“A royal gift to behold,
for the swelling planks of its framework
Were not fastened with nails,
as is wont, but grown in together.
Its shape was that of a dragon
when swimming, but forward
Its head rose proudly on high,
the throat with yellow gold flaming;
Its belly was spotted with
red and yellow, but back by the rudder
Coiled out its mighty tail
in circles, all scaly with silver;
Black wings with edges of
red; when all were expanded
Ellida raced with the whistling
storm, but outstript the eagle.
When filled to the edge with
warriors, it sailed o’er the waters,
You’d deem it a floating
fortress, or warlike abode of a monarch.
The ship was famed far and
wide, and of ships was first in the North.”
TEGNER,
Frithiof Saga (Spalding’s tr.).
The next season, Thorsten, Bele, and Angantyr conquered the Orkney Islands, which were given as kingdom to the latter, he voluntarily pledging himself to pay a yearly tribute to Bele. Next Thorsten and Bele went in quest of a magic ring, or armlet, once forged by Voelund, the smith, and stolen by Sote, a famous pirate.
This bold robber was so afraid lest some one should gain possession of the magic ring, that he had buried himself alive with it in a mound in Bretland. Here his ghost was said to keep constant watch over it, and when Thorsten entered his tomb, Bele heard the frightful blows given and received, and saw lurid gleams of supernatural fire.
When Thorsten finally staggered out of the mound, pale and bloody, but triumphant, he refused to speak of the horrors he had encountered to win the coveted treasure, nor would he ever vouchsafe further information than this:
“‘Dearly bought
is the prize,’ said he often,
’For I trembled but once in my life, and
‘twas when I seized it!’”
TEGNER, Frithiof Saga
(Spalding’s tr.).
[Sidenote: Birth of Frithiof and Ingeborg.] Thus owner of the three greatest treasures in the North, Thorsten returned home to Framnaes, where Ingeborg bore him a fine boy, Frithiof, the playmate of Halfdan and Helge, Bele’s sons. The three youths were already well grown when Ingeborg, Bele’s little daughter, was born, and as she was intrusted to the care of Hilding, Frithiof’s foster father, the children grew up in perfect amity.
“Jocund they grew, in guileless glee;
Young Frithiof was the sapling tree;
In budding beauty by his side,
Sweet Ingeborg, the garden’s pride.”
TEGNER, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow’s tr.).
Frithiof soon became hardy and fearless under his foster father’s training, and Ingeborg rapidly developed all the sweetest traits of female loveliness. Both, however, were happiest when together; and as they grew older their childish affection daily became deeper and more intense, until Hilding, perceiving this state of affairs, bade the youth remember that he was only a subject, and therefore no mate for the king’s only daughter.