Northern mythology

NORTHERN MYTHOLOGY. 89
brought him victory. To repair his mishap^ he promised
to bestow his daughter and half his kingdom on him who
should bring him the
talisman on the following day before
sunset. Velint performs the feat^ but having by the
way killed one of the king^s men in self-defence^ it affords
the king a pretext for declaring him an outlaw. To wreak
his vengeance, Velint disguises himself as a cook, and puts
charmed herbs in the food of the princess, but she detects
the treachery, and Velint is seized, hamstringed, and condemned
to make ornaments in the king^s court for his
enemies.
At this time, by Velint's desire, his younger brother
Egil came to Nidung^s court. Being famed for his skill
in archery, the king commanded him to shoot an apple, at
a single shot, from the head of his son, a child of three
years.
Having performed this deed, the king, seeing that
he had taken two arrows from his quiver, demanded of
him for what purpose they were intended ? Egil answered,
" They were designed for thee, if I had hit the child.^'
This bold answer was not taken amiss by the king.
Velint in the meantime was brooding over vengeance.
One day the king^s daughter came to his smithy, for the
purpose of getting a broken ring mended ; when Velint,
availing himself of the opportunity, violated her. This
crime was shortly after followed by the murder of the
king^s two youngest sons, whom he had enticed to his
smithy. Their bones he set in costly golden vessels, which
were placed on their father^s table. Velint then made
himself a plumage of feathers collected by his brother Egil,
by means of which he flew^ up on the highest tower of the
palace, from whence he declared all that he had done.
Nidung on hearing this commanded Egil, under threats
of death, to shoot his brother, and he actually struck him
under the left arm, but where, as had been previously
concerted between them, a bladder was placed filled with