before
the corpse fell, he would be rendered proof against arms. It is not
known whether he said this in order to instruct his executioner or to
punish him, for perhaps, as he leapt, the bulk of the huge body would
have crushed him. So Hather smote sharply with the sword and hacked off
the head of the old man. When the severed head struck the ground, it is
said to have bitten the earth; thus the fury of the dying lips declared
the fierceness of the soul. But the smiter, thinking that the promise
hid some treachery, warily refrained from leaping. Had he done so
rashly, perhaps he would have been crushed by the corpse as it fell, and
have paid with his own life for the old man's murder. But he would not
allow so great a champion to lie unsepulchred, and had his body buried
in the field that is commonly called Rolung.

Now Omund, as I have heard, died most tranquilly, while peace was
unbroken, leaving two sons and two daughters. The eldest of these,
SIWARD, came to the throne by right of birth, while his brother Budle
was still of tender years. At this time Gotar, King of the Swedes,
conceived boundless love for one of the daughters of Omund, because of
the report of her extraordinary beauty, and entrusted one Ebb, the son
of Sibb, with the commission of asking for the maiden. Ebb did his work
skilfully, and brought back the good news that the girl had consented.
Nothing was now lacking to Gotar's wishes but the wedding; but, as he
feared to hold this among strangers, he demanded that his betrothed
should be sent to him in charge of Ebb, whom he had before used as
envoy.

Ebb was crossing Halland with a very small escort, and went for a
night's lodging to a country farm, where the dwellings of two brothers
faced one another on the two sides of a river. Now these men used to
receive folk hospitably and then murder them, but were skilful to
hide their brigandage under a show of generosity. For they had hung on
certain hidden chains, in a lofty part of the house, an oblong beam like
a press, and furnished it with a steel point; they used to lower this in
the night by letting down the fastenings, and cut off the heads of those
that lay below. Many had they beheaded in this way with the hanging
mass. So when Ebb and his men had been feasted abundantly, the servants
laid them out a bed near the hearth, so that by the swing of the
treacherous beam they might mow off their heads, which faced the fire.
When they departed, Ebb, su