ch forbearance as apparently to return kindness for slander,
for he presented Wiglek with the richest of his spoils. But afterwards
he seized a chance of taking vengeance, attacked him, subdued him, and
from a covert became an open foe. Fialler, the governor of Skaane, he
drove into exile; and the tale is that Fialler retired to a spot
called Undensakre, which is unknown to our peoples. After this,
Wiglek, recruited with the forces of Skaane and Zealand, sent envoys to
challenge Amleth to a war. Amleth, with his marvellous shrewdness,
saw that he was tossed between two difficulties, one of which involved
disgrace and the other danger. For he knew that if he took up the
challenge he was threatened with peril of his life, while to shrink from
it would disgrace his reputation as a soldier. Yet in that spirit ever
fixed on deeds of prowess the desire to save his honour won the day.
Dread of disaster was blunted by more vehement thirst for glory; he
would not tarnish the unblemished lustre of his fame by timidly skulking
from his fate. Also he saw that there is almost as wide a gap between a
mean life and a noble death as that which is acknowledged between honour
and disgrace themselves.

Yet Amleth was enchained by such great love for Hermutrude, that he was
more deeply concerned in his mind about her future widowhood than about
his own death, and cast about very zealously how he could decide on
some second husband for her before the opening of the war. Hermutrude,
therefore, declared that she had the courage of a man, and promised that
she would not forsake him even on the field, saying that the woman who
dreaded to be united with her lord in death was abominable. But she
kept this rare promise ill; for when Amleth had been slain by Wiglek in
battle in Jutland, she yielded herself up unasked to be the conqueror's
spoil and bride. Thus all vows of woman are loosed by change of fortune
and melted by the shifting of time; the faith of their soul rests on a
slippery foothold, and is weakened by casual chances; glib in promises,
and as sluggish in performance, all manner of lustful promptings enslave
it, and it bounds away with panting and precipitate desire, forgetful
of old things in the ever hot pursuit after something fresh. So ended
Amleth. Had fortune been as kind to him as nature, he would have
equalled the gods in glory, and surpassed the labours of Hercules by his
deeds of prowess. A plain in Jutland is to be found, fam