of the powerless Swedes, doing their king to death and crushing him with
the stiff gold.

"For he pondered on the arts of war: he wielded in his clasp the
ruddy-flashing wood, and victoriously with noble stroke made their
fallen captain writhe.

"Shrewdly he conquered with the hardness of gold him whom fate forbade
should be slain by steel; unsworded, waging war with the worthier metal.

"This treasure, for which its deviser claims glory and the height of
honour, shall abide yet more illustrious hereafter, known far and wide
in ampler fame."

Having now slain Sigtryg, the King of Sweden, Gram desired to confirm
his possession of the empire which he had won in war; and therefore,
suspecting Swarin the governor of Gothland of aspiring to the crown, he
challenged him to combat, and slew him. This man's brethren, of whom
he had seven lawfully born, and nine the sons of a concubine, sought to
avenge their brother's death, but Gram, in an unequal contest, cut them
off.

Gram, for his marvellous prowess, was granted a share in the sovereignty
by his father, who was now in extreme age, and thought it better
and likewise more convenient to give his own blood a portion of
the supremacy of the realm, than now in the setting of his life to
administer it without a partner. Therefore Ring, a nobly-born Zealander,
stirred the greater part of the Danes with desire for insurrection;
fancying that one of these men was unripe for his rank, and that the
other had run the course of his powers, alleging the weakness in years