they hesitated to bespeak her aid.

While they were deliberating what they should do, a beautiful girl, poorly
clad, but immaculately clean, entered the hut; and the old woman,
addressing her as Krake (Crow), bade her see what the strangers wanted.
They told her, and admiringly watched her as she deftly fashioned the dough
into loaves and slipped them into the hot oven. She bade the sailors watch
them closely, lest they should burn; but these men forgot all about their
loaves to gaze upon her as she flitted about the house, and the result was
that their bread was badly burned.

When they returned to the vessel, Ragnar Lodbrok reproved them severely for
their carelessness, until the men, to justify themselves, began describing
the maiden Krake in such glowing terms that the chief finally expressed a
desire to see her. With the view of testing her wit and intelligence, as
well as her beauty, Ragnar sent a message bidding her appear before him
neither naked nor clad, neither alone nor unaccompanied, neither fasting
nor yet having partaken of any food.

This singular message was punctually delivered, and Krake, who was as
clever as beautiful, soon presented herself, with a fish net wound several
times around her graceful form, her sheep dog beside her, and the odor of
the leek she had bitten into still hovering over her ruby lips.

Ragnar, charmed by her ingenuity no less than by her extreme beauty, then
and there proposed to marry her. But Krake, who was not to be so lightly
won, declared that he must first prove the depth of his affection by
remaining constant to her for one whole year, at the end of which time she
would marry him if he still cared to claim her hand.

[Sidenote: Marriage of Ragnar and Krake.] The year passed by; Ragnar
returned to renew his suit, and Krake, satisfied that she had inspired no
momentary passion, forsook the aged couple and accompanied the great viking
to Hledra, where she became queen of Denmark. She bore Ragnar four
sons--Ivar, Bjoern, Hvitserk, and Rogenwald,--who from earliest infancy
longed to emulate the prowess of their father, Ragnar, and of their
step-brothers, Erik and Agnar, who even in their youth were already great
vikings.

The Danes, however, had never fully approved of Ragnar's last marriage, and
murmured frequently because they were obliged to obey a lowborn queen, and
one who bore the vulgar name of Krake. Little by little these murmurs grew
louder, and finally they ca