After King Harald had experienced the cunning of the Fin woman, he was
so angry that he drove from him the sons he had with her, and would not
suffer them before his eyes. But one of them, Gudrod Ljome, went to his
foster-father Thjodolf of Hvin, and asked him to go to the king, who was
then in the Uplands; for Thjodolf was a great friend of the king. And
so they went, and came to the king's house late in the evening, and sat
down together unnoticed near the door. The king walked up and down
the floor casting his eye along the benches; for he had a feast in the
house, and the mead was just mixed. The king then murmured out these
lines:--
"Tell me, ye aged gray-haired heroes,
Who have come here to seek repose,
Wherefore must I so many keep
Of such a set, who, one and all,
Right dearly love their souls to steep,
From morn till night, in the mead-bowl?"