d swell of the
open sea, and it was good to feel the lift and quiver of the
staunch ship as she swung over the rollers again.

Across the open stretch of sea we sailed, and the land along which
we coasted was flat and sandy, all unlike that which we had passed
for so many days. But beyond that the mountains were not far,
though in no wise so high as those farther north. And at last Gerda
showed us the place where she had thought to lay Thorwald, her
grandfather, to rest in his ship. We could see the timber slipway,
which still had been left where it was made for that last beaching,
and we could see, too, that here and there the land was turned up
into heaps, where the place for the mound had been prepared. There
was a little village also, and a hut or two had been burnt.

"Our doing," said Asbiorn. "Forgive us, Queen Gerda."

"You at least had no part therein," she said gently. "The rest is
forgotten. Now we have no long way to go before I am again at
home."

Now the land rose again from the level of the Jederen marshes we
had passed, and we had high black cliffs to port and ahead of us.
Along their feet the great rollers of the open sea broke,
thundering, even in this quiet weather, and the spray shot up and
fell in white clouds unceasingly. It was wonderful even now, and
what it would be like in a day of gale and heavy seas might be
guessed. And still we held on, with Asbiorn at the helm, though I
could see as yet no opening in the mighty walls that barred our way
onward. Gerda at my side laughed at me, in all pride in her
homecoming, and in the wild coast at which I was wondering.

The cliffs seemed to part us as we neared those before us, and I
saw a deep and narrow cleft between them into which we steered. The
sail was lowered now, and the oars manned, and so we passed from
the open into the shadow of the mighty cliffs which rose higher and
higher as we rowed between them. For half a mile the swell of the
sea came with us, and then it died away, and we were on still, deep
water, clear as glass, but black in the shadow of the grim and
sheer rock walls. The rhythm of the leisurely swing and creak and
plash of the long oars came back to us from either side as if we
rowed amid an unseen fleet, and when the men broke into the rowing
song they were fain to cease, laughing, for the echoes spoiled the
tune.

The fjord opened out before long, and there was another passage to
the sea, up which came a little swell fr