[The Path of the King by John Buchan]@TWC D-Link bookThe Path of the King CHAPTER I 6/51
Some said he was come of the Finns, and his ill-wishers would have it that his birthplace had been behind a foss, and that he had the blood of dwarves in him.
Yet though he made sport for the company, he had respect from them, for he was wise in many things, a skilled leech, a maker of runes, and a crafty builder of ships.
He was a master hand at riddles, and for hours the housecarles would puzzle their wits over his efforts.
This was the manner of them.
"Who," Leif would ask, "are the merry maids that glide above the land to the joy of their father; in winter they bear a white shield, but black in summer ?" The answer was "Snowflakes and rain." Or "I saw a corpse sitting on a corpse, a blind one riding on a lifeless steed ?" to which the reply was "A dead horse on an ice-floe." Biorn never guessed any of the riddles, but the cleverness of them he thought miraculous, and the others roared with glee at their own obtuseness. But Leif had different moods, for sometimes he would tell tales, and all were hushed in a pleasant awe.
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