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His father, Thorwald Thorwaldson, was king over all the firths and wicks between Coldness in the south and Flatness and the mountain Rauma in the north, and inland over the Uplanders as far as the highest springs of the rivers. He was king by more than blood, for he was the tallest and strongest man in all the land, and the cunningest in battle.
Bjorn was a man of high birth, with a great deal of money: Ljufa was the name of his wife. Their daughter was Jorunn: she was a most beautiful woman, and very proud and extremely clever, and so was thought the best match in all the firths of the West. Of this woman Hoskuld had heard, and he had heard besides that Bjorn was the wealthiest yeoman throughout all the Strands.
Such were the people in Alba whom we can dimly descry around Agricola's fortified frontier between the firths of Forth and Clyde, about 81-82 A.D. When Agricola pushed north of the Forth and Tay he still met men who had considerable knowledge of the art of war. But they were swift of foot, the woods sheltered and the hills defended them.
It seems therefore that hollows which have, in fact, been carved out of the earth's surface may be known for water-work or for ice-work by their shape, and that firths, dales, and lakes may mark the sites of local glacial periods; and cañons the sites of climates that have not been glacial since the streams began to flow."
The county of Fife, bounded by two firths on the south and north, and by the sea on the east, and having a number of small seaports, was long famed for maintaining successfully a contraband trade; and, as there were many seafaring men residing there, who had been pirates and buccaneers in their youth, there were not wanting a sufficient number of daring men to carry it on.
Onund said he would first see what there was, so they went landward south past some firths, till they came to Ufoera; then said Eric, "Here is what there is to look to; all from here is unsettled, and right in to the settlements of Biorn." Now a great mountain went down the eastern side of the firth, and snow had fallen thereon, Onund looked on that mountain, and sang
Now those of Coldback row east by the firths, and thus they parted; and this was sung of their meeting At Rib-skerries, I hear folk tell, A hard and dreadful fray befell, For men unarmed upon that day With strips of whale-fat made good play. Fierce steel-gods these in turn did meet With blubber-slices nowise sweet; Certes a wretched thing it is To tell of squabbles such as this.
The Scotch climate compels hardiness; the Scotch bodily strength makes it easy; and Scotland, with her mountain-tours in summer, and her frozen lochs in winter, her labyrinth of sea-shore, and, above all, that priceless boon which Providence has bestowed on her, in the contiguity of her great cities to the loveliest scenery, and the hills where every breeze is health, affords facilities for healthy physical life unknown to the Englishman, who has no Arthur's Seat towering above his London, no Western Islands sporting the ocean firths beside his Manchester.
To those bred within sight of the sea, steamers will always partake in somewhat of the ``beauty and mystery of the ships''; above all, if their happy childhood have lain among the gleaming lochs and sinuous firths of the Western Highlands, where, twice a week maybe, the strange visitant crept by headland and bay, a piece of the busy, mysterious outer world.
"I am Biorn, and my father is King," he repeated to himself, the spell he had so often used when on the fells or the firths he had met fear. Night came and a young moon, and still the fight continued. But the Shield-ring was growing ragged, for the men of Hightown were fighting one to eight, and these are odds that cannot last.
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