When the deed was done, Frode, stung by the affront, rushed with the utmost heat and fury to raze the house of the matron, sending men on to arrest her and bring her with her children.

This the woman foreknew, and deluded her enemies by a trick, changing from the shape of a woman into that of a mare.

When Frode came up she took the shape of a sea-cow, and seemed to be straying and grazing about the shore; and she also made her sons look like calves of smaller size.

This portent amazed the king, and he ordered that they should be surrounded and cut off from returning to the waters.

Then he left the carriage, which he used because of the feebleness of his aged body, and sat on the ground marvelling.