"Well, if you insist, fair lady!" Adelhard's shameless grin is out on full display for Anarane...and any other comely maid that might walk by! "I was brought up with manners, you know, so I never turn down a lady's request...unless it comes from the sow that I used to call wife, but we'll not speak of her now."

The writer leans back against the warm stones of the hearth, feeling nice and full from all the bread and mead. He begins to recite:

As I climbed up a shivery tree,
I met All-father Odin;
With hemp at his neck and his single eye
He would keep his secrets and never die!

As I swam down a silvery stream,
I met with tricksy Loki:
With gall in his eye and sinews awry
The earth would shake and never know why!

As I climbed up the rainbow bridge
I met with clear-eyed Heimdall:
He'd heard me walk as I spanned the sky,
Loyal to Asgard till the day I die.

As I walked through a dingly dell,
I met with queenly Freyja:
Her cats had come with their night-questing eyes
To cut me down to my proper size.

"And there's your song," said Adelhard. "You all are most kind to indulge a traveller so! Do you know of any rich nobles who'd like the stories of their exploits told?"