and the swains according to thine ancient wisdom than to egg on my
young warriors to fare unwarily. Here will I abide Thiodolf."

Then Thorbiorn reddened and was wroth; but Arinbiorn spake:

"What is this to-do? Let the War-duke rule as is but right: but I am now
become a man of Thiodolf's company; and he bade me haste on before to
help all I might. Do thou as thou wilt, Otter: for Thiodolf shall be
here in an hour's space, and if much diking shall be done in an hour, yet
little slaying, forsooth, shall be done, and that especially if the foe
is all armed and slayeth women and children. Yea if the Bearing women be
all slain, yet shall not Tyr make us new ones out of the stones of the
waste to wed with the Galtings and the fish-eating Houses?--this is easy
to be done forsooth. Yea, easier than fighting the Romans and overcoming
them!"

And he was very wrath, and turned away; and again there was a murmur and
a hum about him. But while these had been speaking aloud, Sweinbiorn had
been talking softly to some of the younger men, and now he shook his
naked sword in the air and spake aloud and sang:

"Ye tarry, Bears of Battle! ye linger, Sons of the Worm!
Ye crouch adown, O kindreds, from the gathering of the storm!
Ye say, it shall soon pass over and we shall fare afield
And reap the wheat with the war-sword and winnow in the shield.
But where shall be the corner wherein ye then shall abide,
And where shall be the woodland where the whelps of the bears shall
hide
When 'twixt the snowy mountains and the edges of the sea
These men have swept the wild-wood and the fields where men may be
Of every living sword-blade, and every quivering spear,
And in the southland cities the yoke of slaves ye bear?
Lo ye! whoever follows I fare to sow the seed
Of the days to be hereafter and the deed that comes of deed."

Therewith he waved his sword over his head, and made as if he would spur
onward. But Arinbiorn thrust through the press and outwent him and cried
out:

"None goeth before Arinbiorn the Old when the battle is pitched in the
meadows of the kindred. Come, ye sons of the Bear, ye children of the
Worm! And come ye, whosoever hath a will to see stout men die!"

Then on he rode nor looked behind him, and the riders of the Bearings and
the Wormings drew themselves out of the throng, and followed him, and
rode clattering over the meadow towards Wolfstead. A few of the others
ro