第83章

Then Frode began to accost Erik thus: "O thou, wantoning in insolent phrase, in boastful and bedizened speech, whence dost thou say that thou hast come hither, and why?"Erik answered: "I came from Rennes Isle, and I took my seat by a stone."Frode rejoined: "I ask, whither thou wentest next?"Erik answered."I went off from the stone riding on a beam, and often again took station by a stone."Frode replied: "I ask thee whither thou next didst bend thy course, or where the evening found thee?"Then said Erik: "Leaving a crag, I came to a rock, and likewise lay by a stone."Frode said: "The boulders lay thick in those parts."Erik answered: "Yet thicker lies the sand, plain to see."Frode said: "Tell what thy business was, and whither thou struckest off thence."Then said Erik: "Leaving the rock, as my ship ran on, I found a dolphin."Frode said: "Now thou hast said something fresh, though both these things are common in the sea: but I would know what path took thee after that?"Erik answered: "After a dolphin I went to a dolphin."Frode said: "The herd of dolphins is somewhat common."Then said Erik: "It does swim somewhat commonly on the waters."Frode said: "I would fain blow whither thou wert borne on thy toilsome journey after leaving the dolphins?"Erik answered: "I soon came upon the trunk of a tree."Frode rejoined: "Whither didst thou next pass on thy journey?"Then said Erik: "From a trunk I passed on to a log."Frode said: "That spot must he thick with trees, since thou art always calling the abodes of thy hosts by the name of trunks."Erik replied: "There is a thicker place in the woods."Frode went on: "Relate whither thou next didst bear thy steps."Erik answered: "Oft again I made my way to the lopped timbers of the woods; but, as I rested there, wolves that were sated on human carcases licked the points of the spears.There a lance-head was shaken from the shaft of the king, and it was the grandson of Fridleif."Frode said: "I am bewildered, and know not what to think about the dispute: for thou hast beguiled my mind with very dark riddling."Erik answered: "Thou owest me the prize for this contest that is finished: for under a veil I have declared to thee certain things thou hast ill understood.For under the name I gave before of `spear-point' I signified Odd, whom my hand had slain."And when the queen also had awarded him the palm of eloquence and the prize for flow of speech, the king straightway took a bracelet from his arm, and gave it to him as the appointed reward, adding: "I would fain learn from thyself thy debate with Grep, wherein he was not ashamed openly to avow himself vanquished."Then said Erik: "He was smitten with shame for the adultery wherewith he was taxed; for since he could bring no defence, he confessed that he had committed it with thy wife."The king turned to Hanund and asked her in what spirit she received the charge; and she not only confessed her guilt by a cry, but also put forth in her face a blushing signal of her sin, and gave manifest token of her fault.The king, observing not only her words, but also the signs of her countenance, but doubting with what sentence he should punish the criminal, let the queen settle by her own choice the punishment which her crime deserved.When she learnt that the sentence committed to her concerned her own guilt, she wavered awhile as she pondered how to appraise her transgression; but Grep sprang up and ran forward to transfix Erik with a spear, wishing to buy off his own death by slaying the accuser.But Roller fell on him with drawn sword, and dealt him first the doom he had himself purposed.

Erik said: "The service of kin is best for the helpless."And Roller said: "In sore needs good men should be dutifully summoned."Then Frode said: "I think it will happen to you according to the common saying, `that the striker sometimes has short joy of his stroke', and `that the hand is seldom long glad of the smiting'."Erik answered: "The man must not be impeached whose deed justice excuses.For my work is as far as from that of Grep, as an act of self-defence is from an attack upon another."Then the brethren of Grep began to spring up and clamour and swear that they would either bring avengers upon the whole fleet of Erik, or would fight him and ten champions with him.

Erik said to them: "Sick men have to devise by craft some provision for their journey.He whose sword-point is dull should only probe things that are soft and tender.He who has a blunt knife must search out the ways to cut joint by joint.Since, therefore, it is best for a man in distress to delay the evil, and nothing is more fortunate in trouble than to stave off hard necessity, I ask three days' space to get ready, provided that Imay obtain from the king the skill of a freshly slain ox."Frode answered: "He who fell on a hide deserves a hide"; thus openly taunting the asker with his previous fall.But Erik, when the hide was given him, made some sandals, which he smeared with a mixture of tar and sand, in order to plant his steps the more firmly, and fitted them on to the feet of himself and his people.