med to use a speech they
did not know. Then Gudmund invited them to be his guests, and took them
up in carriages. As they went forward, they saw a river which could
be crossed by a bridge of gold. They wished to go over it, but Gudmund
restrained them, telling them that by this channel nature had divided
the world of men from the world of monsters, and that no mortal track
might go further. Then they reached the dwelling of their guide; and
here Thorkill took his companions apart and warned them to behave like
men of good counsel amidst the divers temptations chance might throw in
their way; to abstain from the food of the stranger, and nourish their
bodies only on their own; and to seek a seat apart from the natives,
and have no contact with any of them as they lay at meat. For if they
partook of that food they would lose recollection of all things, and
must live for ever in filthy intercourse amongst ghastly hordes of
monsters. Likewise he told them that they must keep their hands off the
servants and the cups of the people.

Round the table stood twelve noble sons of Gudmund, and as many
daughters of notable beauty. When Gudmund saw that the king barely
tasted what his servants brought, he reproached him with repulsing his
kindness, and complained that it was a slight on the host. But Thorkill
was not at a loss for a fitting excuse. He reminded him that men who
took unaccustomed food often suffered from it seriously, and that the
king was not ungrateful for the service rendered by another, but was
merely taking care of his health, when he refreshed himself as he was
wont, and furnished his supper with his own viands. An act, therefore,
that was only done in the healthy desire to escape some bane, ought
in no wise to be put down to scorn. Now when Gudmund saw that the
temperance of his guest had baffled his treacherous preparations,
he determined to sap their chastity, if he could not weaken their
abstinence, and eagerly strained every nerve of his wit to enfeeble
their self-control. For he offered the king his daughter in marriage,
and promised the rest that they should have whatever women of his
household they desired. Most of them inclined to his offer: but Thorkill
by his healthy admonitions prevented them, as he had done before, from
falling into temptation.

With wonderful management Thorkill divided his heed between the
suspicious host and the delighted guests. Four of the Danes, to whom
lust was more than th