After the death of Frode, the Danes wrongly supposed that Fridleif, who was being reared in Russia, had perished; and, thinking that the sovereignty halted for lack of an heir, and that it could no longer be kept on in the hands of the royal line, they considered that the sceptre would be best deserved by the man who should affix to the yet fresh grave of Frode a song of praise in his glorification, and commit the renown of the dead king to after ages by a splendid memorial.

Then one HIARN, very skilled in writing Danish poetry, wishing to give the fame of the hero some notable record of words, and tempted by the enormous prize, composed, after his own fashion, a barbarous stave.

Its purport, expressed in four lines, I have transcribed as follows: "Frode, whom the Danes would have wished to live long, they bore long through their lands when he was dead.

The great chief's body, with this turf heaped above it, bare earth covers under the lucid sky." When the composer of this song had uttered it, the Danes rewarded him with the crown.

Thus they gave a kingdom for an epitaph, and the weight of a whole empire was presented to a little string of letters.