Part 5 (2/2)
”Thou hast robbed me and therefore I hate thee, and therefore I will deliver thee to Ospakar, whohteyes to myself Am I not also fair and can I not also love, and shall I see thee snatch my joy? By the Gods, never! I will see thee dead, and Eric with thee, ere it shall be so! but first I will see thee shamed!”
”Thy words are ill-suited to a maiden's lips, Swanhild! But of this be sure: I fear thee not, and shall never fear thee And one thing I knoell that, whether thou or I prevail, in the end thou shalt harvest the greatest shame, and in times to come men shall speak of thee with hatred and name thee by ill names Moreover, Eric shall never love thee; froh itruin on him And now I thank thee that thou hast toldme what indeed thou art!” And Gudruda turned scornfully upon her heel and walked away
Now As Ospakar Blacktooth, greeted hih he did not like his looks, and took him by the hand and led him to the hall, that was bravely decked with tapestries, and seated hiht good gifts for Asiver well
Noas supper time, and Gudruda caazed hard at Gudruda and a great desire entered into him to make her his wife But she passed coldly by, nor looked on him at all
”This, then, is that maid of thine of whom I have heard tell, Asmund? I will say this: fairer was never born of woman”
Then men ate and Ospakar drank much ale, but all the while he stared at Gudruda and listened for her voice But as yet he said nothing of what he cah all knew his errand And his two sons, Gizur and Mord, stared also at Gudruda, for they thought her most wonderfully fair But Gizur found Swanhild also fair
And so the night wore on till it was time to sleep
On this same day Eric rode up fro the brow of Coldback till he ca Coldback and Stonefell is a steep cliff facing to the south, that grows ever higher till it comes to that point where Golden River falls over it and, parting its waters below, runs east and west--the branch to the east being called Ran River and that to the west Laxa--for these two streath they reach the sea But in the e of the cliff, athe waters of the fall, and over this the spray flies, and in winter the ice gathers, but the river does not cover it The great fall is thirty fathoms deep, and shaped like a horseshoe, of which the points lie towards Middalhof Yet if he could but gain the Sheep-saddle rock that divides the ht climb down some fifteen fathoms of this depth and scarcely wet his feet
Now here at the foot of Sheep-saddle rock the double arches of waters meet, and fall in one torrent into the bottomless pool below But, so waters, and beneath it, just where the curve is deepest, a single crag, as large as a drinking-table and no larger, juts through the foaht leap from it some twelve fathoms, sheer into the spray-hidden pit beneath, there to sink or swi
Now Eric stood for a long while on the edge of the fall and looked,with his eye Then he went up above, where the river swirls down to the precipice, and looked again, for it is fro island-rock Sheep-saddle ; yet I will try it,” he said to hireat for the feat, if I chance to live, and if I die--well, there is an end of troubling after s”
So he went horimur Iron-Toe's death, his housewife, Saevuna, Eric's h she peered and peered again frole nook, she could not see the face of her son
”What ails thee, Eric, that thou sittest so silent? Was not the meat, then, to thy h, though a little undersmoked”
”Now I see that thou art not thyself, son, for thou hadst no et his supper on the night of its eating, except he was distraught or deep in love”
”Was it so?” said Brighteyes
”What troubles thee, Eric?--that sweet lass yonder?”
”Ay, somewhat, o down Golden Falls to-morrow, and I do not kno Iand keep my life whole in me; and now, I pray thee, weary me not ords, for my brain is slow, and I must use it”
When she heard this Saevuna screao his mad venture But he would not listen to her, for he was slow to e it Then, when she learned that it was to get sight of Gudruda that he purposed thus to throw his life away, she was very angry and cursed her and all her kith and kin
”It is likely enough that thou wilt have cause to use such words before all this tale is told,” said Eric; ”nevertheless, mother, forbear to curse Gudruda, who is in no way to blame for these matters”
”Thou art a faithless son,” Saevuna said, ”ilt slay thyself striving to win speech with thy May, and leave thy mother childless”
Eric said that it seehted to it and the feat ht her bed, weeping