Grep:  “Fool, who art thou?  What idle quest is thine?  Tell me, whence or whither dost thou journey?  What is thy road?  What thy desire?  Who thy father?  What thy lineage?  Those have strength beyond others who have never left their own homes, and the Luck of kings is their houseluck.  For the things of a vile man are acceptable unto few, and seldom are the deeds of the hated pleasing.”

Erik:  “Ragnar is my father; eloquence clothes my tongue; I have ever loved virtue only.  Wisdom hath been my one desire; I have travelled many ways over the world, and seen the different manners of men.  The mind of the fool can keep no bounds in aught:  it is base and cannot control its feelings.  The use of sails is better than being drawn by the oar; the gale troubles the waters, a drearier gust the land.  For rowing goes through the seas and lying the lands; and it is certain that the lands are ruled with the lips, but the seas with the hand.”

Grep:  “Thou art thought to be as full of quibbling as a cock of dirt.  Thou stinkest heavy with filth, and reekest of nought but sin.  There is no need to lengthen the plea against a buffoon, whose strength is in an empty and voluble tongue.”

Erik:  “By Hercules, if I mistake not, the coward word is wont to come back to the utterer.  The gods with righteous endeavour bring home to the speaker words cast forth without knowledge.  As soon as we espy the sinister ears of the wolf, we believe that the wolf himself is near.  Men think no credit due to him that hath no credit, whom report accuses of treachery.”

Grep:  “Shameless boy, owl astray from the path, night-owl in the darkness, thou shalt pay for thy reckless words.  Thou shalt be sorry for the words thou now belchest forth madly, and shalt pay with thy death for thy unhallowed speech.  Lifeless thou shalt pasture crows on thy bloodless corpse, to be a morsel for beasts, a prey to the ravenous bird.”

Erik:  “The boding of the coward, and the will that is trained to evil, have never kept themselves within due measure.  He who betrays his lord, he who conceives foul devices, will be as great a snare to himself as to his friends.  Whoso fosters a wolf in his house is thought to feed a thief and a pest for his own hearth.”

Grep:  “I did not, as thou thinkest, beguile the queen, but I was the guardian of her tender estate.  She increased my fortunes, and her favour first brought me gifts and strength, and wealth and counsel.”

Erik:  “Lo, thy guilty disquiet lies heavy on thee; that man’s freedom is safest whose mind remains untainted.  Whoso asks a slave to be a friend, is deceived; often the henchman hurts his master.”