send him away; but he shall return and bring bad luck to thee and thy
house, and thy daughter shall be blind with love of him. And in the end
he shall slay the eagle, a great lord from the north who shall seek to
wed thy daughter, and many another shall he slay, by the help of that
raven with the bill of steel who shall be with him. But Swanhild shall
triumph over thy daughter Gudruda, and this man, and the two of them,
shall die at her hands, and, for the rest, who can say? But this is
true--that the mighty man shall bring all thy race to an end. See now, I
have read thy rede."

Then Asmund was very wroth. "Thou wast wise to beguile me to name thy
bastard brat," he said; "else had I been its death within this hour."

"This thou canst not do, lord, seeing that thou hast held it in thy
arms," Groa answered, laughing. "Go rather and lay out Gudruda the Fair
on Coldback Hill; so shalt thou make an end of the evil, for Gudruda
shall be its very root. Learn this, moreover: that thy dream does not
tell all, seeing that thou thyself must play a part in the fate. Go,
send forth the babe Gudruda, and be at rest."

"That cannot be, for I have sworn to cherish it, and with an oath that
may not be broken."

"It is well," laughed Groa. "Things will befall as they are fated; let
them befall in their season. There is space for cairns on Coldback and
the sea can shroud its dead!"

And Asmund went thence, angered at heart.