Alf covered his body with a blood-stained hide in order to make them more frantic against him.

Girt with this, as soon as he had entered the doors of the enclosure, he took a piece of red-hot steel in the tongs, and plunged it into the yawning throat of the viper, which he laid dead.
Then he flung his spear full into the gaping mouth of the snake as it wound and writhed forward, and destroyed it.

And when he demanded the gage which was attached to victory by the terms of the covenant, Siward answered that he would accept that man only for his daughter's husband of whom she made a free and decided choice.

None but the girl's mother was stiff against the wooer's suit; and she privately spoke to her daughter in order to search her mind.

The daughter warmly praised her suitor for his valour; whereon the mother upbraided her sharply, that her chastity should be unstrung, and she be captivated by charming looks; and because, forgetting to judge his virtue, she cast the gaze of a wanton mind upon the flattering lures of beauty.