ied:

Your riddle is a good one, Gestumblindi. I have guessed it.
They are pale embers on the hearth.

Gestumblindi said:

I sat on a sail, and saw dead men carrying a channel of blood
in the bark of a tree. King Heithrek, read me this riddle!

Heithrek replied:

Your riddle is a good one, Gestumblindi. I have guessed it.
You sat on a wall, and watched a hawk flying and carrying an
eider duck in its claws.

Gestumblindi said:

Who are those two who have ten feet, three eyes and one tail?
King Heithrek, read me this riddle!

Heithrek replied:

You are hard up when you have to turn back to things of long
ago to bring forward against me. That is Othin riding his
horse Sleipnir. It had eight feet and Othin two, and they had
three eyes--Sleipnir two and Othin one.

Gestumblindi said:

Tell me lastly, Heithrek, if you are wiser than any other
prince, what did Othin whisper in Balder's ear, before he was
placed upon the pyre?

The King replied:

I am sure it was something scandalous and cowardly and
thoroughly contemptible. You are the only person who knows the
words which you spoke, you evil and wretched creature.

Then the King drew Tyrfing, and struck at Gestumblindi; but he changed
himself into a falcon and flew out through the window of the hall. And
the sword struck the tail of the falcon; and that is why it has had
a short tail ever since, according to heathen superstition. But Othin
had now become wroth with the King for striking at him; and that night
he was slain.

XII. It is said that King Heithrek had some slaves, nine in all, whom
he had taken in a freebooting expedition in the West. They came of
noble families, and chafed against their captivity. One night, when
King Heithrek lay in bed, attended by only a handful of men, the
slaves armed themselves and went to the building in which he lay.
They first slew the sentries, and then went and broke into the King's
chamber, and slew the King and all who were within. They took the
sword Tyrfing, and all the treasure that they found there, and carried
everything off with them.

For a while, no one knew who had done the deed or how vengeance was to
be taken. Then Angantyr the son of King Heithrek had a meeting called,
and by that assembly he was proclaimed King over all the territories
that King Heithrek had held. And at the same meeting he swore a solemn
oath that he would