Boel was her name, and she shot up so handsome and comely that her beauty shone like the sun. No bridegroom was good enough for her, unless, perhaps, it were the king's son.
Wooers came from afar, and came in vain. She was to have a dower, they said, such as no girl in the North had ever had before.
One year quite a young officer came up thither with a letter from the king. His garments were stiff with gold, and shone and sparkled wherever he went. Bardun received him well, and helped him to carry out the king's commands.
But since the day when he himself was young, and got the answer, "Yes!" from his bride, he had never been so happy as when Boel came to him one day and said that the young officer had wooed her, and she would throw herself into the sea straightway if she couldn't have him.
In this way, he argued, his race would always sit in the seat of authority, and hold sway when he was gone.
While the officer, in the course of the summer, was out on circuit, Bardun set a hundred men to work to build a house for them.
It was to shine like a castle, and be bright with high halls and large reception-rooms, and windows in long rooms; and furs and cloth of gold and bright tiles were fetched from the far South.
And in the autumn there was such a wedding that the whole land heard and talked about it.
But it was not long before Bardun began to find that to be a fact which was already a rumour, to wit, that the man who had got his daughter would fain have his own way also.
He laid down the law, and gave judgment like Bardun himself; and he over-ruled Bardun, not once nor twice.