Like warlike champions arm’d with spear and shield.

Then smil’d the father of the fight,

And said to Lok, who by his side was placed:

“Methinks, if I have read thy soul aright,

The peasant’s provender thou fain wouldst taste.

Of hunger too myself I feel the power;

By the long march fatigued, my spirits fail:

From Vardoe we are come, in one short hour,

To the dark birchen grove in Guldbrand’s dale.”

Then laughing, Lok replied: “Be sure,