Three great strokes and he held it.  His feet were swept out over the brink of the fall, but he clung on grimly, and by the strength of his arms drew himself on to the rock and rested a while.  Presently he stood up, for the cold began to nip him, and the people below became aware that he had swum the river above the fall and raised a shout, for the deed was great.  Now Eric must begin to clamber down Sheep-saddle, and this was no easy task, for the rock is almost sheer, and slippery with ice, and on either side the waters rushed and thundered, throwing their blinding spray about him as they leapt to the depths beneath.  He looked down, studying the rock; then, feeling that he grew afraid, made an end of doubt and, grasping a point with both hands, swung himself down his own length and more.  Now for many minutes he climbed down Sheep-saddle, and the task was hard, for he was bewildered with the booming of the waters that bent out on either side of him like the arc of a bow, and the rock was very steep and slippery.  Still, he came down all those fifteen fathoms and fell not, though twice he was near to falling, and the watchers below marvelled greatly at his hardihood.

“He will be dashed to pieces where the waters meet,” said Ospakar, “he can never gain Wolf’s Fang crag beneath; and, if so it be that he come there and leaps to the pool, the weight of water will drive him down and drown him.”

“It is certainly so,” quoth Asmund, “and it grieves me much; for it was my jest that drove him to this perilous adventure, and we cannot spare such a man as Eric Brighteyes.”

Now Swanhild turned white as death; but Gudruda said:  “If great heart and strength and skill may avail at all, then Eric shall come safely down the waters.”

“Thou fool!” whispered Swanhild in her ear, “how can these help him?  No troll could live in yonder cauldron.  Dead is Eric, and thou art the bait that lured him to his death!”

“Spare thy words,” she answered; “as the Norns have ordered so it shall be.”

Now Eric stood at the foot of Sheep-saddle, and within an arm’s length the mighty waters met, tossing their yellow waves and seething furiously as they leapt to the mist-hid gulf beneath.  He bent over and looked through the spray.  Three fathoms under him the rock Wolf’s Fang split the waters, and thence, if he can come thither, he may leap sheer into the pool below.  Now he unwound the rope that was about his middle, and made one end fast to a knob of rock—­and this was difficult, for his hands were stiff with cold—­and the other end he passed through his leathern girdle.  Then Eric looked again, and his heart sank within him.  How might he give himself to this boiling flood and not be shattered?  But as he looked, lo! a rainbow grew upon the face of the water, and one end of it lit upon him, and the other, like a glory from the Gods, fell full upon Gudruda as she stood a little way apart, watching at the foot of Golden Falls.