Dear to Erik was his wife’s fears; presently he embraced her and said:  “I wished to know how loyal thou wert to me.  Nought but death has the right to sever us, but Gotar means to steal thee away, seeking thy love by robbery.  When he has committed the theft, pretend it is done with thy goodwill; yet put off the wedding till he has given me his daughter in thy place.  When she has been granted, Gotar and I will hold our marriage on the same day.  And take care that thou prepare rooms for our banqueting which have a common party-wall, yet are separate:  lest perchance, if I were before thine eyes, thou shouldst ruffle the king with thy lukewarm looks at him.  For this will be a most effective trick to baffle the wish of the ravisher.”  Then he bade Brak (one of his men), to lie in ambush not far from the palace with a chosen band of his quickest men, that he might help him at need.

Then he summoned Roller, and fled in his ship with his wife and all his goods, in order to tempt the king out, pretending panic:  So, when he saw that the fleet of Gotar was pressing him hard, he said:  “Behold how the bow of guile shooteth the shaft of treachery;” and instantly rousing his sailors with the war-shout, he steered the ship about.  Gotar came close up to him and asked who was the pilot of the ship, and he was told that it was Erik.  He also shouted a question whether he was the same man who by his marvellous speaking could silence the eloquence of all other men.  Erik, when he heard this, replied that he had long since received the surname of the “Shrewd-spoken”, and that he had not won the auspicious title for nothing.  Then both went back to the nearest shore, where Gotar, when he learnt the mission of Erik, said that he wished for the sister of Frode, but would rather offer his own daughter to Frode’s envoy, that Erik might not repent the passing of his own wife to another man.  Thus it would not be unfitting for the fruit of the mission to fall to the ambassador.

Erik, he said, was delightful to him as a son-in-law, if only he could win alliance with Frode through Gunwar.

Erik lauded the kindness of the king and approved his judgment, declaring he could not have expected a greater thing from the immortal gods than what was now offered him unasked.  Still, he said, the king must first discover Gunwar’s own mind and choice.  She accepted the flatteries of the king with feigned goodwill, and seemed to consent readily to his suit, but besought him to suffer Erik’s nuptials to precede hers; because, if Erik’s were accomplished first, there would be a better opportunity for the king’s; but chiefly on this account, that, if she were to marry again, she might not be disgusted at her new marriage troth by the memory of the old recurring.  She also declared it inexpedient for two sets of preparations to be confounded in one ceremony.  The king was prevailed upon by her answers, and highly approved her requests.