"By sword upheld, King Bele in King's-hall stood,
Beside him Thorstein Vikingson, that yeoman good,
His battle-friend with almost a century hoary,
And deep-marked like a rune-stone with scars of glory."
The yeoman's son and the king's daughter, thrown into daily
companionship in their foster-father's hall, love each other; and
Frithjof, after the death of their fathers, goes to Ingeborg's brothers,
Helge and Halfdan, and asks her hand in marriage. His suit is scornfully
rejected, and he departs in wrath vowing vengeance. The ancient King
Ring, of Ringerike, having heard of Ingeborg's beauty, sends also
ambassadors to woo her. Her brothers make sacrifices in order to
ascertain the will of the gods. The omens are inauspicious, and they
accordingly feel compelled to decline the King's offer.
Ingeborg is shut up in Balder's Grove, where the sanctity of the temple
would make it sacrilege for any one to approach her. Frithjof, however,
braves the wrath of the god, and sails every night across the fjord to a
stolen rendezvous with his beloved.
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