self down his
own length and more. Now for many minutes he climbed down Sheep-saddle,
and the task was hard, for he was bewildered with the booming of the
waters that bent out on either side of him like the arc of a bow, and
the rock was very steep and slippery. Still, he came down all those
fifteen fathoms and fell not, though twice he was near to falling, and
the watchers below marvelled greatly at his hardihood.

"He will be dashed to pieces where the waters meet," said Ospakar, "he
can never gain Wolf's Fang crag beneath; and, if so it be that he come
there and leaps to the pool, the weight of water will drive him down and
drown him."

"It is certainly so," quoth Asmund, "and it grieves me much; for it was
my jest that drove him to this perilous adventure, and we cannot spare
such a man as Eric Brighteyes."

Now Swanhild turned white as death; but Gudruda said: "If great heart
and strength and skill may avail at all, then Eric shall come safely
down the waters."

"Thou fool!" whispered Swanhild in her ear, "how can these help him? No
troll could live in yonder cauldron. Dead is Eric, and thou art the bait
that lured him to his death!"

"Spare thy words," she answered; "as the Norns have ordered so it shall
be."

Now Eric stood at the foot of Sheep-saddle, and within an arm's length
the mighty waters met, tossing their yellow waves and seething furiously
as they leapt to the mist-hid gulf beneath. He bent over and looked
through the spray. Three fathoms under him the rock Wolf's Fang split
the waters, and thence, if he can come thither, he may leap sheer into
the pool below. Now he unwound the rope that was about his middle, and
made one end fast to a knob of rock--and this was difficult, for his
hands were stiff with cold--and the other end he passed through his
leathern girdle. Then Eric looked again, and his heart sank within him.
How might he give himself to this boiling flood and not be shattered?
But as he looked, lo! a rainbow grew upon the face of the water, and one
end of it lit upon him, and the other, like a glory from the Gods, fell
full upon Gudruda as she stood a little way apart, watching at the foot
of Golden Falls.

"Seest thou that," said Asmund to Groa, who was at his side, "the Gods
build their Bifrost bridge between these two. Who now shall keep them
asunder?"

"Read the portent thus," she answered: "they shall be united, but not
here. Yon is a Spirit bridge, and, see: the waters of De