ABSTRACT
1 NOW while Starkather was serving with the king of Sweden, he had learned that Ingeld, king of Denmark, had surrendered himself absolutely to the most lascivious allurements of debauchery and had embraced vices in place of virtue; that he neglected the duties of royalty and had become a squalid captive to riotous living. Starkather was grieved that a young man of such natural ability should have renounced his connection with a father who had been so famous. Therefore, when he was about to go into Denmark, he put a great bundle of charcoal on his shoulder, as though it were a precious load. When passers-by asked why he was carrying so unusual a burden, he stated that with these coals he was going to forge a keen edge to King Ingeld’s blunted brains. And he achieved no less than he said; for such was the effect of an admonishment from that most valiant and eloquent man that Ingeld, from being an enervated, weakly slave to temptations, turned into a high-spirited venerator of manliness, and the murderers of his father, whom he had elevated to the first rank of friendship, he put to the sword. When this had been accomplished, Starkather, glad at heart, and thankful that his counsel had been complied with, is reported to have sung, among other things, many fine verses in praise of the old way of fighting, after the following manner:
Ingeld, king of Denmark Squalid captive to riotous living
Load of charcoal
Starkather most brave and eloquent Venerator of manliness
When, King Haki, I was a young, beardless soldier following your leadership, I hated men who were wanton and extravagant, for I worshipped nothing but warfare. Exercising mind and body, I banished everything godless from my heart, shunned delights of the belly 241and embraced valour with my soul; those whose profession was arms once wore only rough-and-ready clothing. Rest was rare, sleep short; toil pushed leisure right out and time slipped by with little cost. There were none, as now, in whom the insatiate appetite of a blind maw obscured rational vision. One of these, dressed in elaborate mantle, delicately turns his steed, unknots his spreading hair and allows his unbraided tresses to float. He joys to hold forth at assemblies and covets his mean pittance, fondly solacing a sluggish life by handling entrusted commisions with venal tongue. He infringes laws by violence, assaults men’s rights with the sword, tramples down innocents, feeds on debtors, loves greed and lechery, sneers with his biting laugh at fellowship and picks out whores as a hoe weeds grass. Faint-hearts perish, though battlefields in peace-time are silent. Though he lies at the heart of a vale, no screen will protect one who fears fate. Eventual doom snatches everyone alive; there is no hole for evading death. But after shaking the entire world with defeats, unwounded, I shall meet a peaceful end through the pressure of illness and be raised up to the stars.