Burst forth on the king;
Hel-thief when I
Tossed up the small babies:
Isle-thief when I
In the outer isles harried;
Slaws-thief when I
Sat aloft over men:
Yet since have I drifted
With salt-boiling carls,
Needy of help
'Ere hither I came."

Said the king: "Thou hast gotten thy name of Thief from many a matter,
then; but where wert thou last night, and what is thy home?"

The cowl-bearer said: "In Grief-ham I grew up; but heart drave me
hither, and home have I nowhere."

The king said: "Maybe indeed that thou hast been nourished in Grief-ham
a certain while; yet also maybe that thou wert born in a place of peace.
But in the wild-wood must thou have lain last night, for no goodman
dwelleth anigh named Wolf; but whereas thou sayest thou hast no home,
so is it, that thou belike deemest thy home nought, because of thy heart
that drave thee hither."

Then spake Ingibiorg: "Go, Thief, get thee to some other harbour, or in
to the guest-hall."

"Nay," said the king, "I am old enow to know how to marshal guests; so
do off thy cowl, new-comer, and sit down on my other hand."

"Yea, old, and over old," said the queen, "when thou settest
staff-carles by thy side."

"Nay, lord, it beseemeth not," said Thief; "better it were as the
queen sayeth. I have been more used to boiling salt than sitting beside
lords."

"Do thou my will," said the king, "for I will rule this time."

So Thief cast his cowl from him, and was clad thereunder in a dark blue
kirtle; on his arm, moreover, was the goodly gold ring, and a thick
silver belt was round about him, with a great purse on it, and therein
silver pennies glittering; a sword was girt to his side, and he had a
great fur hood on his head, for his eyes were bleared, and his face all
wrinkled.

"Ah! now we fare better, say I," quoth the king; "but do thou, queen,
give him a goodly mantle, well shapen for him."

"Thou shalt rule, my lord," said the queen; "but in small account do I
hold this Thief of thine."

So then he gat a good mantle over him, and sat down in the high-seat
beside the king.

The queen waxed red as blood when she saw the goodly ring, yet would she
give him never a word; but the king was exceeding blithe with him and
said: "A goodly ring hast thou on thine arm there; thou must have boiled
salt long enough to get it."

Says he, "That is all the heritage of my