THE ELDER EDDA OF SAEMUND
35. Vigorously they rowed, their bark was well nigh riven; backward bending the waves they beat, ardently plied: their oar-bands were broken, the rowlocks shattered. They made not the vessel fast before they quitted it.[1]
36. A little after—I will the end relate—they saw the mansion stand that Budli had possessed. Loud creaked the latticed gates, when Hogni knocked.
37. Then said Vingi, what he had better not, "Go far from the house, 'tis perilous to enter; I quickly enticed you to perdition; ye shall forthwith be slain. With fair words I prayed your coming, though guile was under them. But just bide here, while a gallows I prepare."
38. Hogni answered—little thought he of yielding, or of aught fearful that was to be proved:—"Think not to frighten us: try that seldom. If one word thou addest, thou wilt thy harm prolong."
39. They rushed on Vingi, and struck him dead, laid on their axes, while life within him throbbed.
40. Atli his men assembled, in their byrnies they issued forth, went prepared so that a fence was between them. Words they bandied, all with rage boiling: "Already had we resolved to take your lives away."
Hogni.
41. "It looks but ill, if ye before have counselled: e'en now ye are unprepared, and we one have felled, smitten to death: one of your host was he."
- ↑ So great was their haste to land.
238
