of it.

After the death of Gorm, GOTRIK his son came to the throne. He was
notable not only for prowess but for generosity, and none can say
whether his courage or his compassion was the greater. He so chastened
his harshness with mercy, that he seemed to counterweigh the one with
the other. At this time Gaut, the King of Norway, was visited by Ber
(Biorn?) and Ref, men of Thule. Gaut treated Ref with attention and
friendship, and presented him with a heavy bracelet.

One of the courtiers, when he saw this, praised the greatness of the
gift over-zealously, and declared that no one was equal to King Gaut in
kindliness. But Ref, though he owed thanks for the benefit, could not
approve the inflated words of this extravagant praiser, and said that
Gotrik was more generous than Gaut. Wishing to crush the empty boast of
the flatterer, he chose rather to bear witness to the generosity of
the absent than tickle with lies the vanity of his benefactor who was
present. For another thing, he thought it somewhat more desirable to be
charged with ingratitude than to support with his assent such idle and
boastful praise, and also to move the king by the solemn truth than
to beguile him with lying flatteries. But Ulf persisted not only in
stubbornly repeating his praises of the king, but in bringing them to
the proof; and proposed their gainsayer a wager.

With his consent Ref went to Denmark, and found Gotrik seated in state,
and dealing out the pay to his soldiers. When the king asked him who
he was, he said that his name was "Fox-cub" The answer filled some with
mirth and some with marvel, and Gotrik said, "Yea, and it is fitting
that a fox should catch his prey in his mouth." And thereupon he drew
a bracelet from his arm, called the man to him, and put it between his
lips. Straightway Ref put it upon his arm, which he displayed to them
all adorned with gold, but the other arm he kept hidden as lacking
ornament; for which shrewdness he received a gift equal to the first
from that hand of matchless generosity. At this he was overjoyed, not so
much because the reward was great, as because he had won his contention.
And when the king learnt from him about the wager he had laid, he
rejoiced that he had been lavish to him more by accident than of set
purpose, and declared that he got more pleasure from the giving than the
receiver from the gift. So Ref returned to Norway and slew his opponent,
who refused to pay the wager. Then he too