"It will be nothing," he said, knowing what I meant. "One is
sheltered here under this high stern. I shall take no harm. Nay, I
am ship master, and I bid you care for the lady. There are no signs
of rocks."
For I hesitated, not altogether liking not to stand by him at the
last. However, he was right, and I went forward with Gerda, bidding
Dalfin get one of the oars and follow us.
Now, what that beach may have been like in a winter gale I can only
guess. Even now the breakers were terrible enough, as we watched
them from the high bows, though the wind was, as I have said, not
what one would trouble about much in the open sea, in a well-found
ship. But naught save dire necessity would make a seaman try to
beach his ship here at any time, least of all when half a gale was
piling the seas one over the other across the shallows. Only, we
could see that no jagged reef waited us under the surges.
Gerda stood with her arm round the dragon head which stared
forward. I minded at that moment how I had ever heard that one
should unship the dragon as the shore was neared, lest the gentle
spirits of the land, the Landvaettnir, should be feared. But that
was too late now, and I do not think that I should have troubled
concerning it in any wise, on a foreign coast.
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