“’But Helge is my father,

Stands in my father’s place; on his consent
Depends my hand, and Bele’s daughter steals not
Her earthly happiness, how near it be.’”

                                    TEGNER, Frithiof Saga (Spalding’s tr.).

After a heartrending parting scene, Frithiof embarked upon Ellida, and sorrowfully sailed out of the harbor, while Ingeborg wept at his departure.  When the vessel was barely out of sight, Helge sent for two witches named Heid and Ham, bidding them begin their incantations, and stir up such a tempest at sea that it would be impossible for even the god-given vessel Ellida to withstand its fury, and all on board would perish.  The witches immediately complied; and with Helge’s aid they soon stirred up a storm unparalleled in history.

    “Helge on the strand
    Chants his wizard-spell,
    Potent to command
    Fiends of earth or hell. 
    Gathering darkness shrouds the sky;
    Hark, the thunder’s distant roll! 
    Lurid lightnings, as they fly,
    Streak with blood the sable pole. 
    Ocean, boiling to its base,
    Scatters wide its wave of foam;
    Screaming, as in fleetest chase,
    Sea-birds seek their island home.” 
                         TEGNER, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow’s tr.).

[Sidenote:  The tempest.] In spite of tossing waves and whistling blasts, Frithiof sang a cheery song to reassure his frightened crew; but when the peril grew so great that his exhausted men gave themselves up for lost, he bade Bjoern hold the rudder, and himself climbed up to the mast top to view the horizon.  While perched up there he descried a whale, upon which the two witches were riding at ease.  Speaking to his good ship, which was gifted with the power of understanding and obeying his words, he now ran down both witches and whale, and the sea was reddened with their blood.  No sooner had they sunk than the wind fell, the waves ceased to heave and toss as before, and soon fair weather again smiled over the seas.

    “Now the storm has flown,
    The sea is calm awhile;
    A gentle swell is blown
    Against the neighboring isle.

    “Then at once the sun arose,
    Like a king who mounts his throne,
    Vivifies the world and throws
    His light on billow, field, and stone. 
    His new-born beams adorn awhile
    A dark green grove on rocky top,
    All recognize a sea-girt isle,
    Amongst the distant Orkney’s group.” 
                         TEGNER, Frithiof Saga (Spalding’s tr.).

Exhausted by their previous superhuman efforts and by the bailing of their water-logged vessel, the men were too weak to land when they at last reached the Orkney Islands, and had to be carried ashore by Bjoern and Frithiof, who gently laid them down on the sand, bidding them rest and refresh themselves after all the hardships they had endured.