"There was never a lovelier woman," they declared, and Ragnar was so struck by their story that he sent messengers ashore to learn if they were telling the truth. If it were so, he said, if Kraka were as beautiful as Tora, they were bidden to bring her to him neither dressed nor undressed, neither fasting nor satisfied, neither alone nor in company. The messengers found the maiden as fair as the cooks had said and repeated the king's demand.
"Your king must be out of his mind, to send such a message," said the beggar's wife; but Kraka told them that she would come as their king wished, but not until the next morning.
The next day she came to the shore where the ship lay. She was completely covered with her splendid hair, worn like a net around her. She had eaten an onion before coming, and had with her the old beggar's sheep dog; so that she had fulfilled Ragnar's three demands.
Her wit highly pleased Ragnar and he asked her to come on board, but she would not do so until she had been promised peace and safety. When she was taken to the cabin Ragnar looked at her in delight. He thought that she surpassed Tora in beauty, and offered a prayer to Odin, asking for the love of the maiden. Then he took the gold-embroidered dress which Tora had worn and offered it to Kraka, saying in verse, in the fashion of those times:
"Will you have Tora's robe? It suits you well. Her
white hands have played upon it. Lovely and kind was
she to me until death."
Kraka answered, also in verse:
"I dare not take the gold-embroidered robe which
adorned Tora the fair. It suits not me. Kraka am I
called in coal-black baize. I have ever herded goats on
the stones by the sea-shore."
"And now I will go home," she added. "If the king's mind does not change he can send for me when he will."
Then she went back to the beggar's cottage and Ragnar sailed in his ship away.