ing

Now when Harald was ten years old his father, King Halfdan, died. An old
book that tells about Harald says that then "he was the biggest of all
men, the strongest, and the fairest to look upon." That about a boy ten
years old! But boys grew fast in those days for they were out of doors
all the time, running, swimming, leaping on skees, and hunting in the
forest. All that makes big, manly boys.

So now King Halfdan was dead and buried, and Harald was to be king. But
first he must drink his father's funeral ale.

"Take down the gay tapestries that hang in the feast hall," he said to
the thralls. "Put up black and gray ones. Strew the floor with pine
branches. Brew twenty tubs of fresh ale and mead. Scour every dish until
it shines."

Then Harald sent messengers all over that country to his kinsmen and
friends.

"Bid them come in three months' time to drink my father's funeral ale,"
he said. "Tell them that no one shall go away empty-handed."

So in three months men came riding up at every hour. Some came in boats.
But many had ridden far through mountains, swimming rivers; for there
were few roads or bridges in Norway. On account of that hard ride no
women came to the feast.

At nine o'clock in the night the feast began. The men came walking in at
the west end of the hall.[6] The great bonfires down the middle of the
room were flashing light on everything. The clean smell of this
wood-smoke and of the pine branches on the floor was pleasant to the
guests. Down each side of the hall stretched long, backless benches,
with room for three hundred men. In the middle of each side rose the
high seat, a great carved chair on a platform. All along behind the
benches were the black and gray draperies. Here hung the shields of the
guests; for every man, when he was given his place, turned and hung his
shield behind him and set his tall spear by it. So on each wall there
was a long row of gay shields, red and green and yellow, and all shining
with gold or bronze trimmings. And higher up there was another row of
gleaming spear-points. Above the hall the rafters were carved and gaily
painted, so that dragons seemed to be crawling across, or eagles seemed
to be swooping down.

The guests walked in laughing and talking with their big voices so that
the rafters rang. They made the hall look all the brighter with their
clothes of scarlet and blue and green, with their flashing golden
bracelets and head-bands and sword-scab