Birth of Frithiof and Ingeborg
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Guerber, H. A. (Hélène Adeline)
Thus owner of the three greatest treasures of the North, Thorsten returned home to Framnäs, where Ingeborg bore him a fine boy, Frithiof, while two sons, Halfdan and Helgé, were born to Belé. The lads played together, and were already well grown when Ingeborg, Belé’s little daughter, was born, and some time later the child was entrusted to the care of Hilding, who was already Frithiof’s foster father, as Thorsten’s frequent absences made it difficult for him to undertake the training of his boy.
“Jocund they grew, in guileless glee;
Young Frithiof was the sapling tree;
In budding beauty by his side,
Sweet Ingeborg, the garden’s pride.”
Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (Longfellow’s tr.).
Frithiof soon became hardy and fearless under his foster father’s training, and Ingeborg rapidly developed the sweetest traits of character and loveliness. Both were happiest when together; and as they grew older their childish affection daily became deeper and more intense, until Hilding, perceiving this state of affairs, bade the youth remember that he was a subject of the king, and therefore no mate for his only daughter.
“To Odin, in his star-lit sky,
Ascends her titled ancestry;
But Thorsten’s son art thou; give way!
For ‘like thrives best with like,’ they say.”
Tegnér, Frithiof Saga (G. Stephens’s tr.).