y would have nothing to do with each other, and the project of
their marriage came to an end.

On the night before we were to leave Lesso, whence Ragnar had already
gone, Athalbrand saw me staring at Iduna. This, indeed, was not
wonderful, as I could not take my eyes from her lovely face, and when
she looked at me and smiled with those red lips of hers I became like a
silly bird that is bewitched by a snake. At first I thought that he was
going to be angry, but suddenly some idea seemed to strike him so that
he called my father, Thorvald, outside the house. Afterwards I was sent
for, and found the two of them seated on a three-cornered, flat stone,
talking in the moonlight, for it was summer-time, when everything looks
blue at night and the sun and the moon ride in the sky together. Near by
stood my mother, listening.

"Olaf," said my father, "would you like to marry Iduna the Fair?"

"Like to marry Iduna?" I gasped. "Aye, more than to be High King of
Denmark, for she is no woman, but a goddess."

At this saying my mother laughed, and Athalbrand, who knew Iduna when
she did not seem a goddess, called me a fool. Then they talked, while I
stood trembling with hope and fear.

"He's but a second son," said Athalbrand.

"I have told you there is land enough for both of them, also the
gold that came with his mother will be his, and that's no small sum,"
answered Thorvald.

"He's no warrior, but a skald," objected Athalbrand again; "a silly
half-man who makes songs and plays upon the harp."

"Songs are sometimes stronger than swords," replied my father, "and,
after all, it is wisdom that rules. One brain can govern many men; also,
harps make merry music at a feast. Moreover, Olaf is brave enough. How
can he be otherwise coming of the stock he does?"

"He is thin and weedy," objected Athalbrand, a saying that made my
mother angry.

"Nay, lord Athalbrand," she said; "he is tall and straight as a dart,
and will yet be the handsomest man in these parts."

"Every duck thinks it has hatched out a swan," grumbled Athalbrand,
while with my eyes I implored my mother to be silent.

Then he thought for awhile, pulling at his long forked beard, and said
at last:

"My heart tells me no good of such a marriage. Iduna, who is the only
one left to me, could marry a man of more wealth and power than this
rune-making stripling is ever likely to be. Yet just now I know none
such whom I would wish to hold my place when I am gone.