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"O Frithiof why hast thou come hither to steal an old man's bride?" "I came not hither for so dark a purpose," answered Frithiof; "I came but to look on the face of my loved Ingebjorg once more." "I know it," replied the King; "I have tried thee, I have proved thee, and true as tried steel hast thou passed through the furnace.
Thou shalt therefore sail forth to the distant Orkney Isles, and compel Jarl Angantyr to pay the tribute that he owes us." Frithiof would have refused to go, but Ingebjorg persuaded him to undertake the mission; for she was afraid of her brothers, and knew that Frithiof would be safer on the wild seas than in their hands.
Then a great longing came upon Frithiof to see Ingebjorg once more. He would go northward, even to the country of King Ring; he must see Ingebjorg. What did he care for danger? He must go. To the cold, dark north.
So Ingebjorg became the wife of Frithiof at last. Thus steps of sorrow had but led them to a height of happiness that poets love to sing. Paths thick with thorns had blossomed into roses, and wreaths of everlasting flowers had crowned the winter snows.
Therefore he returned with the old peasant, and contrived to see Ingebjorg in the temple of Baldur, and found that she still loved him as much as he loved her, and did not wish to marry any one else. And again he asked Helgi and Halfdan if they were willing that Ingebjorg should be his wife.
But Old Hilding told them not to talk nonsense, for Ingebjorg was a king's daughter, and Frithiof but the son of a thane. In a room of his palace stood King Belé. He was leaning on his sword, musing over all that was past, and thinking of the future. He was an old man, and he felt that his strength was failing him. With him was his faithful friend Thorsten Vikingsson.
Next, seeing his arm-ring on the arm of the statue, for Helgi had taken it from Ingebjorg and placed it there, he tried to tear it off, and, lo! the image tottered and fell upon the fire that was burning with sweet perfumes before it. Scarcely had it touched the fire when it was ablaze, and the flames spreading rapidly on every side, the whole temple was soon a smoldering heap of ruins.
The old King sat upon his throne, and at his side was Ingebjorg the Fair, looking like spring by the side of fading autumn. As the strangely dressed figure passed along, the courtiers jeered, and Frithiof, thrown off his guard, angrily seized one of them, and twirled him round with but little effort. "Ho!" said the King, "thou art a strong old man, O stranger! Whence art thou?"
At last Frithiof consented, and he took leave of Ingebjorg, and placed the golden bracelet that Völund had made upon her arm, praying her to keep it for his sake. And then he sailed away over the heaving waters, and Ingebjorg mourned that her lover was gone. Over the sea.
But Frithiof thought she could not be half so beautiful as Ingebjorg. And once he said so to her, and it pleased her exceedingly. And he said, moreover, that when he was a man, Ingebjorg should be his wife. This also she was glad to hear, for she loved Frithiof better than any one in the world.
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