To thee, O chief smith, and
thy great-hearted artificers I will myself pay no unworthy eric
for the death of thy brave and faithful hound. For verily I will
myself take thy dog's place, and nightly guard thy property,
sleepless as he was, and I will continue to do so till a hound as
trusty and valiant as the hound whom I slew is procured for thee
to take his place, and to relieve me of that duty. Truly I slew
not thy hound in any wantonness of superior strength, but only in
the defence of my own life, which is not mine but my King's. Three
times he leaped upon me with white fangs bared and eyes red with
murder, and three times I cast him off, but when the fourth time
he rushed upon me like a storm, and when with great difficulty I
had balked him on that occasion also, then I took him by the
throat and by his legs and flung him against one of the brazen
pillars withal to make him stupid. And truly it was not my
intention to kill him and I am sorry that he is dead, seeing that
he was so faithful and so brave, and so dear to thee whom I have
always honoured, even when I was a child at Dun Dalgan, and whom,
with thy marvel-working craftsman, I have for a long time eagerly
desired to see.
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