who were standing by and controlling the rope.  They drew in the basket in the hopes of great treasure; but when they saw the unknown figure of the man they had taken out, they were scared by his extraordinary look, and, thinking that the dead had come to life, flung down the rope and fled all ways.  For Asmund looked ghastly and seemed to be covered as with the corruption of the charnel.  He tried to recall the fugitives, and began to clamour that they were wrongfully afraid of a living man.  And when Erik saw him, he marvelled most at the aspect of his bloody face:  the blood flowing forth and spurting over it.  For Aswid had come to life in the nights, and in his continual struggles had wrenched off his left ear; and there was to be seen the horrid sight of a raw and unhealed scar.  And when the bystanders bade him tell how he had got such a wound, he began to speak thus:—­

“Why stand ye aghast, who see me colourless?  Surely every live man fades among the dead.  Evil to the lonely man, and burdensome to the single, remains every dwelling in the world.  Hapless are they whom chance hath bereft of human help.  The listless night of the cavern, the darkness of the ancient den, have taken all joy from my eyes and soul.  The ghastly ground, the crumbling barrow, and the heavy tide of filthy things have marred the grace of my youthful countenance, and sapped my wonted pith and force.  Besides all this, I have fought with the dead, enduring the heavy burden and grievous peril of the wrestle; Aswid rose again and fell on me with rending nails, by hellish might renewing ghastly warfare after he was ashes.

“Why stand ye aghast, who see me colourless?  Surely every live man fades among the dead.

“By some strange enterprise of the power of hell the spirit of Aswid was sent up from the nether world, and with cruel tooth eats the fleet-footed (horse), and has given his dog to his abominable jaws.  Not sated with devouring the horse or hound, he soon turned his swift nails upon me, tearing my cheek and taking off my ear.  Hence the hideous sight of my slashed countenance, the blood-spurts in the ugly wound.  Yet the bringer of horrors did it not unscathed; for soon I cut off his head with my steel, and impaled his guilty carcase with a stake.

“Why stand ye aghast who see me colourless?  Surely every live man fades among the dead.”

Frode had by this taken his fleet over to Halogaland; and here, in order to learn the numbers of his host, which seemed to surpass all bounds and measure that could be counted, he ordered his soldiers to pile up a hill, one stone being cast upon the heap for each man.  The enemy also pursued the same method of numbering their host, and the hills are still to be seen to convince the visitor.  Here Frode joined battle with the Norwegians, and the day was bloody.  At nightfall both sides determined to retreat.  As daybreak drew near, Erik, who had come across the land, came up and advised the king to renew the battle.  In this war the Danes suffered such slaughter that out of 3,000 ships only 170 are supposed to have survived.  The Northmen, however, were exterminated in such a mighty massacre, that (so the story goes) there were not men left to till even a fifth of their villages.