ocence of
his wife, began to repent of his error, and hastened to release the
slandered lady. But meantime Bikk rushed up, declaring that when she was
on her back she held off the beasts by awful charms, and could only be
crushed if she lay on her face; for he knew that her beauty saved her.
When the body of the queen was placed in this manner, the herd of beasts
was driven upon it, and trod it down deep with their multitude of feet.
Such was the end of Swanhild.

Meantime, the favourite dog of Broder came creeping to the king making
a sort of moan, and seemed to bewail its master's punishment; and his
hawk, when it was brought in, began to pluck out its breast-feathers
with its beak. The king took its nakedness as an omen of his
bereavement, to frustrate which he quickly sent men to take his son down
from the noose: for he divined by the featherless bird that he would be
childless unless he took good heed. Thus Broder was freed from death,
and Bikk, fearing he would pay the penalty of an informer, went and told
the men of the Hellespont that Swanhild had been abominably slain by
her husband. When they set sail to avenge their sister, he came back to
Jarmerik, and told him that the Hellespontines were preparing war.

The king thought that it would be safer to fight with walls than in the
field, and retreated into the stronghold which he had built. To stand
the siege, he filled its inner parts with stores, and its battlements
with men-at-arms. Targets and shields flashing with gold were hung round
and adorned the topmost circle of the building.

It happened that the Hellespontines, before sharing their booty, accused
a great band of their men of embezzling, and put them to death. Having
now destroyed so large a part of their forces by internecine slaughter,
they thought that their strength was not equal to storming the palace,
and consulted a sorceress named Gudrun. She brought it to pass that the
defenders of the king's side were suddenly blinded and turned their arms
against one another. When the Hellespontines saw this, they brought up
a shield-mantlet, and seized the approaches of the gates. Then they tore
up the posts, burst into the building, and hewed down the blinded ranks
of the enemy. In this uproar Odin appeared, and, making for the thick
of the ranks of the fighters, restored by his divine power to the Danes
that vision which they had lost by sleights; for he ever cherished them
with fatherly love. He instr