But she bade Ironbeard go to Frankland, for it was so written.

"A great kingdom waits," she said--"not for you, but for the seed of your loins." And Biorn shuddered, for they were the words spoken in her hut on that unforgotten midsummer night.
The boy was in an agony lest he should be left behind.

But his father decreed that he should go.

"These are times when manhood must come fast," he said.

"He can bide within the Shield-ring when blows are going.