forward, startling and confusing the spectator by the
threatening attitude--a true helmet of terror, such as Odin wears when
he rushes into battle at the head of his troops.

With this helmet and clad in full armor, the Duke came out of his tent
and motioned to one of the heralds, who always waited his orders here.
The man seized the long crooked horn of the aurochs, which hung ready
on one of the posts of the tent, and sounded it three times. The
summons echoed far and wide. Instantly the other heralds, carrying
white-ash staffs in their hands, and wearing smaller horns hung by
leather thongs over their shoulders, hurried down from the summit in
every direction, through all the lines of the fortifications, bearing
the Duke's summons to the most distant outpost.

The warriors flocked from all sides, fully armed, swiftly climbing the
mountain; only the guards needed to protect the fords across the
swamps, the barricades, and the narrow entrances to the ring walls
remained behind. All pressed up the mountain and, as soon as they
reached the summit, surged toward a giant ash-tree which, from the top
of the loftiest mountain peak, thrust its branches into the clouds.

Close to its trunk a sort of judge's tribunal had been built of large
stones; an oblong one rested like a back against the tree; another of
the same height, laid across two blocks sunk in the earth, formed the
seat.

Several stone steps led up to the high seat, and on them lay various
weapons, among them one very plain shield and spear, with the rune
_fe_, corresponding to the Latin _F_. Then came a costly boar helmet, a
richly ornamented bronze shield, covered with a boar's hide and, like
the helmet, decorated with two boar's tusks outstretched defiantly; a
sword in a costly sheath of polished linden wood, richly mounted with
bronze; a sharp battle axe and a spear, the handles of both adorned and
strengthened by gilded nails: these weapons bore as a house-mark
drawings of two boar tusks. Last of all were a small, very light round
shield, a short spear, and a dainty sword with a white leather belt
painted with red lead: each of the three weapons bore as house-mark a
stag's antlers.

The Duke had not yet taken his seat. Standing erect on the horizontal
stone, with his spear in his right hand, he scanned the warriors
flocking from every direction. A huge oblong shield, almost the height
of a man, painted red, with black runes inscribed upon it, hung above