, still nearer to the ice-mountains,
_other_ people live. Our realm reaches, towards the rising of the sun,
to the sea and our island, Gothland; towards the setting of the sun, as
far as Hallin and the Skioldungahaff; towards midday, to Smaland,
Skone, and the kingdom of the Sea-Danes; towards midnight, to Svealand.
The King is my father, Frode, whom Odin loves. He is much wiser than I;
but he has now crowned me as Vi-king, upon the sacred-stone at
King-Sala, because he is already a hundred years old, and quite blind.
Now the minstrels in our halls still sing the legends which tell that
you Goths were originally our brothers, and that only by reason of the
wandering of the peoples have you gradually drawn nearer to the south;
for you followed the flight of the crane from the Caucasus, but we the
running of the wolf."

"If that be so," said King Totila, smiling, "I prefer the crane for a
guide."

"It may well seem so to thee, sitting here in this gay drinking-hall,"
answered King Harald gravely. "But however that maybe--and I do not
quite believe it, for then we ought to understand each other's words
better--we truly and highly honour this our blood-relationship. For a
long time nothing but good news came from your warm realm to our cold
Gothaland--news of the highest fame. And once my father and your King
Thidrekr,[1] who is praised by the harp-songs of our Skalds, exchanged
envoys and gifts, through the agency of the Esthes, who live on the
Austrway. These men led our envoys to the Wends, on the Wyzla; these to
the Longobardians, on the Tisia; these to the Herulians, on the Dravus;
these through Savia to Salona and Ravenna."

"Thou art a man learned in roads and countries," observed Totila.

"That the Viking must be; for else he will never go forwards, and
likewise never get back. Well, for some time we only heard of your
glory and good fortune. But once and again there came bad news, brought
by merchants who bought our furs and eiderdown and amber, and took it
to the Frisians, and Saxons, and franks, giving us in exchange
artfully-formed vessels, and silver and gold. The news became sadder
and more sad; we heard that King Thidrekr had died, and that afterwards
great evils had broken out in your realm. We heard of defeat,
treachery, and of the murder of Kings; of Goths warring against Goths;
and of the might of the false Prince of Grekaland. And it was said that
you had broken your heads by thousands against the hi