*]

[*] I.e. subject to supernatural presentiments, generally
connected with approaching doom.

"Ay," she answered, "fey and fair."

"True enough thou art fair. What shall we do with this dead man?"

"Leave him in the arms of Ran. So may all husbands lie."

They spoke no more with her at that time, seeing that she was a
witchwoman. But Asmund took her up to Middalhof, and gave her a farm,
and she lived there alone, and he profited much by her wisdom.

Now it chanced that Gudruda the Gentle was with child, and when her time
came she gave a daughter birth--a very fair girl, with dark eyes. On
the same day, Groa the witchwoman brought forth a girl-child, and men
wondered who was its father, for Groa was no man's wife. It was women's
talk that Asmund the Priest was the father of this child also; but when
he heard it he was angry, and said that no witchwoman should bear a
bairn of his, howsoever fair she was. Nevertheless, it was still said
that the child was his, and it is certain that he loved it as a man
loves his own; but of all things, this is the hardest to know. When Groa
was questioned she laughed darkly, as was her fashion, and said that she
knew nothing of it, never having seen the face of the child's father,
who rose out of the sea at night. And for this cause some thought him
to have been a wizard or the wraith of her dead husband; but others said
that Groa lied, as many women have done on such matters. But of all this
talk the child alone remained and she was named Swanhild.

Now, but an hour before the child of Gudruda the Gentle was born, Asmund
went up from his house to the Temple, to tend the holy fire that burned
night and day upon the altar. When he had tended the fire, he sat down
upon the cross-benches before the shrine, and, gazing on the image of
the Goddess Freya, he fell asleep and dreamed a very evil dream.

He dreamed that Gudruda the Gentle bore a dove most beautiful to see,
for all its feathers were of silver; but that Groa the Witch bore a
golden snake. And the snake and the dove dwelt together, and ever the
snake sought to slay the dove. At length there came a great white swan
flying over Coldback Fell, and its tongue was a sharp sword. Now the
swan saw the dove and loved it, and the dove loved the swan; but the
snake reared itself, and hissed, and sought to kill the dove. But the
swan covered her with his wings, and beat the snake away. Then he,
Asmund, came out and drove a