422 VALHOLL VALHALLA. 



sat down on the twelfth chair. They all greeted Odin. He 

 said that the judges should judge about the fate of Starkad. 

 Thor said : ' Alfhild, the mother of Starkad's father, chose a 

 bad Jotun as father for her son instead of Asathor, and I fore- 

 cast for Starkad that he shall neither have a son nor a daughter, 

 and thus end his kin.' Odin answered : ' I forecast for him 

 that he shall live as long as the lives of three men.' Thor 

 said : ' He shall do a nithings deed in each of the three lives.' 

 Odin answered : ' I forecast for him that he shall have the best 

 weapons and clothes.' Thor said : ' I forecast for him that he 

 shall neither own land nor sea.' Odin answered : ' I give him 

 that lie shall have very much loose property.' Thor said : ' I lay 

 on him a spell which shall make him think he never has 

 enough.' Odin answered : ' I give him victory and skill in 

 every fight.' Thor said : ' He shall become maimed in every 

 fight,' Odin said : ' I give him skaldship so that he shall make 

 poetry as quickly as he talks.' Thor said : ' He shall not 

 remember the poetry he makes.' Odin said : ' I forecast for him 

 that he be thought the greatest by the most high-born and 

 best men.' Thor said : ' He shall be disliked by all people.' 

 The judges judged all that they had said of Starkad to be 

 his fate, and then the Thing was dissolved. Hrossharsgrani 

 and Starkad went to their boat. Hrossharsgrani said to Star- 

 kad : ' Now thou must reward me well, foster-sou, for the help I 

 gave thee.' Starkad assented. Then,' said Grani, ' thou shalt 

 send King Vikar to me, and I will tell thee how to do it,' He 

 handed Starkad a spear, and said it would look like a reed. 

 They came back to the host when it was nearly day. The 

 next morning the counsellors of the king met to take counsel, 

 and agreed to make some semblance of sacrifice, and Starkad 

 told their counsel. There stood a fir-tree near them, and a 

 high stump near it ; low on the fir was a slender shoot 

 which reached up to the limbs. Servants prepared the food of 

 the men, and a calf was killed and cut up. Starkad had the 

 entrails taken out, mounted the stump, bent down the slender 

 twig, and tied the entrails to it. Then he said to the king : 

 Now a gallows is ready for thee, king, and it will not seem very 

 dangerous for men. Go hither and I will lay the string round 

 thy neck.' The king said : ' If this contrivance is not more 

 dangerous than it looks to me, then I do not think it will hurt 

 me ; but, if it is otherwise, then fate will rule it.' Then he 

 mounted the stump, and Starkad laid the string round his 

 neck, and stepped down from the stump. Then he struck him 

 with the reed, and said, ' Now I give thee to Odin.' He let go 

 the twig, and the reed changed into a spear which pierced the 

 king ; the stump sank down under his feet, the calf's entrails 



