but just as he outshone all his companions in beauty and
intelligence, so he could match the bravest heroes in courage and daring,
and generally escaped uninjured from every battle, owing to a magic shirt
which his mother had woven for him.

"'I give thee the long shirt,
Nowhere sewn,
Woven with a loving mind,
Of hair----[obscure word].
Wounds will not bleed
Nor will edges bite thee
In the holy garment;
It was consecrated to the gods.'"
_Ragnar Lodbrok Saga_.

Of course the young hero led out his men every summer upon some exciting
viking expedition, to test their courage and supply them with plunder; for
all the northern heroes proudly boasted that the sword was their god and
gold was their goddess.

[Sidenote: Lodgerda.] On one occasion Ragnar landed in a remote part of
Norway, and having climbed one of the neighboring mountains, he looked down
upon a fruitful valley inhabited by Lodgerda, a warrior maiden who
delighted in the chase and all athletic exercises, and ruled over all that
part of the country. Ragnar immediately resolved to visit this fair maiden;
and, seeing her manifold attractions, he soon fell in love with her and
married her. She joined him in all his active pursuits; but in spite of all
his entreaties, she would not consent to leave her native land and
accompany him home.

After spending three years in Norway with Lodgerda, the young viking became
restless and unhappy; and learning that his kingdom had been raided during
his prolonged absence, he parted from his wife in hot haste. He pursued his
enemies to Whitaby and to Lym-Fiord, winning a signal victory over them in
both places, and then reentered his capital of Hledra in triumph, amid the
acclamations of his joyful people.

He had not been resting long upon his newly won laurels when a northern
seer came to his court, and showed him in a magic mirror the image of
Thora, the beautiful daughter of Jarl Herrand in East Gothland. Ragnar, who
evidently considered himself freed from all matrimonial bonds by his wife's
refusal to accompany him home, eagerly questioned the seer concerning the
radiant vision.

This man then revealed to him that Thora, having at her father's request
carefully brought up a dragon from an egg hatched by a swan, had at last
seen it assume such colossal proportions that it coiled itself all around
the house where she dwelt. Here it watched over her with jealous care,