Thora, my mother, would have stopped us--she said she had heard from her father that such bears were very dangerous beasts--but Ragnar only thrust her aside, while I kissed her and told her not to fret.
Outside the hall I met Freydisa, a dark, quiet woman of middle age, one of the virgins of Odin, whom I loved and who loved me and, save one other, me only among men, for she had been my nurse.
"Whither now, young Olaf ?" she asked me.

"Has Iduna come here that you run so fast ?" "No," I answered, "but a white bear has." "Oh! then things are better than I thought, who feared lest it might be Iduna before her time.

Still, you go on an ill errand, from which I think you will return sadly." "Why do you say that, Freydisa ?" I asked.

"Is it just because you love to croak like a raven on a rock, or for some good reason ?" "I don't know, Olaf," she answered.

"I say things because they come to me, and I must, that is all.