“Ay,” she answered, “fey and fair.”

“True enough thou art fair.  What shall we do with this dead man?”

“Leave him in the arms of Ran.  So may all husbands lie.”

They spoke no more with her at that time, seeing that she was a witchwoman.  But Asmund took her up to Middalhof, and gave her a farm, and she lived there alone, and he profited much by her wisdom.

Now it chanced that Gudruda the Gentle was with child, and when her time came she gave a daughter birth—­a very fair girl, with dark eyes.  On the same day, Groa the witchwoman brought forth a girl-child, and men wondered who was its father, for Groa was no man’s wife.  It was women’s talk that Asmund the Priest was the father of this child also; but when he heard it he was angry, and said that no witchwoman should bear a bairn of his, howsoever fair she was.  Nevertheless, it was still said that the child was his, and it is certain that he loved it as a man loves his own; but of all things, this is the hardest to know.  When Groa was questioned she laughed darkly, as was her fashion, and said that she knew nothing of it, never having seen the face of the child’s father, who rose out of the sea at night.  And for this cause some thought him to have been a wizard or the wraith of her dead husband; but others said that Groa lied, as many women have done on such matters.  But of all this talk the child alone remained and she was named Swanhild.

Now, but an hour before the child of Gudruda the Gentle was born, Asmund went up from his house to the Temple, to tend the holy fire that burned night and day upon the altar.  When he had tended the fire, he sat down upon the cross-benches before the shrine, and, gazing on the image of the Goddess Freya, he fell asleep and dreamed a very evil dream.

He dreamed that Gudruda the Gentle bore a dove most beautiful to see, for all its feathers were of silver; but that Groa the Witch bore a golden snake.  And the snake and the dove dwelt together, and ever the snake sought to slay the dove.  At length there came a great white swan flying over Coldback Fell, and its tongue was a sharp sword.  Now the swan saw the dove and loved it, and the dove loved the swan; but the snake reared itself, and hissed, and sought to kill the dove.  But the swan covered her with his wings, and beat the snake away.  Then he, Asmund, came out and drove away the swan, as the swan had driven the snake, and it wheeled high into the air and flew south, and the snake swam away also through the sea.  But the dove drooped and now it was blind.  Then an eagle came from the north, and would have taken the dove, but it fled round and round, crying, and always the eagle drew nearer to it.  At length, from the south the swan came back, flying heavily, and about its neck was twined the golden snake, and with it came a raven.  And it saw the eagle and loud it trumpeted, and shook the snake from it so that it fell like a gleam of gold