Helgi bade me say thus much, Frithiof, that thou shouldst go on this journey with them, or else look for ill at their hands when they at the last come back.”
“A double game, foster-brother,” said Biorn; “and two ways to meet thy play.”
Frithiof said: “Thy play is to fall first on the knave, yet the double game is sure to be.”
No other outcome of his errand had Hilding: he went back speedily to the kings, and told them Frithiof’s answer.
They asked Hilding what he made out of those words. He said:
“Whereas he spake of the bare place he will have been thinking of the lack in this journey of yours; but when he said he would beset the red piece, that will mean Ingibiorg, your sister; so give ye all the heed ye may to her. But whereas I threatened him with ill from you, Biorn deemed the game a double one; but Frithiof said that the knave must be set on first, speaking thereby of King Ring.”
So then the brethren arrayed them for departing; but, ere they went, they let bring Ingibioig and eight women with her to Baldur’s Meads, saying that Frithiof would not be so mad rash as to go see her thither, since there was none who durst make riot there.
Then fared those brethren south to Jadar, and met King Ring in Sogn-Sound.
Now, herewith was King Ring most of all wroth that the brothers had said that they accounted it a shame to fight with a man so old that he might not get a-horseback unholpen.
CHAPTER IV. Frithiof goes to Baldur’s Meads
Straightway whenas the kings were gone away Frithiof took his raiment of state and set the goodly gold ring on his arm; then went the foster-brethren down to the sea and launched Ellidi. Then said Biorn: “Whither away, foster-brother?”
“To Baldur’s Meads,” said Frithiof, “to be glad with Ingibiorg.”,
Biorn said: “A thing unmeet to do, to make the gods wroth with us.”
“Well, it shall be risked this time,” said Frithiof; “and withal, more to me is Ingibiorg’s grace than Baldur’s grame.”
Therewith they rowed over the firth, and went up to Baldur’s Meads and to Ingibiorg’s bower, and there she sat with eight maidens, and the new comers were eight also.
But when they came there, lo, all the place was hung with cloth of pall and precious webs.
Then Ingibiorg arose and said:
“Why art thou so overbold, Frithiof, that thou art come here without the leave of my brethren to make the gods angry with thee?”
Frithiof says: “Howsoever that may be, I hold thy love of more account than the gods’ hate.”
Ingibiorg answered: “Welcome art thou here, thou and thy men!”
Then she made place for him to sit beside her, and drank to him in the best of wine; and thus they sat and were merry together.
Then beheld Ingibiorg the goodly ring on his arm, and asked him if that precious thing were his own.
Frithiof said Yea, and she praised the ring much. Then Frithiof said:
“I will give thee the ring if thou wilt promise to give it to no one, but to send it to me when thou no longer shalt have will to keep it: and hereon shall we plight troth each to other.”
So with this troth-plighting they exchanged rings.
Frithiof was oft at Baldur’s Meads a-night time, and every day between whiles would he go thither to be glad with Ingibiorg.
CHAPTER V. Those Brethren come Home again
Now tells the tale of those brethren, that they met King Ring, and he had more folk than they: then went men betwixt them, and sought to make peace, so that no battle should be: thereto King Ring assented on such terms that the brethren should submit them to him, and give him in marriage Ingibiorg their sister, with the third part of all their possessions.
The kings said Yea thereto, for they saw that they had to do with overwhelming might: so the peace was fast bound by oaths, and the wedding was to be at Sogn whenas King Ring should go see his betrothed.
So those brethren fare home with their folk, right ill content with things. But Frithiof, when he deemed that the brethren might be looked for home again, spake to the king’s daughter:
“Sweetly and well have ye done to us, neither has goodman Baldur been wroth with us; but now as soon as ye wot of the kings’ coming home, spread the sheets of your beds abroad on the Hall of the Goddesses, for that is the highest of all the garth, and we may see it from our stead.”
The king’s daughter said: “Thou dost not after the like of any other: but certes, we welcome dear friends whenas ye come to us.”
So Frithiof went home; and the next morning he went out early, and when he came in then he spake and sang:
“Now must I tell
To our good men
That over and done
Are our fair journeys;
No more a-shipboard
Shall we be going,
For there are the sheets
Spread out a-bleaching.”
Then they went out, and saw that the Hall of the Goddesses was all thatched with white linen. Biorn spake and said: “Now are the kings come home, and but a little while have we to sit in peace, and good were it, meseems, to gather folk together.”
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