“Yes,” replied the daughter of Yngvi. “I remember it as if it were to-day.”
“Canst thou recollect,” continued Ivar, “how we looked at each other as soon as we met, and how our eyes seemed to melt into each other’s? At that time an indescribable feeling seized me; thou didst seem to entrance me. I felt as I never felt before in my life. I loved thee, and I thought that thou also didst love me; and when thou didst continue thy way, my eyes were riveted upon thy fair form, and I remember that before thou didst disappear thou didst turn thy head once more towards me, as if some magic impulse compelled thee to do so, and told thee that I was still spell-bound at thy sight. We gave to each other a farewell look, as if to say, ‘Yes, we will meet again.’”
“I remember all that well,” said Randalin, for her honest heart could not deny it.
“Since then,” said Ivar, “I have thought of thee by day, and often dreamt of thee by night; and now I feel that before I return to Dampstadir I must tell thee of my love, and ask thee if thou wilt give me thy heart and marry me. If thou sayest no, life then will have no more charm for me; the clatter of weapons on the field of battle will no more sound pleasantly in my ears; ambition for renowned deeds will never stir me more; I feel that without thee I could not live.”
Randalin’s feelings, as she heard the burning words from Ivar’s lips, were such that she could not speak. Taking his hands, and looking with her beautiful blue eyes into his face, she said: “Ivar, thy wife I will be, and no other man shall ever possess me.”
In the evening the foster-brothers met, as was their custom, to talk matters over before they went to the banqueting hall to drink with the high-born men and champions of the land. All agreed that they should ask the parents of the young girls for their consent to the different marriages, for the laws regarding marriage were very strict, and there was nothing in the world in which Vikings were more particular, or more revengeful, if the honor of one of their kinswomen was attacked.
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THE next morning Ivar went to see two of his uncles, Randvir, a brother of his mother, and Visbur, a brother of his father, who had come to Upsalir with him, and said to them: “Kinsmen, I desire you to ask for me in marriage Randalin, the second daughter of Yngvi, the Hersir of Svithjod.”