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Page 261 Chapter

Then answered the king:
'A wondrous eager champion art thou, Arinbjorn, in this thy helping of Egil.
Loth were I to do thee scathe, if it comes to this;
if thou wilt rather give away thine own life than that he be slain.
But sufficient are the charges against Egil, whatever I cause to be done with him.'
And when the king had said this, then Egil advanced before him and began the poem,
and recited in a loud voice, and at once won silence.

HEAD-RANSOM.

1.
'Westward I sailed the wave,
Within me Odin gave
The sea of song I bear
(So 'tis my wont to fare):
I launched my floating oak
When loosening ice-floes broke,
My mind a galleon fraught
With load of minstrel thought.

2.
'A prince doth hold me guest,
Praise be his due confess'd:
Of Odin's mead let draught
In England now be quaff'd.
Laud bear I to the king,
Loudly his honour sing;
Silence I crave around,
My song of praise is found.
5.
'Lances, a woven fence,
Well-ordered bristle dense;
On royal ships in line
Exulting spearmen shine.
Soon dark with bloody stain
Seethed there an angry main,
With war-fleet's thundering sound,
With wounds and din around.
3.
'Sire, mark the tale I tell,
Such heed beseems thee well;
Better I chaunt my strain,
If stillness hush'd I gain.
The monarch's wars in word
Widely have peoples heard,
But Odin saw alone
Bodies before him strown.