A LEGEND OF THE HUNS. 11 



their enemies : the other, a family feud (the particulars of 

 which it would be tedious to mention) for King Humle, who 

 ruled the Huns, was grandfather to Angantyr, King of the 

 Goths. 



Be the cause of the quarrel what it might, King Humle 

 landed in Sweden, with so immense a host every male in 

 his dominions, from twelve years old and upwards, capable of 

 bearing arms, having been pressed into the service that the 

 like had never been seen before. This invasion excited so 

 universal a terror in the minds of the people that from thence 

 arose the adage : " Der var Hun Dan," which signifies some- 

 thing terrible or awful. 



Laudur, who, owing to the advanced age of King Humle, 

 had the command of the Huns, and who was King Angan- 

 tyr's brother, was first opposed by Hervor, their own sister. 

 This princess, who was renowned over the whole North for 

 her great deeds in the tented field, possessed a strong castle 

 near the spot where the landing was effected, and where, in 

 anticipation of the threatened attack, a large force under her 

 command was then assembled. Musing one morning in her 

 bower, which overlooked the forest Morkved, the heroine 

 observed above the tops of the trees, so dense a cloud of dust 

 in the plain beyond, as almost to obscure the sun itself, 

 and from the glittering of arms and panoply, occasionally 

 perceptible, she soon made out that the dreaded invaders 

 were at hand. Despatching Ormer, her foster-father, to bid 

 Laudur battle in front of the southern portal of the castle, 

 the maiden forthwith donned her armour and sallied forth at 

 the head of her men to meet the enemy. 



The engagement was long and bloody. " Ormer," so the 

 saga relates, " slew so many that it was hard to count them." 



