ng at the
church with a skin jacket on?" They answered, that they did not know.
Then the king said:--

"This skin-clad man, in sorry plight,
Puts all our wisdom here to flight."

Then the fellow came forward and said:--

"I thought that here I might be known,
Although my dress is scanty grown.
'Tis poor, but I must be content:
Unless, great king, it's thy intent
To give me better; for I have seen
When I and rags had strangers been."

The king answered, "Come to me to-morrow when I am at the drink-table."
The night passed away; and the morning after the Icelander, who was
afterwards called Thorarin Stutfetd, went into the drinking-room. A man
stood outside of the door of the room with a horn in his hand, and said,
"Icelander! the king says that if thou wilt deserve any gift from him
thou shalt compose a song before going in, and make it about a man whose
name is Hakon Serkson, and who is called Morstrut (1); and speak about
that surname in thy song." The man who spoke to him was called Arne
Fioruskeif. Then they went into the room; and when Thorarin came before
the king's seat he recited these verses:--

"Throndhjem's warrior-king has said
The skald should be by gifts repaid,
If he before this meeting gave
The king's friend Serk a passing stave.
The generous king has let me know
My stave, to please, must be framed so
That my poor verse extol the fame
Of one called Hakon Lump by name."

Then said the king, "I never said so, and somebody has been making a
mock of thee. Hakon himself shall determine what punishment thou shalt
have. Go into his suite." Hakon said, "He shall be welcome among us, for
I can see where the joke came from;" and he placed the Icelander at his
side next to himself, and they were very merry. The day was drawing to
a close, and the liquor began to get into their heads, when Hakon said,
"Dost thou not think, Icelander, that thou owest me some penalty? and
dost thou not see that some trick has been played upon thee?"

Thorarin replies, "It is true, indeed, that I owe thee some
compensation."

Hakon says, "Then we shall be quits, if thou wilt make me another stave
about Arne."

He said he was ready to do so; and they crossed over to the side of the
room where Arne was sitting, and Thorarin gave these verses:--

"Fioruskeif has often spread,
With evil heart and idle head,
The eagle's voidings