That made the jarl think that somewhat was amiss, and he bade his men bind us both.
"Bind them fast, and find my brother Hubba," he said, and men rode away into the forest. But I spoke to him boldly.
"Will you bind a man who bears these tokens, Jarl?"
And I held out my hand to him, showing him the rings that Lodbrok and Halfden had given me.
"My father's ring--and Halfden's!" he said, gripping my hand, as he looked closely at the runes upon them, so tightly that it was pain to me. "By Odin's beard, this grows yet stranger! Who are you, and whence, and how came you by these things?"
"I am Wulfric, son of Elfric, the Thane of Reedham, 'the merchant' as men call him. I have been Jarl Lodbrok's friend, and have fought by the side of Halfden, his son, as these tokens may tell you. As for the rest, that is for yourself alone, Jarl. For I have no good tidings, as I fear."
"Who is this man, then, and why cries he thus in terror?"
"Beorn, falconer to Eadmund, King of the East Angles," I said.
But I would not answer at once to the other question, and Ingvar seemed not to notice it.
Then there was silence while the great jarl sat on his horse very still, and looked hard at me and at Beorn; but when the men would have bound us he signed them back, letting Beorn go free. Whereupon his knees gave way, and he sank down against the house wall, while I leant against it and looked at the mighty Dane, somewhat dreading what I had to tell him, but meaning to go through all plainly.