marches not only of safe conduct, but also of a hundred rings and of much clear amber-if that my weapons pleased thee. Now ye have found the points of the javelins that they are good. Give me, therefore, that which thou hast said thou wouldst give. Give me the things which are truly mine in accordance with the agreement."

At this the face of the King waxed red, and his brows ran together. 'Agreement! What is an agreement? A word, a sound, a breath, a little air that is spoken and gone. Pay no further heed unto it." "Let be," cried then Krieg-deor to his father. "Let be, and I will stab this craven Jew, so that his soul may rush at once unto Hellia. Then he shall have those rings and the amber which long he hath sought to obtain from us, and to take away that never we should see them more."

At that he dashed with gleaming blade upon the Jew.

But Simon, in the way he had learned from Lampadephorus, avoided him. Catching him by the hand that held the sword, and taking him by the middle of his thigh, he threw him. Lifting up the great man once again, he flung him that his bulky form flew, hurtling, far above the heads of the assembled multitude. Striking against a tree, Krieg-deor fell as silent as any stone.

Drew Simon his two bright blades, for he felt that his days were numbered.

But behold! The soldiers were filled with astonishment, and the fair-haired daughter of the King, even Maerthu (whose name, interpreted, signifieth "glory") rushed out from the ranks of the multitude, and cast herself at Simon's feet. Lifting her hands above her golden hair (which made a shine all round about her, as it were sunlight) she cried to the Jew: "Oh thou art unto me, very strong one, like a harp-song, and like sweet dreaming which cometh the night before battle.

"Ask of my father for me. Give him the gold and the spearpoints also (for thou canst easily get more such) and I will be to thee as one of the Valkyrias, go with thee into battle, lead thee and guide thee, protect thee, be to thee ever as an inspiration. Thou art strong and brave, worthy in all ways to be my troth-plight man."

When Krieg observed that his golden-headed daughter, Maerthu, favored the Jew, he became more angry than ever. "Is it the daughter of King Krieg that should go to a merchant and stranger? Let be! And see, I will do to this cheorl that which another hath not been able to accomplish-or if I cannot, then, ye Saxon freemen, leap all at the same time upon him, and so be certain to destroy him."

The golden-haired Maerthu, however, made answer: "If that man meeteth death, then send I mine own free soul to Asgard. Woden, I do promise thee."

Father

And Krieg trembled, for he loved his daughter much. Yea, the most of the pleasure which he had in battles was to hear his daughter praise him amid the uproar.

And Drugi-thing, the crafty priest, when he saw that now, in any case, it lay not in his evil hands to do the Jew injury, came forward (though still with ever-shifting eyes) and whispered: "Lo! Are we not every one angry? And can we indeed do well, being so, or speak the thing that Woden, in his wisdom, would approve? Let be, therefore, and, for a time, tarry.

"And let this Simon of Cyrene be unto us not as one married to the King's daughter, but as a sacred guest. Hast thou not promised the man that so it should be? Let him be Seli-Secg, the hero of the hall, for, on this day, he hath done great things.

"And let there be in the hall seli-dream, or feasting and festivity throughout the banquet-chamber, and that on many continuous days. "And when we have much eaten and long drunken, it may be that Woden shall give us (after his fashion in these matters) a vision wherein he may instruct us how we shall deal with Simon of Cyrene."

CHAPTER XXXVII

No LAND WHATEVER

SAID the Jew in his soul, "I know not whether to fear or to feel happiness. For lo, this woman doth love me and will save me if she can, while yet, in the very same time, I see too clearly that the priest is nothing but fraud and deception. He will send me (if only his chance be given) unto Hades."

But the daughter added to the dark whisperings of the priest her clear-spoken syllables, which indeed were like the blessed singing of a bird in summer sunshine. She said, "Dear Father, as the priest saith so am I willing. Let the Jew be the hero of the hall, and let there be seli-dream."

The King said, putting up his bright sword: "It shall be as thou likest."

He gave, therefore, orders, and the huntsmen started for the killing of game, and the cheorls to the cutting up of logs for great fires, and the Jew was taken to his own apartment in the Krieg's seli. In

that place, when he had well eaten, he laid him down and sought to sleep.

But, for a time, his eyes were wide in the darkness. In his soul, he did repent him that ever he had come among these Saxons, seeking to sell the implements of death.

But after he had fallen asleep, there burst upon his dreaming, and so awoke him, an unspeakable tumult and uproar, wherein were intermingled death-groans and screams of pain and triumphant cries. Through the tempest of voices, the slithering and clanging of steel on steel.

Up leapt the Jew. From the wall he tore a stanchion out, then, in the moonlight, beheld both Saxons and Semnones, a struggling host. Farther and farther they struggled off, into the muffling woods and distant marshes till at length the moonlit world about the hall was silent.

Came out from the seli an aged man, wearing a beard like that of Father Time. He appeared to be wholly sightless, and, in his hand, he held a beautiful harp.

Upon a stone took he his seat, underneath an oak-tree, and, singing first of gods above, both Hemdal, the god of battles, and the swordgod, Saxnot, eke of Woden, the Allfather, the mightiest war-god of all of them, he declared that his name was Luggi-dom (or false fame) he who celebrated deeds of blood.

He sang, too, of the great wig-mot, which is to say the battlerush, of the beautiful bitings of steel on steel, and of steel on bones, of the cries, the cowardice, the bravery, of the wonderful treachery and surprise which old Treulos, he of the one eye, King of all the Semnones, had practiced upon Krieg and his Saxon braves. Then of the rallying of the Saxons, how they had quickly encompassed the King's seli, and so saved it, then how, beating steel on skull, they had driven off old Treulos backward, backward out of the hall-yard, backward, backward, down to the pine forests, backward, backward into the deep marshes, there to be a prey both to snakes and to wolves. "And our chieftain, Krieg, he is Snaka, the Snake, for who is like unto him for wisdom and for artifices?"

Then he sang long of the wondrous merits and virtues of the War-Serpent, that all should bow before it, for that it was very mighty. Its voice was sharp and clear and hissing and very beautiful. Its venom was only for enemies, and not for friends. Let every one beware, then, and be but a friend of the Snake, else was the name of that incautious person but a by-word and a syllable without meaning. Let also the merchants who would come from afar deal justly.

Let them not think to rob the Saxon Krieg, Cuning of all the Saxons, for his wisdom was very great. O who could understand his wisdom or his machinations? Surely not the enemy; no, not they.

And while he was concluding with a sweet, melodious blessing upon King Krieg, behold, back, triumphant, each with a yellow head upon his spear-point, and with great round dripping things beneath his arms, the Saxons returned.

The round things placed they on stakes, and set the stakes up for a fence all about the King's seli, and, while they were busy at this, there came out running Modar-obarmodias, the queen-mother, saying: "Praise Woden, there hath been another fight.” (But Maerthu was busy at the great fence, setting up the heads.)

At this, the queen-mother, seeing her young son, Kill-quick, eating of butter upon bread, reproached him, saying: "What! wouldst become a coward? Knowest thou not that butter is not for food, but for a salve,1 with which to rub the wounds when Woden hath not healed them? Wilt thou be soft, a runner away from enemies! Look up! Thou wilt be a warrior, wilt thou, and stand in the presence of men-thou who eatest medicine? Thou art only a laugh-thing, and wilt be afraid of blood."

And far away there was sound of much thundering.

"A laugh-thing am I not," cried Kill-quick. "See! I am not a coward!"

With his knife he cut a deep gash in his left fore-arm, and the blood spurted, and he went and let it spout in his mother's face, saying: "Am I a laugh-thing? A coward am I not."

But the mother struck him a great blow on the neck, crying: "Go into the seli with Maerthu, and have her burn thee ere thou bleed to death. Maerthu! Where is Maerthu? Not here? Then go thyself and burn it with the burning-iron, as thou hast seen thy father and thy brothers staunch their own wounds these many long days.

The child went into the hall, and Modar-obarmodias, the queenmother, said to the old blind harper: "He is a fool for to shed his own blood, not that of an enemy-just to show me he not a laughthing is, or a coward. Did not I know that?"

But at this she was called by women from the seli. "Come! thy son! he dieth!" But they brought the boy outside, and laid him along the ground.

1

And the life (which goeth with the blood) had escaped.

1 See, inter alia, Hoops, "Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde,” I Bd., 3 Lieferung, p. 364, article "Butter."

And many there were which ran to the father, even Krieg, bringing him to the place where the dead child lay.

And Modar-obarmodias, mother and queen, told Krieg all that had happened. But Krieg said softly unto her, "Thou hast thought to do wisely. And thanks to all the godo that the child was not a fool. He is surely with Woden and Thor, for he died no strawdeath."

At this was a rumbling of thunder at a great distance, and the King cried, looking toward the West: ""Tis thou, O Woden! He is with thee! I have heard."

Then took Krieg with him the priest and a dozen of the bravest of all the warriors, and went out into the forest, even to the grafstedi. There they buried the child.

But while they were afar, the Jew talked much with many of the commoner people, and inquired precisely as concerning their beliefs and about the stories which they told or sang concerning their own ancestry and the histories of their gods.

In return he related to them from time to time full many a thing about Jehovah, the Creator, whose days had never known beginning and should never know an end. Yet seemed only a few of the people capable of comprehending, even by the time that Krieg returned from the burial.

Which was after a number of days-for he had met, in the deep ways of the forest, a band of enemies-Krieg and his dozen of great warriors and they gave pursuit, and followed the enemy mightily, and having compassed them about, conquered them and slaughtered them, and left their bodies for the wolves-all saving the heads alone. These they brought back with them-crying as they came in sight of the seli: "Blessed is Woden, the Allfather! He is god of war."

Then, tired as they were, they went to the banquet, which had been a-waiting. Nor stopped they either to sleep or to bathe.

Now the banquet, the seli-ho-getidi, was to be held in the great banquet hall, where the father of Krieg (who bore the name of Gedrinc, which, interpreted, meaneth "carousing"), had feasted long before him, and his father (also named "Krieg") before that.

All round this hall was an outside wall, or fence, of timber, with but a single gate therein and a yard of considerable compass lying betwixt wall and hall. And wall and hall were both painted wholly red. Even the hall's roof was dyed with an ochre of crimson. "For that," said Maerthu to Simon of Cyrene, "is the color of blood. We see it very willingly."

And Maerthu, the King's fair daughter, led the Jew into the