age of wild beasts, and
crush with fierce mouth the fleet wolves."

Then she added a little: "Take thou heed; from thee hath issued a bird
of harm, in choler a wild screech-owl, in tongue a tuneful swan."

On the morrow the king, when he had shaken off slumber, told the vision
to a man skilled in interpretations, who explained the wolf to denote a
son that would be truculent and the word swan as signifying a daughter;
and foretold that the son would be deadly to enemies and the daughter
treacherous to her father. The result answered to the prophecy.
Hadding's daughter, Ulfhild, who was wife to a certain private person
called Guthorm, was moved either by anger at her match, or with
aspirations to glory, and throwing aside all heed of daughterly love,
tempted her husband to slay her father; declaring that she preferred
the name of queen to that of princess. I have resolved to set forth the
manner of her exhortation almost in the words in which she uttered it;
they were nearly these:

"Miserable am I, whose nobleness is shadowed by an unequal yoke! Hapless
am I, to whose pedigree is bound the lowliness of a peasant! Luckless
issue of a king, to whom a common man is equal by law of marriage!
Pitiable daughter of a prince, whose comeliness her spiritless father
hath made over to base and contemptible embraces! Unhappy child of
thy mother, with thy happiness marred by consorting with this bed! thy
purity is handled by the impurity of a peasant, thy nobility is bowed
down by ignoble commonness, thy high birth is impaired by the estate of
thy husband! But thou, if any pith be in thee, if valour reign in thy
soul at all, if thou deem thyself fit husband for a king's daughter,
wrest the sceptre from her father, retrieve thy lineage by thy valour,
balance with courage thy lack of ancestry, requite by bravery thy
detriment of blood. Power won by daring is more prosperous than that won
by inheritance. Boldness climbs to the top better than inheritance,
and worth wins power better than birth. Moreover, it is no shame to
overthrow old age, which of its own weight sinks and totters to its
fall. It shall be enough for my father to have borne the sceptre for
so long; let the dotard's power fall to thee; if it elude thee, it will
pass to another. Whatsoever rests on old age is near its fall. Think
that his reign has been long enough, and be it thine, though late in the
day, to be first. Further, I would rather have my husband than my fa