“Yes,” exclaimed Hjalmar, “to us men, woman is the incarnation of love, of all that is sweet and beautiful in life. To us she is the most sublime conception of the creative power of the gods.” He was thinking of Astrid when he uttered these sentiments. “We forget Odin for the woman we love; for her we would give our last drop of blood. We would die before her eyes that she might see our manliness and bravery, and learn that we are worthy of her love.”
Then, with great animation, he exclaimed: “O Love, embrace me with thy giant’s strength, and stay with me until my life ebbs away! Bring thy vivifying breath close to my lips, until thou becomest part of my own being, for I care not to live without thee. When Mother Earth, who has fed me and loved me so tenderly, folds me within her embrace, and hides from me forever the light of the sun and of this beautiful world which I have loved so much, O Love, envelop me with thy immortality!”
“Thou must surely be in love,” exclaimed the three foster-brothers, “to utter the sentiments thou hast just expressed.”
“The fact is,” said Sigurd, “that love is lurking in the heart of you all, my foster-brothers.”
“That is true,” they shouted with one voice, and began to exchange confidences.
Ivar spoke first, and declared that he loved Randalin, Yngvi’s second daughter, to distraction. “When she speaks,” he added, “her voice sounds to me as the softest tones of the harp; from her lips come the scented perfume of the roses of the Caspian, or of the flowers of our own land.”
Then, in a fit of enthusiasm, he said, with great earnestness: “Foster-brothers, I tell you that honey is sour compared with the sweetness of Randalin.” A merry laugh of approbation greeted Ivar’s last sentence.
Then Hjalmar said: “Foster-brothers, I love Astrid, the eldest daughter of the Hersir of Svithjod, and the goddess Sjofn has turned her mind and mine to mutual love, and I have taken an oath that no one shall marry her unless I fall by his hand.”
“We will stand by thee, Hjalmar!” shouted again all the foster-brothers.
Sigmund declared that he loved Solveig the Fair, so called on account of her beauty. Solveig was very retiring and bashful, but her dignified manner and charms had not escaped Sigmund. She was the daughter of Björn Hersir, who ruled over a large herad, and resided at Gaular, close by the temple. The foster-brothers had met her there at an autumn sacrifice at which they were present, and at that time Sigmund fell in love with her; and now that they had met again at Upsalir, he was more desperately in love than ever.