| Chapter # | Sentence # | Quote |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 48 | Much speculation had coursed View more quotes about among">among the contest fields as to the true identity of the smooth-shaven Thorgeir. |
| Chapter # | Sentence # | Quote |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 45 | There was probably not one man at the Thing-Fair who took him truly to be of Ax Glacier; most obviously he did not have the epicanthic fold, which helps to protect the eyes of the men of Ax Glacier against extreme cold; further, he was much too large to be taken easily as a man of Ax Glacier; their diet does not produce, on the whole, large bodies; further, their climate tends to select for short, fat bodies, for such, physiologically, are easiest to maintain in thermostatic equilibrium in great cold; long, thin bodies, of course, are easiest to maintain in thermostatic equilibrium in great heat, providing more exposure for cooling. |
| 10 | 46 | Lastly, his coloring, though his hair was dark, was surely not that of the far north, but, though swarthy, more akin to that of Torvaldsland, particularly western Torvaldsland. |
| 10 | 47 | Only a madman, or a fool, might have taken seriously his claim to be of the Ax Glacier country. |
| 10 | 48 | Much speculation had coursed among the contest fields as to the true identity of the smooth-shaven Thorgeir. |
| 10 | 49 | Prior to his winning the swimming he had won talmits for climbing the "mast," a tall pole of needle wood, some fifty feet high, smoothed and peeled; for jumping the "crevice," actually a broad jump, on level land, where marks are made with strings, to the point at which the back heel strikes the earth; walking the "oar," actually, a long pole; and throwing the spear, a real spear I am pleased to say, both for distance and accuracy; counting the distance and the accuracy of the spear events as two events, which they are, he had thus, prior to the swimming, won five talmits. |
| 10 | 50 | He had done less well in the singing contest, though he much prided himself on his singing voice; he thought, in that one, the judges had been against him; he did not score highly either in the composition of poetry contest nor in the rhyming games; "I am not a skald," he explained to me later; he did much better, I might mention, in the riddle guessing; but not well enough to win; he missed the following riddle; "What is black, has eighty legs and eats gold?"; the answer, though it might not seem obvious, was Black Sleen, the ship of Thorgard of Scagnar; the Forkbeard's answer had been Black Shark, the legendary ship of Torvald, reputed discoverer and first Jarl of Torvaldsland; he acknowledged his defeat in this contest, however, gracefully; "I was a fool," he grumbled to me. |
| 10 | 51 | "I should have known!" Though I attempted to console him, he remained much put out with himself, and for more than an Ahn afterward. |