a hurry to get home."

Hervarth replied: "Tell me where are 'Hjoervarth's Barrows,' as they
are called."

"You must surely be mad," replied the boy, "if you want to explore by
night what no-one dare visit at mid-day. Burning flame plays over them
as soon as the sun has set."

But Hervarth insisted that she would visit the barrows--whereupon the
shepherd said:

"I see that you are a brave man though not a wise one, so I will give
you my necklace if you will come home with me."

But Hervarth replied: "Even if you give me all you have you will not
hold me back."

And when the sun had set, loud rumblings were heard all over the
island, and flames leapt out of the barrows. Then the shepherd grew
frightened and took to his heels and ran to the wood as fast as he
could, without once looking back. Here is a poem giving an account of
his talk with Hervoer:

Driving his flocks at the fall of day,
In Munarvagar along the bay,
A shepherd met a maid.--
"Who comes to our island here alone?
Haste to seek shelter, the day is done,
The light will quickly fade."

"I will not seek for a resting place:
A stranger am I to the island race.--
But tell me quick I pray,
Ere thou goest hence, if I may descry
Where the tombs of the children of Arngrim lie:
O tell me, where are they?"

"Forbear from such questions utterly!
Foolish and rash must thou surely be,
And in a desperate plight!
Let us haste from these horrors as fast as we can,
For abroad it is ghastly for children of men
To wander about in the night."

"My necklace of gold is the price I intend
To pay for thy guidance; for I am the friend
Of vikings, and will not be stayed."
"No treasures so costly, nor rings of red gold
Shall take me their thrall, or my footsteps withhold,
That thereby my flight be gainsaid.

"Foolish is he who comes here alone
In the fearsome dark when the sun has gone
And the flames are mounting high;--
When earth and fen are alike ablaze,
And tombs burst open before thy gaze:
O faster let us hie!"

"Let us never heed for the snorting blaze,
Nor fear, though over the island ways
Dart tongues of living light.
Let us not lightly give way to fear
Of the noble warriors buried here,
But talk with them tonight."

But the shepherd lad fled fast away,
No