gh walls of your
own Roman citadel, which was held not by you, but by a man like
Asathor, and another man still worse than the fire-fiend Loki. And we
asked if none of the many Kings and Princes who had begged favours of
Thidrekr of Raven could have helped you. But at that the Frank
merchant, who offered us fine tissues from the Wahala, laughed and
said, 'Broken fortunes, broken faith! They have all forsaken the
luckless Gothic heroes, Visigoths and Burgundians, Herulians and
Thuringians, and most of all we Franks, for we are wiser than all.'
But, on hearing this. King Frode threw down his staff angrily, and
cried, 'Where is my strong son Harald?" 'Here, father,' I answered, and
took his hand. 'Hast thou heard,' my father continued, 'the news of the
faithlessness of the Southland Kings? Such things shall not be said or
sung of the men of Goetaland! If all others turn away from the Goths of
Gardarike and Raven, we will keep faith and help them in their need.
Up, my brave Harald, and thou, my bold Haralda! equip a hundred
dragon-ships, and fill them with men and weapons. Put your hands deeply
into my royal treasure at Kinsala, and do not spare the heaped-up
golden rings. And set forth with Odin's wind in your sails. Go first
from Konghalla, past the island Danes and the Jutlanders, towards the
setting of the sun; thence along the coasts of the Frisians and the
Franks, through the narrow path of the sea; then sail farther round the
realm of the Sueves to the mountain land that is called Asturia; and
round the land of the Visigoths bend towards the south. Then wind
through the narrow strait of the wide ocean, where Asathor and Odin
have set two pillars.

"You will then have entered the sea of Midilgard, where lie innumerable
islands covered with evergreen bushes, out of which shine marble halls,
upheld by high, round stone-beams. Lay waste these islands, for they
belong to the false Prince of Grekaland. And then sail to the Roman
citadel or to Raven, and help the people of King Thidrekr against their
enemies. And fight for them by land and water, and stand by them until
all their enemies are overcome. And then speak to them and say: Thus
advises King Frode, who will soon have seen a hundred winters, and who
has seen the rise and fall of many peoples, and who, as a young Viking,
has himself visited the Southland. This is his advice: 'Leave the
Southland, however beautiful it may be. You cannot endure therein. As
little as t