swedish war, a conflict whereof he was himself a mighty pillar; the
said history being rather an oral than a written tradition. He set forth
and arranged the course of this war in the mother tongue according to
the fashion of our country; but I purpose to put it into Latin, and will
first recount the most illustrious princes on either side. For I have
felt no desire to include the multitude, which are even past exact
numbering. And my pen shall relate first those on the side of Harald,
and presently those who served under Ring.

Now the most famous of the captains that mustered to Harald are
acknowledged to have been Sweyn and Sambar (Sam?), Ambar and Elli; Rati
of Funen, Salgard and Roe (Hrothgar), whom his long beard distinguished
by a nickname. Besides these, Skalk the Scanian, and Alf the son of Agg;
to whom are joined Olwir the Broad, and Gnepie the Old. Besides these
there was Gardh, founder of the town Stang. To these are added the
kinsfolk or bound