a vast monolith, or boulder, tapering upward to a jagged

end. The face of this stone, graved deeply with runes,

is (on its lower half) dark carmine and smooth as ivory;

from behind it blue smoke is rising; before it stands an

altar of stone, on which is set a silver bowl.

In front of this altar stands Ingimund, the temple

Ingimund

priest, clad in a sleeveless leathern smock to

the knees; his arms are reddened with sacrifice; from

his throat—beneath his long, grey hair—hangs an image

of Odin; on his right wrist a ring of plain gold; in

his left hand a spear. On either side of him an altar

priest holds a bunch of sprinkling twigs. From the

temple four other priests are bearing a slaughtered

bullock to the fire behind the rune-stone. Massed in

the right foreground are Egil and his men; on the

Egil

left, Arfi and his men. Egil, noble of stature, stands

Arfi

moodily filing the grooves of a crossbow; Arfi, bent

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