Wishing to explore it, he told his companions, who were standing posted at the door, to strike a fire from flints as a timely safeguard against demons, and kindle it in the entrance.Then he made others bear a light before him, and stooped his body through the narrow jaws of the cavern, where he beheld a number of iron seats among a swarm of gliding serpents.Next there met his eye a sluggish mass of water gently flowing over a sandy bottom.He crossed this, and approached a cavern which sloped somewhat more steeply.Again, after this, a foul and gloomy room was disclosed to the visitors, wherein they saw Utgarda-Loki, laden hand and foot with enormous chains.Each of his reeking hairs was as large and stiff as a spear of cornel.Thorkill (his companions lending a hand), in order that his deeds might gain more credit, plucked one of these from the chin of Utgarda-Loki, who suffered it.Straightway such a noisome smell reached the bystanders, that they could not breathe without stopping their noses with their mantles.They could scarcely make their way out, and were bespattered by the snakes which darted at them on every side.
Only five of Thorkill's company embarked with their captain: the poison killed the rest.The demons hung furiously over them, and cast their poisonous slaver from every side upon the men below them.But the sailors sheltered themselves with their hides, and cast back the venom that fell upon them.One man by chance at this point wished to peep out; the poison touched his head, which was taken off his neck as if it had been severed with a sword.
Another put his eyes out of their shelter, and when he brought them back under it they were blinded.Another thrust forth his hand while unfolding his covering, and, when he withdrew his arm, it was withered by the virulence of the same slaver.They besought their deities to be kinder to them; vainly, until Thorkill prayed to the god of the universe, and poured forth unto him libations as well as prayers; and thus, presently finding the sky even as before and the elements clear, he made a fair voyage.
And now they seemed to behold another world, and the way towards the life of man.At last Thorkill landed in Germany, which had then been admitted to Christianity; and among its people he began to learn how to worship God.His band of men were almost destroyed, because of the dreadful air they had breathed, and he returned to his country accompanied by two men only, who had escaped the worst.But the corrupt matter which smeared his face so disguised his person and original features that not even his friends knew him.But when he wiped off the filth, he made himself recognizable by those who saw him, and inspired the king with the greatest eagerness to hear about his quest.But the detraction of his rivals was not yet silenced; and some pretended that the king would die suddenly if he learnt Thorkill's tidings.
The king was the more disposed to credit this saying, because he was already credulous by reason of a dream which falsely prophesied the same thing.Men were therefore hired by the king's command to slay Thorkill in the night.But somehow he got wind of it, left his bed unknown to all, and put a heavy log in his place.By this he baffled the treacherous device of the king, for the hirelings smote only the stock.
On the morrow Thorkill went up to the king as he sat at meat, and said: "I forgive thy cruelty and pardon thy error, in that thou hast decreed punishment, and not thanks, to him who brings good tidings of his errand.For thy sake I have devoted my life to all these afflictions, and battered it in all these perils; Ihoped that thou wouldst requite my services with much gratitude;and behold! I have found thee, and thee alone, punish my valour sharpliest.But I forbear all vengeance, and am satisfied with the shame within thy heart -- if, after all, any shame visits the thankless -- as expiation for this wrongdoing towards me.I have a right to surmise that thou art worse than all demons in fury, and all beasts in cruelty, if, after escaping the snares of all these monsters, I have failed to be safe from thine."The king desired to learn everything from Thorkill's own lips;and, thinking it hard to escape destiny, bade him relate what had happened in due order.He listened eagerly to his recital of everything, till at last, when his own god was named, he could not endure him to be unfavourably judged.For he could not bear to hear Utgarda-Loki reproached with filthiness, and so resented his shameful misfortunes, that his very life could not brook such words, and he yielded it up in the midst of Thorkill's narrative.
Thus, whilst he was so zealous in the worship of a false god, he came to find where the true prison of sorrows really was.
Moreover, the reek of the hair, which Thorkill plucked from the locks of the giant to testify to the greatness of his own deeds, was exhaled upon the bystanders, so that many perished of it.
After the death of Gorm, GOTRIK his son came to the throne.He was notable not only for prowess but for generosity, and none can say whether his courage or his compassion was the greater.He so chastened his harshness with mercy, that he seemed to counterweigh the one with the other.At this time Gaut, the King of Norway, was visited by Ber (Biorn?) and Ref, men of Thule.
Gaut treated Ref with attention and friendship, and presented him with a heavy bracelet.
One of the courtiers, when he saw this, praised the greatness of the gift over-zealously, and declared that no one was equal to King Gaut in kindliness.But Ref, though he owed thanks for the benefit, could not approve the inflated words of this extravagant praiser, and said that Gotrik was more generous than Gaut.
Wishing to crush the empty boast of the flatterer, he chose rather to bear witness to the generosity of the absent than tickle with lies the vanity of his benefactor who was present.
