d avenge my father."

The king said, "That is fated for another man; behold now, thou art
great with a man-child; nourish him well and with good heed, and the
child shall be the noblest and most famed of all our kin: and keep well
withal the shards of the sword: thereof shall a goodly sword be made,
and it shall be called Gram, and our son shall bear it, and shall work
many a great work therewith, even such as eld shall never minish; for
his name shall abide and flourish as long as the world shall endure: and
let this be enow for thee. But now I grow weary with my wounds, and I
will go see our kin that have gone before me."

So Hjordis sat over him till he died at the day-dawning; and then she
looked, and behold, there came many ships sailing to the land: then she
spake to the handmaid--

"Let us now change raiment, and be thou called by my name, and say that
thou art the king's daughter."

And thus they did; but now the vikings behold the great slaughter of men
there, and see where two women fare away thence into the wood; and they
deem that some great tidings must have befallen, and they leaped ashore
from out their ships. Now the captain of these folks was Alf, son of
Hjalprek, king of Denmark, who was sailing with his power along the
land. So they came into the field among the slain, and saw how many men
lay dead there; then the king bade go seek for the women and bring
them thither, and they did so. He asked them what women they were; and,
little as the thing seems like to be, the bondmaid answered for the
twain, telling of the fall of King Sigmund and King Eylimi, and many
another great man, and who they were withal who had wrought the deed.
Then the king asks if they wotted where the wealth of the king was
bestowed; and then says the bondmaid--

"It may well be deemed that we know full surely thereof."

And therewith she guides them to the place where the treasure lay: and
there they found exceeding great wealth; so that men deem they have
never seen so many things of price heaped up together in one place. All
this they bore to the ships of King Alf, and Hjordis and the bondmaid
went with them. Therewith these sail away to their own realm, and talk
how that surely on that field had fallen the most renowned of kings.

So the king sits by the tiller, but the women abide in the forecastle;
but talk he had with the women and held their counsels of much account.

In such wise the king came home to his realm wi