of a husband, since it appeared that she would only admit pleasure for the reason he had named.  Gurid answered that she could not bring her mind to ally the remnants of the royal line to a man of meaner rank.  Not content with reproaching his obscure birth, she also taunted his unsightly countenance.  Halfdan rejoined that she brought against him two faults:  one that his blood was not illustrious enough; another, that he was blemished with a cracked lip whose scar had never healed.  Therefore he would not come back to ask for her before he had wiped away both marks of shame by winning glory in war.

Halfdan entreated her to suffer no man to be privy to her bed until she heard certain tidings either of his return or his death.  The champions, whom he had bereaved of their brother long ago, were angry that he had spoken to Gurid, and tried to ride after him as he went away.  When he saw it, he told his comrades to go into ambush, and said he would encounter the champions alone.  His followers lingered, and thought it shameful to obey his orders, but he drove them off with threats, saying that Gurid should not find that fear had made him refuse to fight.  Presently he cut down an oak-tree and fashioned it into a club, fought the twelve single-handed, and killed them.  After their destruction, not content with the honours of so splendid an action, and meaning to do one yet greater, he got from his mother the swords of his grandfather, one of which was called Lyusing.... and the other Hwyting, after the sheen of its well-whetted point.  But when he heard that war was raging between Alver, the King of Sweden, and the Ruthenians (Russians), he instantly went to Russia, offered help to the natives, and was received by all with the utmost honour.  Alver was not far off, there being only a little ground to cross to cover the distance between the two.  Alver’s soldier Hildiger, the son of Gunnar, challenged the champions of the Ruthenians to fight him; but when he saw that Halfdan was put up against him, though knowing well that he was Halfdan’s brother, he let natural feeling prevail over courage, and said that he, who was famous for the destruction of seventy champions, would not fight with an untried man.  Therefore he told him to measure himself in enterprises of lesser moment, and thenceforth to follow pursuits fitted to his strength.  He made this announcement not from distrust in his own courage, but in order to preserve his uprightness; for he was not only very valiant, but also skilled at blunting the sword with spells.  For when he remembered that Halfdan’s father had slain his own, he was moved by two feelings—­the desire to avenge his father, and his love for his brother.  He therefore thought it better to retire from the challenge than to be guilty of a very great crime.  Halfdan demanded another champion in his place, slew him when he appeared, and was soon awarded the palm of valour even by the voice of the enemy, being accounted by public acclamation the bravest of all.  On the next day he asked for two men to fight with, and slew them both.  On the third day he subdued three; on the fourth he overcame four who met him; and on the fifth he asked for five.