that he was the son of a fighting father, and was bound to spend his
whole span of life in approved deeds of warfare. Hardgrep, daughter of
Wagnhofde, tried to enfeeble his firm spirit with her lures of love,
contending and constantly averring that he ought to offer the first
dues of the marriage bed in wedlock with her, who had proffered to his
childhood most zealous and careful fostering, and had furnished him with
his first rattle.

Nor was she content with admonishing in plain words, but began a strain
of song as follows:

"Why doth thy life thus waste and wander? Why dost thou pass thy years
unwed, following arms, thirsting for throats? Nor does my beauty draw
thy vows. Carried away by excess of frenzy, thou art little prone to
love. Steeped in blood and slaughter, thou judgest wars better than the
bed, nor refreshest thy soul with incitements. Thy fierceness finds no
leisure; dalliance is far from thee, and savagery fostered. Nor is thy
hand free from blasphemy while thou loathest the rites of love. Let
this hateful strictness pass away, let that loving warmth approach, and
plight the troth of love to me, who gave thee the first breasts of milk
in childhood, and helped thee, playing a mother's part, duteous to thy
needs."

When he answered that the size of her body was unwieldy for the embraces
of a mortal, since doubtless her nature was framed in conformity to her
giant stock, she said:

"Be not moved by my unwonted look of size. For my substance is sometimes
thinner, sometimes ampler; now meagre, now abundant; and I alter and
change at my pleasure the condition of my body, which is at one time