Long after King Estein had joined his fathers on the little holm
beyond Hernersfiord, and Helgi, Earl of Askland, had become but a
warlike memory, the skalds of Sogn still sang this tale of Vandrad
the Viking. It contained much wonderful magic, and some
astonishingly hard strokes, as they told it; but reading between
their lines, the magic bears a strong resemblance to many spells
cast even at this day, and as for the sword strokes, there was
need for them to be hard in Norway then. For that was the age of
the making of many kingdoms, and the North was beginning to do its
share.