ath foam and
fall between them!"

Eric, too, saw the omen and it seemed good to him, and all fear left his
heart. Round about him the waters thundered, but amidst their roar he
dreamed that he heard a voice calling:

"Be of good cheer, Eric Brighteyes; for thou shalt live to do mightier
deeds than this, and in guerdon thou shalt win Gudruda."

So he paused no longer, but, shortening up the rope, pulled on it with
all his strength, and then leapt out upon the arch of waters. They
struck him and he was dashed out like a stone from a sling; again he
fell against them and again was dashed away, so that his girdle burst.
Eric felt it go and clung wildly to the rope and lo! with the inward
swing, he fell on Wolf's Fang, where never a man has stood before and
never a man shall stand again. Eric lay a little while on the rock till
his breath came back to him, and he listened to the roar of the waters.
Then, rising on his hands and knees, he crept to its point, for he could
scarcely stand because of the trembling of the stone beneath the shock
of the fall; and when the people below saw that he was not dead, they
raised a great shout, and the sound of their voices came to him through
the noise of the waters.

Now, twelve fathoms beneath him was the surface of the pool; but he
could not see it because of the wreaths of spray. Nevertheless, he must
leap and that swiftly, for he grew cold. So of a sudden Eric stood up to
his full height, and, with a loud cry and a mighty spring, bounded out
from the point of Wolf's Fang far into the air, beyond the reach of the
falling flood, and rushed headlong towards the gulf beneath. Now all men
watching held their breath as his body travelled, and so great is the
place and so high the leap that through the mist Eric seemed but as a
big white stone hurled down the face of the arching waters.

He was gone, and the watchers rushed down to the foot of the pool, for
there, if he rose at all, he must pass to the shallows. Swanhild could
look no more, but sank upon the ground. The face of Gudruda was set like
a stone with doubt and anguish. Ospakar saw and read the meaning, and he
said to himself: "Now Odin grant that this youngling rise not again! for
the maid loves him dearly, and he is too much a man to be lightly swept
aside."

Eric struck the pool. Down he sank, and down and down--for the water
falling from so far must almost reach the bottom of the pool before
it can rise again--and he wi