and good for nothing; he wishes to give you power over the realm while they are so young, and he prefers you to enjoy it.’ Now Gunnar was very drunk, and a great realm was offered to him, and he could not resist fate; he promised to go, and told it to his brother Högni, who answered: ‘Your resolve must be carried out, and I will follow thee, but I am unwilling to go’” (Volsunga, c. 33). Runes were occasionally used as charms in cases of illness. Egil went on a journey to Vermaland to collect the tax from the Jarl Arnvid, who was suspected of having slain King Hakon the Good’s men when they went thither for this purpose. On the way he came to the house of a bondi named Thorfinn. “As Egil and Thorfinn sat and took their meal, Egil saw that a woman lay sick on the cross-bench, and asked who she was. Thorfinn answered that she was his daughter Helga. She had been long ill from a very wasting sickness; she could not sleep at night, and was like one _ham-stolen_[148] (crazy). ‘Has anything been tried for her illness?’ said Egil. Thorfinn said: ‘Runes have been traced by the son of a bondi in the neighbourhood, but she is far more ill since than she was before; canst thou do anything for such an illness?’ Egil answered: ‘It may be that it will not be worse though I take charge of it.’ When he had done eating he went to where she lay and spoke to her. He bad that she be taken out of bed and clean clothes put under her, which was done. Then he examined the bed, and there found a piece of whalebone with runes on it. He read them, cut them off, and scraped the chips into the fire; he burned the whalebone and had her clothes carried into the open air. Then Egil sang:— As man shall not trace runes Except he can read them well, It is thus with many a man That the dark letters bewilder him. I saw on the cut whalebone Ten hidden[149] letters carved, That have caused to the leek-linden (woman) A very long sorrow. “Egil traced runes, and placed them under the pillow in the bed where she rested. It seemed to her as if she awoke from a sleep, and she said she was then healed, though she had little strength. Her father and mother were very glad” (Egil’s Saga, c. 75). When persons were deaf, they communicated with others by means of runes. “Thorkel told his sister Orny that the steersman had come to his house, saying: ‘I wish, kinswoman, that thou shouldst serve[150] him during the winter, for most other men have enough to do.’ Orny carved runes on a wood-stick, for she could not speak, and Thorkel took it and read. The wood-stick told this: ‘I do not like to undertake to serve the steersman, for my mind tells me that, if I do, much evil will come of it.’ He became angry because his sister declined, so that when she saw it she consented to serve Ivar, and continued to do so during the winter” (Thorstein Uxafót, Fornmanna Sögur, 110).