"That is saying more than I had thought."

"You have been away, and there is more than you know at the bottom
of the matter. The king offered Lodbrok lands if he would bide with
us and be his man, and these he refused, gently enough, saying that
he had broad lands of his own, and that he would not turn
Christian, as the king wished, for the sake of gain. He would only
leave the worship of his own gods for better reasons. Now Beorn
covets those lands, and has hoped to gain them. Nor does he yet
know that Lodbrok will not take them."

Then I began to see that this matter was deeper than I had thought,
and told my father of the first meeting of Lodbrok and Beorn. But I
said that the falconer had seemed very friendly of late.

"Aye, too friendly," said my father; "it is but a little while
since he held aloof from him, and now he is ever close to Lodbrok
in field and forest. You know how an arrow may seem to glance from
a tree, or how a spear thrust may go wide when the boar is at bay,
and men press round him, or an ill blow may fall when none may know
it but the striker."

"Surely no man would be so base!" I cried.

"Such things have been and may be again. Long have I known Beorn,
and I would not have him for enemy. His ways are not open."

Then I said that if Beorn was ever near Lodbrok, I would be nearer,
and so we left the matter.