e good ship Ellidi, that
she knew the speech of man.

But Biorn said: "Now may we see the treason of those brethren against
us." Therewith he took the tiller, but Frithiof caught up a forked beam,
and ran into the prow, and sang a stave:

"Ellidi, hail!
Leap high o'er the billows!
Break of the troll wives
Brow or teeth now!
Break cheek or jaw
Of the cursed woman,
One foot or twain
Of the ogress filthy."

Therewith he drave his fork at one of the skin-changers, and the beak of
Ellidi smote the other on the back, and the backs of both were broken;
but the whale took the deep, and gat him gone, and they never saw him
after.

Then the wind fell, but the ship lay waterlogged; so Frithiof called out
to his men, and bade bale out the ship, but Biorn said:

"No need to work now, verily!"

"Be thou not afeard, foster-brother," said Frithiof, "ever was it the
wont of good men of old time to be helpful while they might, whatsoever
should come after." And therewith he sang a stave:

"No need, fairfellows,
To fear the death-day;
Rather be glad,
Good men of mine:
For if dreams wot aught
All nights they say
I yet shall have
My Ingibiorg."

Then they baled out the ship; and they were now come nigh unto land; but
there was yet a flaw of wind in their teeth. So then did Frithiof take
the two bow oars again, and rowed full mightily. Therewith the weather
brightened, and they saw that they were come out to Effia Sound, and so
there they made land.

The crew were exceeding weary; but so stout a man was Frithiof that he
bore eight men a-land over the foreshore, but Biorn bore two, and Asmund
one. Then sang Frithiof:

"Fast bare I up
To the fire-lit house
My men all dazed
With the drift of the storm;
And the sail moreover
To the sand I carried;
With the might of the sea
Is there no more to do."

CHAPTER VII. Frithiof at the Orkneys.

Now Earl Angantyr was at Effia whenas Frithiof and his folk came a-land
there. But his way it was, when he was sitting at the drink, that one
of his men should sit at the watch-window, looking weatherward from the
drinking hall, and keep watch there. From a great horn drank he ever:
and still as one was emptied another was filled for him. An