Page:The Prose Edda (1916 translation by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur).pdf/193

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THE POESY OF SKALDS
161
The swirling weapons' Urger
Bade Gjúki's race be smitten
Sore, who from life were eager
To ravish Svanhildr's lover;
And all pay Jónakr's offspring
With the fair-piercing weapon,
The render of blue birnies,—
With bitter thrusts and edges.
I see the heroes' slaughter
On the fair shield-rim's surface;
Ragnarr gave me the Ship-Moon
With many tales marked on it.]

XLII. "Why is gold called Fródi's Meal? This is the tale thereof: One of Odin's sons, named Skjöldr,—from whom the Skjöldungs are come,—had his abode and ruled in the realm which now is called Denmark, but then was known as Gotland. Skjöldr's son, who ruled the land after him, was named Fridleifr. Fridleifr's son was Fródi: he succeeded to the kingdom after his father, in the time when Augustus Caesar imposed peace on all the world; at that time Christ was born. But because Fródi was mightiest of all kings in the Northern lands, the peace was called by his name wherever the Danish tongue was spoken; and men call it the Peace of Fródi. No man injured any other, even though he met face to face his father's slayer or his brother's, loose or bound. Neither was there any thief nor robber then, so that a gold ring lay long on Jalangr's Heath. King Fródi