he headlong, who sprang up and spoke
the first.

"Is my brother to be driven from us and his home like a thrall caught
in theft because a traitor and a false woman have put him to shame?" he
said. "I say that I ask Athalbrand's blood to wash away that stain,
not his gold, and that if need be I will seek it alone and die upon his
spears. Also I say that if Olaf, my brother, turns his back upon this
vengeance, I name him niddering."

"No man shall name me that," I said, flushing, "and least of all
Ragnar."

So, amidst shouts, for there had been long peace in the land, and all
the fighting men sighed for battle, it was agreed that war should be
declared on Athalbrand, those present pledging themselves and their
dependents to follow it to the end.

"Go back to the troth-breaker, Athalbrand," said my father to the
messengers. "Tell him that we will not accept his fine of gold, who come
to take all his wealth, and with it his land and his life. Tell him also
that the young lord Olaf refuses his daughter, Iduna, since it has
not been the fashion of our House to wed with drabs. Tell Steinar, the
woman-thief, that he would do well to slay himself, or to be sure that
he is killed in battle, since if we take him living he shall be cast
into a pit of vipers or sacrificed to Odin, the god of honour. Begone!"

"We go," answered the spokesman of the messengers; "yet before we go,
Thorvald, we would say to you that you and your folk are mad. Some wrong
has been done to your son, though perhaps not so much as you may think.
For that wrong full atonement has been offered, and with it the hand of
friendship on which you spit. Know then that the mighty lord Athalbrand
does not fear war, since for every man you can gather he numbers two,
all pledged to him until the death. Also he has consulted the oracle,
and its answer is that if you fight with him, but one of your House will
be left living."

"Begone!" thundered my father, "lest presently you should stay here
dead."

So they went.

That day my heart was very heavy, and I sought Freydisa to take counsel
with her.

"Trouble hovers over me like a croaking raven," I said. "I do not like
this war for a woman who is worth nothing, although she has hurt me
sorely. I fear the future, that it may prove even worse than the past
has been."

"Then come to learn it, Olaf, for what is known need no more be feared."

"I am not so sure of that," I said. "But how can the future be lear