to abide by it. Yet, unluckily enough, it was made of no account by what
had slipped from my lips at its end. Although many held me strange and
fey, all men loved me because I had a kind heart and gentleness, also
because of the wrongs that I had suffered and for something which they
saw in me, which they believed would one day make of me a great skald
and a wise leader. When she heard me announce thus publicly that I was
determined to leave them, Thora, my mother, whispered in the ears of
Thorvald, my father, and Ragnar and others also said to each other that
this might not be. It was Ragnar, the headlong, who sprang up and spoke
the first.

"Is my brother to be driven from us and his home like a thrall caught
in theft because a traitor and a false woman have put him to shame?" he
said. "I say that I ask Athalbrand's blood to wash away that stain,
not his gold, and that if need be I will seek it alone and die upon his
spears. Also I say that if Olaf, my brother, turns his back upon this
vengeance, I name him niddering."

"No man shall name me that," I said, flushing, "and least of all
Ragnar."

So, amidst shouts, for there had been long peace in the land, and all
the fighting men sighed for battle, it was agreed that war should be
declared on Athalbrand, those present pledging themselves and their
dependents to follow it to the end.

"Go back to the troth-breaker, Athalbrand," said my father to the
messengers. "Tell him that we will not accept his fine of gold, who come
to take all his wealth, and with it his land and his life. Tell him also
that the young lord Olaf refuses his daughter, Iduna, since it has