e Danes and
attacked Norway. No small fame was added to his deeds by the defeat
of the amazon Rusila, who aspired with military ardour to prowess in
battle: but he gained manly glory over a female foe. Also he took into
his alliance, on account of their deeds of prowess, her five partners,
the children of Finn, named Brodd, Bild, Bug, Fanning, and Gunholm.
Their confederacy emboldened him to break the treaty which he made
with the Danes; and the treachery of the violation made it all the
more injurious, for the Danes could not believe that he could turn
so suddenly from a friend into an enemy; so easily can some veer from
goodwill into hate. I suppose that this man inaugurated the morals of
our own day, for we do not account lying and treachery as sinful and
sordid. When Huyrwil attacked the southern side of Zealand, Fridleif
assailed him in the harbour which was afterwards called by Huyrwil's
name. In this battle the soldiers, in their rivalry for glory, engaged
with such bravery that very few fled to escape peril, and both armies
were utterly destroyed; nor did the victory fall to either side, where
both were enveloped in an equal ruin. So much more desirous were they
all of glory than of life. So the survivors of Huyrwil's army, in order
to keep united, had the remnants of their fleet lashed together at
night. But, in the same night, Bild and Brodd cut the cables with which
the ships were joined, and stealthily severed their own vessels from the
rest, thus yielding to their own terrors by deserting their brethren,
and obeying the impulses of fear rather than fraternal love. When
daylight returned, Fridleif, finding that after the great massacre
of their friends only Huyrwil, Gunholm, Bug, and Fanning were left,
determined to fight them all single-handed, so that the mangled relics
of his fleet might not again have to be imperilled. Besides his innate
courage, a shirt of steel-defying mail gave him confidence; a garb which
he used to wear in all public battles and in duels, as a preservative of
his life. He accomplished his end with as much fortune as courage, and
ended the battle successfully. For, after slaying Huyrwil, Bug, and
Fanning, he killed Gunholm, who was accustomed to blunt the blade of
an enemy with spells, by a shower of blows from his hilt. But while
he gripped the blade too eagerly, the sinews, being cut and disabled,
contracted the fingers upon the palm, and cramped them with life-long
curvature.

Wh