it groweth cold on my finger in the day-dawning; and that is the
sign that I have to know thereof."

The king answered: "Enow of gold there, where a very bondmaid
bore it! But come now, thou hast been long enow hid from me; yet
if thou hadst told me all from the beginning, I would have done
to thee as though we had both been one king's children: but
better than thy deeds will I deal with thee, for thou shalt be my
wife, and due jointure will I pay thee whenas thou hast borne me
a child."

She spake therewith and told out the whole truth about herself:
so there was she held in great honour, and deemed the worthiest
of women.



CHAPTER XIII.
Of the Birth and Waxing of Sigurd Fafnir's-bane.

The tale tells that Hjordis brought forth a man-child, who was
straightly borne before King Hjalprek, and then was the king glad
thereof, when he saw the keen eyes in the head of him, and he
said that few men would be equal to him or like unto him in any
wise. So he was sprinkled with water, and had to name Sigurd, of
whom all men speak with one speech and say that none was ever his
like for growth and goodliness. He was brought up in the house
of King Hjalprek in great love and honour; and so it is, that
whenso all the noblest men and greatest kings are named in the
olden tales, Sigurd is ever put before them all for might and