d his tomb, Bele heard the frightful blows given and
received, and saw lurid gleams of supernatural fire.

When Thorsten finally staggered out of the mound, pale and bloody, but
triumphant, he refused to speak of the horrors he had encountered to win
the coveted treasure, nor would he ever vouchsafe further information than
this:

"'Dearly bought is the prize,' said he often,
'For I trembled but once in my life, and 'twas when I seized it!'"
TEGNER, _Frithiof Saga_ (Spalding's tr.).

[Sidenote: Birth of Frithiof and Ingeborg.] Thus owner of the three
greatest treasures in the North, Thorsten returned home to Framnaes, where
Ingeborg bore him a fine boy, Frithiof, the playmate of Halfdan and Helge,
Bele's sons. The three youths were already well grown when Ingeborg, Bele's
little daughter, was born, and as she was intrusted to the care of Hilding,
Frithiof's foster father, the children grew up in perfect amity.

"Jocund they grew, in guileless glee;
Young Frithiof was the sapling tree;
In budding beauty by his side,
Sweet Ingeborg, the garden's pride."
TEGNER, _Frithiof Saga_ (Longfellow's tr.).

Frithiof soon became hardy and fearless under his foster father's training,
and Ingeborg rapidly developed all the sweetest traits of female
loveliness. Both, however, were happiest when together; and as they grew
older their childish affection daily became deeper and more intense, until
Hilding, perceiving this state of affairs, bade the youth remember that he
was only a subject, and therefore no mate for the king's only daughter.

"But Hilding said, 'O foster son,
Set not thy heart her love upon,
For Destiny thy wish gainsaid;
King Bele's daughter is the maid!

"'From Odin's self, in starry sky,
Descends her ancestry so high;
But thou art Thorsten's son, so yield,
And leave to mightier names the field.'"
TEGNER, _Frithiof Saga_ (Spalding's tr.)

[Sidenote: Frithiof's love for Ingeborg.] These wise admonitions came too
late, however, and Frithiof vehemently declared that he would win the fair
Ingeborg for his bride in spite of all obstacles and his comparatively
humble origin.

Shortly after this Bele and Thorsten met for the last time, near the
magnificent shrine of Balder, where the king, feeling that his end was
near, had convened a solemn assembly, or Thing, of all his princip