He could not bear to think more of the light of day than liberty, and chose to die rather than serve; lest he should seem to love life so well as to turn from a slave into a freeman; and that he might not court with new-born obeisance the man whom fortune had just before made only his equal.

So little knows virtue how to buy life with dishonour.

Wherefore he was put in chains, and banished to a place haunted by wild beasts; an end unworthy of that lofty spirit.
Halfdan had thus become sovereign of both kingdoms, and graced his fame with a triple degree of honour.

For he was skillful and eloquent in composing poems in the fashion of his country; and he was no less notable as a valorous champion than as a powerful king.

But when he heard that two active rovers, Toke and Anund, were threatening the surrounding districts, he attacked and routed them in a sea-fight.