So those brethren fare home with their folk, right ill content with things. But Frithiof, when he deemed that the brethren might be looked for home again, spake to the king's daughter:
“Sweetly and well have ye done to us, neither has goodman Baldur been wroth with us; but now as soon as ye wot of the kings' coming home, spread the sheets of your beds abroad on the Hall of the Goddesses, for that is the highest of all the garth, and we may see it from our stead.”
The king's daughter said: “Thou dost not after the like of any other: but certes, we welcome dear friends whenas ye come to us.”
So Frithiof went home; and the next morning he went out early, and when he came in then he spake and sang:
“Now must I tell
To our good men
That over and done
Are our fair journeys;
No more a-shipboard
Shall we be going,
For there are the sheets
Spread out a-bleaching.”
Then they went out, and saw that the Hall of the Goddesses was all thatched with white linen. Biorn spake and said: “Now are the kings come home, and but a little while have we to sit in peace, and good were it, meseems, to gather folk together.”
So did they, and men came flocking thither.
Now the brethren soon heard of the ways of Frithiof and Ingibiorg, and of the gathering of men. So King Helgi spake:
“A wondrous thing how Baldur will bear what shame soever Frithiof and she will lay on him! Now will I send men to him, and wot what atonement he will offer us, or else will I drive him from the land, for our strength seemeth to me not enough that we should fight with him as now.”
So Hilding, their fosterer, bare the king's errand to Frithiof and his friends, and spake in such wise: “This atonement the kings will have of thee, Frithiof, that thou go gather the tribute of the Orkneys, which has not been paid since Beli died, for they need money, whereas they are giving Ingibiorg their sister in marriage, and much of wealth with her.”