The other brothers, on hearing this sentence, all vowed that they would accompany the exile, and so Viking sorrowfully bade them farewell, giving his sword Angurvadel to Thorsten, the eldest, and cautioning him to remain quietly on an island in Lake Wener until all danger of retaliation on the part of Njorfe's remaining sons was over.
The young men obeyed; but Njorfe's sons, who had no boats to take them across the lake, soon made use of a conjuror's art to bring about a great frost, and, accompanied by many armed men, stole noiselessly over the ice to attack Thorsten and his brothers.

A terrible carnage ensued, and only two of the attacking party managed to escape, leaving, as they fancied, all their foes among the dead.
But when Viking came to bury his sons, he found that two of them, Thorsten and Thorer, were still alive, and he secretly conveyed them to a cellar beneath his dwelling, where they recovered from their wounds.
By magic arts Njorfe's two sons discovered that their opponents were not dead, and soon made a second desperate but vain attempt to kill them.
Viking saw that the quarrel would be incessantly renewed if his sons remained at home; so he now sent them to Halfdan, whose court they reached after a series of adventures which in many points resemble those of Theseus on his way to Athens.
When spring came Thorsten embarked on a piratical excursion, and encountered Jokul, Njorfe's eldest son, who, in the mean while, had taken forcible possession of the kingdom of Sogn, after killing the king, banishing his heir, Bele, and changing his beautiful daughter, Ingeborg, into the form of an old witch.
Throughout the story Jokul is represented as somewhat of a coward, for he resorted by preference to magic when he wished to injure Viking's sons.
Thus he stirred up great tempests, and Thorsten, after twice suffering shipwreck, was saved from the waves by the witch Ingeborg, whom he promised to marry in gratitude for her good services.
Thorsten, advised by her, went in search of Bele, replaced him on his hereditary throne, swore eternal friendship with him, and, the baleful spell being removed, married the beautiful Ingeborg, who dwelt with him at Framnaes.
[Sidenote: Thorsten and Bele.] Every spring Thorsten and Bele now set out together in their ships; and, joining forces with Angantyr, a foe whose mettle they had duly tested, they proceeded to recover possession of a priceless treasure, a magic dragon ship named Ellida, which Aegir, god of the sea, had once given to Viking in reward for hospitable treatment, and which had been stolen from him.
"A royal gift to behold, for the swelling planks of its framework Were not fastened with nails, as is wont, but _grown_ in together.
Its shape was that of a dragon when swimming, but forward Its head rose proudly on high, the throat with yellow gold flaming; Its belly was spotted with red and yellow, but back by the rudder Coiled out its mighty tail in circles, all scaly with silver; Black wings with edges of red; when all were expanded Ellida raced with the whistling storm, but outstript the eagle.
When filled to the edge with warriors, it sailed o'er the waters, You'd deem it a floating fortress, or warlike abode of a monarch.
The ship was famed far and wide, and of ships was first in the North." TEGNER, _Frithiof Saga_ (Spalding's tr.).
The next season, Thorsten, Bele, and Angantyr conquered the Orkney Islands, which were given as kingdom to the latter, he voluntarily pledging himself to pay a yearly tribute to Bele.

Next Thorsten and Bele went in quest of a magic ring, or armlet, once forged by Voelund, the smith, and stolen by Sote, a famous pirate.
This bold robber was so afraid lest some one should gain possession of the magic ring, that he had buried himself alive with it in a mound in Bretland.

Here his ghost was said to keep constant watch over it, and when Thorsten entered his tomb, Bele heard the frightful blows given and received, and saw lurid gleams of supernatural fire.
When Thorsten finally staggered out of the mound, pale and bloody, but triumphant, he refused to speak of the horrors he had encountered to win the coveted treasure, nor would he ever vouchsafe further information than this: "'Dearly bought is the prize,' said he often, 'For I trembled but once in my life, and 'twas when I seized it!'" TEGNER, _Frithiof Saga_ (Spalding's tr.).
[Sidenote: Birth of Frithiof and Ingeborg.] Thus owner of the three greatest treasures in the North, Thorsten returned home to Framnaes, where Ingeborg bore him a fine boy, Frithiof, the playmate of Halfdan and Helge, Bele's sons.

The three youths were already well grown when Ingeborg, Bele's little daughter, was born, and as she was intrusted to the care of Hilding, Frithiof's foster father, the children grew up in perfect amity.
"Jocund they grew, in guileless glee; Young Frithiof was the sapling tree; In budding beauty by his side, Sweet Ingeborg, the garden's pride." TEGNER, _Frithiof Saga_ (Longfellow's tr.).
Frithiof soon became hardy and fearless under his foster father's training, and Ingeborg rapidly developed all the sweetest traits of female loveliness.