The Saga
of Hrolf Kraki
and his Champions
© 2005, Peter Tunstall
Part One:
Frodi’s Thread
1. Of
Halfdan and Frodi
There was a man called
Halfdan, and another called Frodi, two brothers, kings’ sons, and they each
ruled a realm of their own. King Halfdan was friendly and easy-going and
good-natured, but King Frodi was a wild brute. King Halfdan had three children,
two sons and a daughter. She was called Signy. She was the eldest and given in
marriage to Jarl Saevil. What is told here happened when his sons were young.
One was called Hroar, the other Helgi. Regin was their foster father and he
loved them very much. Not far from Halfdan’s stronghold there lay an island. A
man lived there, called Vivil. He was a lifelong friend of King Halfdan. Vivil
had two dogs, Hopp and Ho. The man was comfortably off and knew plenty of the
old wisdom, if push came to shove.
Now it’s to be told, that
King Frodi sits at home in his kingdom, and he bitterly envies his brother,
King Halfdan. And, the way things have gone, he wasn’t too happy with his lot,
and it seemed to him that he alone should rule Denmark. So he gets up a mob and
a multitude and makes for Denmark, and comes in the dead of night, and burns
and razes all to the ground. King Halfdan can do little to defend himself. He’s
taken and killed, while those who are able flee. And the citizens all had to
swear loyalty to King Frodi, or else he had them tortured in various ways.
Regin, foster father of Helgi
and Hroar, got them away and out to yeoman Vivil on his island. They grieved
much about their loss. Regin said there’d be “snow in most shelters”—a sorry
state of affairs—if Vivil couldn’t keep them safe from King Frodi.
Vivil says, “We’re playing
tug-o-war with a tough one here.” But he also said he was under a great
obligation to help the boys.
So he took them and put them underground in an
earth-house, and they mostly spent the nights there, but by day they came out
to get some fresh air in the woods, as half the island was wooded, and that’s
where Regin left them. Regin had big estates in Denmark, wife and children too,
and he saw nothing else for it but to go and swear allegiance to Frodi. King
Frodi now laid all Denmark under his rule, with taxes and tributes. Most went
over to him only because they were forced, since King Frodi was hated by all.
And he taxed Jarl Saevil the same way too.
After achieving all this,
King Frodi feels a little easier about not finding the boys, Helgi and Hroar.
He has a lookout kept for them now on all sides, near and far, north and south,
east and west, promises huge rewards for whoever who can bring any news of
them, but all sorts of torments to anyone who hides them, if that ever comes to
light—but no one can think of anything to tell the king. So he has seers
fetched—witches and wisemen—from all over the land, and has the country
searched from top to bottom, up and down, islands and out-skerries, but they
aren’t found. And now he has wizards brought who can peer into everything they
want, and they tell him that the boys aren’t being raised anywhere in the land—but
all the same, they’re not far off.
King Frodi says, “We’ve searched for them far
and wide, so it seems highly unlikely that they’re near here, but there is an
island close by where we haven’t made a big effort, but no one lives there—well,
except some poor wretch of a peasant.”
“Look there first,” said the
galdermen, “because a great veil of mist lies over the island, and we can’t see
very well round that fellow’s farm, and we think he’s a smart one, and he isn’t
all that he seems.”
The king said, “It’ll be
searched again then, but it seems incredible to me that some poor fisherman would
be keeping these boys, and dare to shelter people from us like that.”
2. Vivil Hid
the King’s Sons
Early one morning, Vivil
wakes up and says, “Much and strange is now afoot, on wing and way, and great
spirits have come to the island, and mighty fetches are here. Get up, sons of
Halfdan, Hroar and Helgi, and keep yourselves in my woods today.”
They ran into the forest. Now
it happened just as the cotter had guessed. King Frodi’s agents came to the
island and they look all over for them, wherever they can think of, and find
them nowhere. The owner strikes them as rather suspicious, but they leave it at
that and go away and tell the king they can’t seem to find them.
“You can’t have looked well,”
says the king, “but this carl’s a canny man, full of magic, so get back there
now, go right back the way you came while he’s not expecting, so he won’t have
time to whisk them off, if they are there...”
They can but do as the king
commanded, so they go back a second time to the island.
Vivil said to the boys, “This
isn’t the time for sitting around, you two. Get to the forest, fast as you
can.”
The boys do just that. At
which the king’s men burst in and demanded a search, and Vivil opens everywhere
up to them, but they find them nowhere on the island, no matter where they
look, so they leave it at that and go back and tell the king.
King Frodi says, “No more
pussy-footing with this peasant. I’ll go myself to the island, first thing
tomorrow.” And that’s just what happened now, the king went himself.
Vivil awakes, rather
distraught, and sees that yet again they need to think of something fast. He
said to the brothers, “Remember this: If I call out loud to my dogs, Hopp and
Ho, that means you. Run to your earth-house then, that’s your signal for
danger, so hide there, because your Uncle Frodi has joined the search, and
he’ll come after your lives with tricks and wiles, and I’m not sure I can save
you now.”
Then Vivil goes to the shore,
and the king’s ship has arrived. Vivil pretends not to have seen it, and makes
as if he’s looking all round for his flock, so preoccupied that he never spots
the king or his men. The king orders them to seize him, and that was done, and
he was led before the king.
The king said, “You’re a
crafty one, and oh so sly. Tell me where the king’s sons are, because you
know.”
Vivil says, “And a very good
day to you too, my lord, but please don’t hold me or the wolf will tear my
flock to bits.” Then he calls out loud, “Hopp! Ho! Help the flock, I can’t save
them.”
The king says, “What are you
calling now?”
He says, “My dogs: that’s
what they’re called. Look where you want, lord, but I doubt the princes will
turn up here, and it really amazes me that you think I might shelter people
from you.”
The king said, “You really
are a wily old fellow, but even so, they can’t be hid here after this, even if
you’ve had them till now, and it would be only proper if you were put to
death.”
The yeoman says, “It’s in
your hands, sire. At least then you’ll have accomplished something on the
island, instead of just leaving it at that.”
The king said, “No, I don’t
want you killed, although I suspect that’s a mistake.”
The king goes home now,
leaving it at that. Vivil finds the boys and says that they can’t stay there
any longer. “I’ll send you to Saevil, your brother-in-law, and you two will be
famous men, if you live that long.”
3. Of Hroar
and Helgi
Hroar was twelve then, and
Helgi ten, although he was the bigger and braver one. Off they go now, and
Hroar calls himself Hrani, and Helgi calls himself Ham, wherever they went or
found folks to talk to. These boys came to Jarl Saevil and were there a week
before they spoke to the jarl about staying.
He said, “I’m hardly taking
on great men here with you two, but I’ll not grudge you food for now.”
They’re there for a while,
and rather unruly. No one can find out who they were or of what kin. The jarl
doesn’t suspect them; well, they don’t give him clue about themselves. Some
people say they must have been born with scurf, and teased them because they
were always wearing cowls and never took their hoods off, and many reckoned
they had lice. They’re there till the third winter.
And it happens one time that
King Frodi invited Jarl Saevil to a feast, and the king rather suspects that
he’s harbouring the boys, since they were related. The jarl gets ready for the
journey now with a big following. The boys got ready to go with him. The jarl
said no, they couldn’t go. Signy, the jarl’s wife, was also coming. Ham, really
Helgi, gets himself an unbroken colt to ride, charged after the company, back
to front, face to the tail, and acts like a complete nutter. Hrani, his
brother, gets himself another such steed but faces the right way. The jarl saw
them coming, and that they had no control over their horses. The shaggy colts bolt
back and forth under them, and Hrani’s hood falls off.
Their sister Signy spots this
and knows them at once and cries bitterly. The jarl asks why she’s crying. Then
she spoke a verse:
“That’s
all that’s left
of
the Lords of Lund,
of
Skjoldung kin
scattered
branches.
I
saw my brothers
bareback
riding,
while
Saevil’s heroes
sat
in saddles.”
The jarl says, “This is
serious news: don’t let it out.”
He rode back and told them to
clear off home, says they were a disgrace and not fit for polite company. Then
both boys get off and walk. But he spoke like this because he was watching what
he said, so that no one would realise from his words who these boys were. They
scamper about now on the edge of the company and aren’t any keener to go back,
so they tag along behind. Now they come to the banquet and race up and down the
hall.
And one time, they come to
where their sister Signy was. She whispered to them, “Don’t stay in the hall:
you’re not very big yet.”
They take no heed of that.
King Frodi starts up about how he’ll go after Halfdan’s sons, and he says he’ll
grant great favours to whoever can bring word of them.
A certain seeress was there, a volva called
Heid. Frodi asked her to have a go with her skills and see if she could find
out anything about the boys. He had a magnificent feast prepared for her and
set her up on a high seid-stand.
Then the king asks if she
could see anything of note, “because,” he said, “I know that many things will
now appear before you, and I see now great luck upon you, I have a good feeling
about this, so answer me quick, seid-woman.”
She throws open her jaws and
gives a great yawn, and then a verse came to lips:
There’s
two inside,
(I
trust neither),
sitting
by the fire,
fine
fellows both.
The king said, “Is that the
boys, or those who harboured them?”
She answers:
“Those
lads who concealed
themselves
on the island,
Vivil’s
hounds,
Hopp
and Ho.”
And at that moment, Signy
tossed her a gold ring. She liked the present and wants to break off now. “How
did that happen?” she said, “This is just lies, what I’m saying, and now all my
powers are getting very confused.”
The king said, “You’ll be tortured till you
speak, if you don’t get it right. I know no more now than before, in this pack
of people, what you’re trying to say, and why is Signy not in her seat? Can it
be that wolves are plotting with wargs here?”
The king was told that Signy
had felt ill from the smoke that hung over the hearth.
Jarl Saevil begged her to sit
up and act brave, “as it could well save the boys’ lives, if that’s what will
be. So let no one see what you’re thinking, because we can’t lift a finger to
help them as things stand.”
King Frodi urges on the seeress now, and
demands she tell the truth, if she doesn’t want to be tortured. She gapes wide,
but the vision is hard, but eventually she chants a verse:
“Sitting
there, I saw them,
sons
of Halfdan,
Hroar
and Helgi,
hale
and well.
Now
Frodi’s life
lies
theirs for the taking...
“...unless they’re quickly
thwarted, but that can’t happen,” she said. And after this, she skips down off
the seid-platform and called:
“Baleful
the gaze
of
Ham and Hrani;
warlords
the both,
wondrously
brave.”
After that, the boys ran out
to the forest, deadly afraid. Regin, their foster father, recognised them, and
really felt for them. And the volva gave them this sound advice: “Save
yourselves!” – as she ran from the hall. And now the king tells his men to be
up and after them. Regin snuffs all the lights in the hall, and some men grab
hold of others, because some wanted them to get away, and so they made it to
the wood.
The king said, “They came
close then, but I’ll warrant there’s many in here plotting and conspiring with
them, and that will be grimly avenged as soon as there’s time. But now we can
drink all evening, as they’ll be so glad to have got away, and their first
thought will be to save themselves.
Regin goes to serve the
drinks, and he poured the ale with a vengeance, and many others with him, his
friends, so that the king’s men dropped down one on top of another, fast
asleep.
4. Regin
Incites the Brothers
Those brothers lie low in the
forest now, as has been said, and when they’d been there a while, they spot a
man riding towards them from the direction of the hall. They recognise him
without a shadow of a doubt, it’s Regin their foster father who’s come. They’re
overjoyed and welcome him with open arms. He ignores their greeting, and just
turns his horse back towards the hall. This puzzles them and they ask each
other what it could mean. Now Regin turns his horse to them again and looks at
them so unpleasantly, as if he might even attack them.
Helgi says, “I think I know
what he wants.”
Regin went home to the hall
now, and they followed.
“My foster father,” says
Helgi, “is acting like this so he won’t break his oath to King Frodi, and
that’s why he won’t talk to us, although he certainly wants to help.”
The King owned a grove near
the hall, and when they came there, Regin spoke to himself, saying, “If I had a
bone to pick with King Frodi, I’d burn this grove down.” He said no more.
Hroar said, “What’s that all
about?”
“What he wants,” said Helgi,
“is for us to go to the hall and set fire everywhere, except for one exit.”
“How can we do something like
that, two young men like us, with such overwhelming odds as there are against
us?”
“We’ll do it anyway,” said Helgi, “and we’ll
have to chance it sometime if we’re going to get avenged for our grief.”
And so that’s what they do.
Next thing they know, Jarl Saevil is coming out and all his men. He said then,
“Let’s lend these boys a hand and stoke up the fire. I owe King Frodi nothing.”
King Frodi had two smiths,
who were veritable Volunds of their craft, and both called Var—that’s Wary.
Regin herded his people out the hall door, his friends and relatives.
5. The
Killing of King Frodi
King Frodi wakes in the hall
now, gasping for air: “I dreamt a dream, boys, and not a nice one. I’ll tell it
to you. I dreamt someone was calling to us, and the voice said, ‘You’re home
now, king, and your men too.’ I seemed to answer, and rather sharply, ‘Home
where?’ Then the voice came back so close I could feel the blast of his breath,
from the one who called. ‘Home to hell, home to hell!’ the voice said, and with
that I awoke.”
And at that moment they heard
Regin outside the door intoning a verse:
“There’s
Rain[1]
out here
and
Halfdan’s riders,
fierce
foes
let
Frodi know.
Var made
the nails
and
Var the heads,
Someone
in the know
struck
a note of warning.”[2]
“Big deal,” said the king’s
men who were inside, “So what if it’s raining out there, or the royal smiths
are hammering away, be it nails or whatever they’re making.”
The king said, “You think
that’s no big deal? We disagree. Now Regin’s told us of some danger, and he’s
given me some words of warning, and most likely he’s being sly and tricky with
us.”
Then the king goes to the
hall door and sees that enemies are outside. Now the whole hall is ablaze. King
Frodi asks who ordered the fire. They said that it was Helgi and his brother
Hroar. The king offers a deal to the boys and asks them to set the terms for
themselves, “and it’s not right, this feuding among family, or for one kinsman
to wish death on another.”
Helgi says, “No one can trust you. Are you
going to betray us any less than you did our father? And now you’ll pay for
that.”
Then King Frodi turned from
the hall door and made for the entrance to his underground tunnel, hoping to
escape down there to the wood. But when he enters the tunnel, there’s Regin
waiting for him, and not looking too friendly. The king turns back then and
burns inside with many of his followers. Sigrid burnt in there too, the boys’
mother, Helgi’s and Hroar’s, because she wouldn’t come out.
The brothers thanked their
kinsman Jarl Saevil well for his help, and Regin their foster father too, and
all their followers, and gave many good gifts and took command of the whole
kingdom and with it much wealth which had been King Frodi’s, lands and riches.
They were quite different in mood, those brothers. Hroar was easy-going and
good-natured, but Helgi a great warrior, and generally seemed the greater of
the two. And that’s how it was then, for a while.
And here ends the Thread of Frodi, and the
Thread of Hroar and Helgi, Halfdan’s sons begins.
Part Two: Helgi’s Thread
6. Hroar
Weds Ogn, Nordri’s Daughter
There was a king called
Nordri. He ruled parts of England. His daughter was called Ogn. Hroar spent
long years with King Nordri, defending his realm, and they were the closest of
friends, and in time Hroar came to marry Ogn and settled down there in England
with his father-in-law King Nordri, while Helgi ruled over Denmark, their
inheritance from their father. Jarl Saevil ruled a realm of his own with Signy.
Their son was called Hrok. King Helgi Halfdan’s son, in Denmark there, was
unmarried. Regin took sick and died. That was considered a great loss, as he
was well loved.
7. Queen
Olof Fools King Helgi
In Saxland at that time,
there ruled a queen by the name of Olof. She had the ways of a warrior king.
She went with shield and byrnie, a sword at her side and a helm on her head.
This is what she was like: fair in looks, but fierce in mood, and haughty. They
said she was the best match known at that time in the whole of the north, but
she wanted no man. Now King Helgi hears of this imperious queen, and thought
he’d add much to his reputation if he could win this woman, willing or no.
So one day he set out with a
great army. He came to the land which this mighty queen ruled over, and arrives
without warning. He sent his men to her hall and bids them tell her that he and
they would accept her invitation to a feast. And this took her by surprise, and
there was no chance of mustering forces. She took the sensible option, and
invited King Helgi to a feast with all his men.
So King Helgi comes to the
feast now and took the high-seat beside the queen. They drink the evening
together, and nothing was lacking, and he could detect no gloom in Queen Olof.
King Helgi said to the queen,
“This is what I’m thinking,” he said, “I want us to drink our wedding feast
here this evening. There’s plenty of company here for that, and we’ll share one
bed together tonight.”
She said, “Too fast, my lord,
that seems to me, but I don’t know of anyone more courteous and noble than you,
if I do have to take a husband now. And of course, I’m sure you’re not
intending to act dishonourably here.”
The king said that what she
deserved for her pride and haughtiness, “is that we’re together just as long as
I like.”
She said, “We’d rather have
more of our friends here, if we had a choice, but I can’t do anything about
that now, so I suppose it falls to you to decide, but I’m sure that you’ll
treat our royal person with due respect.”
There was hard drinking then,
through the evening and long into the night, and the queen is all smiles, and
no one sees anything in her demeanour to suggest that she isn’t perfectly happy
with the arrangement. And finally the king is led to bed, and there she was,
waiting. The king had been drinking so hard that he immediately fell fast
asleep on the bed. The queen made use of this opportunity to stick him with a
sleep thorn.
And once everyone has gone,
the queen gets up. She shaves off all his hair and covered him in tar. Next she
took a sleeping-bag and packed a load of clothes into it. After that, she gets
the king and ties him up in the sack, swaddled like a baby. Then she got some
men to bundle him back to his ships. She wakes up his men and tells them the
king’s gone back to the ships and wants to sail, as there’s a good wind now.
They jumped up as quick as they could, but they were drunk and hardly know what
they were doing. And that’s how they were when they came to the ships and the
king was nowhere to be seen, but they did see a huge sleeping-sack that someone
had brought. They were very curious now to know what was in it, and they wait
for the king, thinking he’d probably be along a bit later. But when they undo
it, there they found their king. Someone had played a shameful trick on him.
Then the sleep thorn drops out, and the king starts up from a dream, and not a
nice one, and he’s in a foul mood now at the queen.
Meanwhile, it’s to be told
that Queen Olof musters her men in the night, and she’s not short of soldiers,
and King Helgi sees no way to get to her now. Suddenly from the hinterland they
hear the rasp of lur-horns and the war-blast being blown. The king sees that
the best thing now is to get away as fast as they can. There’s a good wind,
anyway. King Helgi sails home now to his kingdom with this shame and disgrace
and seethed with resentment and often wonders how he might get revenge on the
queen.
8. Helgi
Pays Back the Queen
Queen Olof sits a while in
her realm now, and her pride and overbearing have never been greater. She has a
strong guard kept round her, since the feast she made for King Helgi. News of
this spread far and wide. Everyone thinks it’s an incredible thing, unheard of,
that she should have made a fool of such a king.
But not long after, Helgi
puts out to sea in his ship, and on this voyage he took it to Saxland, right to
where Queen Olof has her residence. She’s got a lot of her followers there. He put
into a hidden cove and tells his warriors to wait there for him till the third
day, then be on their way if he didn’t come back. He had two chests with him,
full of gold and silver. He got himself some rags to wear on top of his
clothes.
He makes his way to a wood
and hides the treasure there, then went off towards the queen’s hall. He meets
one of her thralls and asks what’s new in the land. Thrall says all’s well, and
asks who might he be.
He said he was a tramp, “mind
you, I’ve come across this huge find of treasure in the forest, and the
sensible thing I would think, would be to show you where that treasure is.”
So they go back to the wood
and he shows him the treasure, and the thrall is much impressed at the luck
that’s come his way.
“How much does your queen
like treasure?” asks the tramp. The thrall says she’s the most treasure-hungry
queen there is.
“Then she’ll like this,” says
the tramp, “and she’ll no doubt think she owns this treasure that I’ve found
here, because this is her land. Well, good luck won’t turn to bad here; I’m not
going to hide this haul. The queen will give me whatever share of it she thinks
fit, and what’ll suit me best. But will she want to come here to get it?”
“I reckon so,” says the
thrall, “if it’s done discretely.”
“Here’s a necklace and a
ring,” says the tramp, “I want you to have them. They’re yours if you come out
here with the queen to the wood, just you and her. But if she’s mad at you,
I’ll sort things out.” This they agree, and the bargain is struck.
The thrall goes home now and
says to the queen that he’s found a great haul of treasure in the wood, big
enough to make a dozen fortunes, and begs her to come quick and follow him to
the gold.
She says, “If this is true,
what you’re saying, you’ll be well rewarded for telling me. Otherwise I’ll have
your head. And yet you’ve always been a reliable man till now, so I’ll believe
you in this.”
She shows just how greedy for
gold she was now, and goes with him in secret under cover of darkness, so that
none but the two of them knows. And when they come to the wood, Helgi’s there
waiting, and he grabs her and says what a lucky meeting this is, and what an
excellent time to avenge his shame.
The queen admitted she’s
treated him badly, “but I want to make it all up to you now, and you can wed me
with honour.”
“No,” said Helgi, “that’s not
an option to you anymore. You’re coming to the ships with me for a bit, till I
say you can go, because I’m in no mood to let you off, for the sake of my own
pride, not after the disgraceful game that was played with me.
“I suppose you’ll just have
to have your way,” she said, “for now.”
The king lay with the queen
many nights. And after that the queen goes home, and that’s how she’s paid back,
in the manner just described, and she’s all too resentful of the state she’s in
now.
9. Helgi
Married Yrsa
After that, King Helgi sets
out raiding, and he was a famous man. And in due course Olof has a baby. It was
a girl. She had no time for that child. She had a dog called Yrsa, and she named
the girl after it, so she was called Yrsa too. She was pretty to look at. And
when she was twelve years old, she had to watch flocks and never knew she was
anything other than a daughter of peasants, since the queen had dealt with this
matter in such secrecy that hardly anyone knew she’d been with child and had a
baby.
It went on like this till she
was thirteen. Then this happened: King Helgi came to the land, eager for news.
He’s dressed like a beggar. He sees a big flock on the edge of some wood, and a
woman was keeping watch, young in years, and so fair he doesn’t think he’s he
seen a fairer woman. He asks what she’s called and who her parents might be.
She says, “I’m a shepherd’s
daughter and I’m called Yrsa.”
“You don’t have a thrall’s eyes,”
he said, and that moment his love poured out to her, and he said it was only
fair a beggar should have her, if she was a peasant’s daughter. She asked him
not to do that, but he takes her to the ships, just as he’d done once before to
a woman there, and then sails home to his kingdom.
Queen Olof acted deceitfully when
she found out and didn’t let on. She pretended not to know what was happening,
and it came to her that this would bring down grief and disgrace on King Helgi,
and not one jot of fame or joy. But King Helgi weds Yrsa and he loves her very
much.
10. Helgi
Gave Hroar the Good Ring
King Helgi owned a ring, a
very famous one, and both brothers wanted it, and Signy their sister too. One
day, King Hroar came to the realm of King Helgi. Helgi arranged a magnificent
feast for him.
King Hroar said, “Of the two
of us I guess you’re the greater man, and since I’ve settled down in
Northumbria, I’ll gladly grant you this whole kingdom, which we both own, if
you will share a bit of treasure with me. I want that ring, the one that’s the
best of all your treasures and we both want to have.”
Helgi said, “You deserve no
less, kinsman, certainly you can have the ring.”
This talk pleased them both.
So King Helgi gave the ring to his brother King Hroar. Now Hroar goes off home
to his lands and stays peacefully there.
11. Hrok
Killed King Hroar
News came that Saevil, their
sister’s husband, had died, and his son Hrok succeeded him. He was a vicious
man and extremely greedy.
His mother tells him all
about the ring that those brothers owned, “and it would seem to me,” she said,
“only fair, that those brothers remember us with some gift of lands, since we
backed them in their vengeance for our father, and yet they’ve not remembered
us, not for your father’s sake, or for mine.”
Hrok said, “It’s plain as
day, what you say, and quite disgraceful; I must go now and see how they’re
willing to honour us.”
So he goes to King Helgi and
demands a third of the Danish kingdom or else the good ring, because he didn’t
know that Hroar had it now.
The king said, “You talk big,
and arrogantly too. We won this realm with our courage, by staking our life,
and with the support of your father and other good men who wanted to help. Now
we certainly wish to reward you, for the sake of our kinship, if it will please
you to accept that, but this kingdom has cost me so much that I won’t give it
up for anyone. Besides which, King Hroar has now got the ring, and I doubt
it’ll be coming your way.”
With this, Hrok leaves and he
wasn’t best pleased, and he sets out now to see King Hroar. Hroar received him well
and treated him with honour, and Hrok stays a while with him.
And one day, as they go
sailing along the coast and lay at anchor in some firth, Hrok said, “It would
seem to me, kinsman, that it would reflect well on you if you remembered our
kinship and gave me that good ring.”
The king said, “I’ve given up
such a lot to get this ring that I won’t let it go for anything.”
Hrok says, “But you’ll let me
see it, won’t you? Because I’m very curious to know if it’s such a great
treasure as they all say.”
“That’s not much to ask,”
says Hroar, “I’ll certainly grant you that,” and handed him the ring.
Now Hrok considered the ring
for a while and admitted that it really couldn’t be praised too much, “and I’ve
not seen a treasure like it, and it’s all too clear why you think it’s such a
wonderful ring. The best thing now would be for neither of you to enjoy it, and
no one else,” he says, promptly hurling the ring as far out to sea as he can.
King Hroar said, “You are a
very bad man.”
He had Hrok’s feet lopped off
and sent him back home to his land like that. He soon recovered to the point
where the stumps healed over.
Then he gathered an army to
avenge his shame. He took a large force and comes suddenly to Northumbria, to where
Hroar is attending a feast with just a few men. Hrok attacks at once, and a
vicious battle ensued, that wasn’t a very even match. There King Hroar falls,
and Hrok lays the whole land under his rule. He took the title of king.
Afterwards, he asked for the hand of Ogn, king Nordri’s daughter, who had
previously been married to King Hroar, his kinsman.
King Nordri now found himself
in a fix, because he was an old man by now and not much use for fighting. He
told his daughter Ogn how things stood, but assured her that he wouldn’t refuse
to fight, even though he was old, if this marriage wasn’t to her liking.
With great sorrow she said, “It
certainly is against my will, and yet I see that your life is at stake, so I
won’t turn him down, on one condition: that a bit of time is granted, as I’m
with child, and that needs to be sorted out first, and that’s King Hroar’s
child, that he had with me.”
So this message is brought to
Hrok, and he agrees to grant a postponement, if that meant he could get the
kingdom more easily, and the marriage. Hrok reckons he’s done well for himself
on this expedition, killing such a famous and powerful king.
But at this very moment, Ogn
is sending men to meet with King Helgi and she asked them to tell him that she
would not end up in Hrok’s bed, not willingly, if she had anything to say about
it, “for this reason: I am carrying King Hroar’s child.”
The messengers went and said
just what they were commanded.
King Helgi said, “This is
wisely spoken on her part, as I will avenge my brother Hroar.”
But Hrok suspected nothing of
this.
12. Helgi’s
Vengeance and Agnar
Queen Ogn gives birth to a
son now, and he’s called Agnar. He was soon big and full of promise.
And when King Helgi hears
this, he gathers an army and goes to meet Hrok. There’s a battle fought, and
the result is that Hrok is taken captive.
Then King Helgi says, “You
are a despicable lord, but I’m not going to kill you, because it’ll demean you
more to live on in agony.”
So he had his arms and legs
smashed and sent him back to his lands like that, good now for nothing.
But when Agnar Hroarsson was
twelve years old, people thought they’d never seen his like, and in every
respect he outshone other men. He became a warrior so great and famous that it’s
widely reported of him in all the old sagas that he was the greatest champion,
then or now. He asked about where that firth was where Hrok had tossed the ring
overboard. Many had searched for it with all kinds of tricks, but no one found
it.
And the story has it that
Agnar comes in his ship to this firth and said, “It would seem to me a fine
deed to do, to have a look for that ring, if anyone’s got a good bearing on
it?”
They told him where it had
been thrown in the sea. Agnar gets ready then and dives down into the depths, and
comes up, and he doesn’t have the ring. Down he went a second time, and he
hasn’t got it when he comes up.
So now he says, “We’ve not
been looking very hard till now,” and so down he goes a third time and now came
up with the ring.
For this he became gloriously
famously, more famous than King Hroar his father even. He spends the winters at
home in his kingdom now, and goes raiding by summer and becomes a famous man,
greater than his father.
King Helgi and Yrsa loved
each other a lot and had a son who was called Hrolf, who afterwards became a
man of note.
13. Yrsa’s
Family Revealed
Queen Olof hears that Helgi
and Yrsa are very much in love and enjoying their marriage. She isn’t too happy
about that and goes to see them. And when she came to their land, she sends
word to Queen Yrsa. And when they meet, Yrsa invites her home to the hall with
her. Olof declined, said she had no honour to repay King Helgi.
Yrsa said, “You treated me
wretchedly when I was with you. But can you tell me anything of my kin, who they
are, or why I have this suspicion that I’m not who I think I am, a daughter of
peasants?”
Olof said, “It’s not unlikely
that I might be able to tell you something about that. It was the main reason I
came here, to tell you all about that—how’s the marriage, by the way, are you
happy?”
“Yes,” she says, “and I’ve
got good cause to be happy, as my husband is the most excellent and famous king.”
“It’s not as good cause as
you think,” says Olof, “because he’s your father, and you are my daughter.”
Yrsa said, “I think I have
the worst and cruellest mother in the world, for this abomination will never be
forgotten.”
“You’ve paid for Helgi’s sins
here,” says Olof, “and my wrath, but now I’d like to invite you to live with me
in all honour and respect and I’ll treat you as best I can in every respect.”
Yrsa says, “I don’t know how
that would turn out, but I can’t stay here, not now I know this abomination
that hangs over me.”
She goes to meet King Helgi
then and tells him this grave news.
The king said, “You’ve a
cruel enough mother, but I’d say let’s leave it like this.”
She said they couldn’t live
together now, not like that. So Yrsa goes with Queen Olof and stays in Saxland
for a time. It stung King Helgi so much, this grief, that he lay in bed and lost
all joy. No one thought there was a better match than Yrsa, but the kings were
slow to ask for her, and the main thing was, they could never be sure Helgi
wouldn’t come after her and show his displeasure, if she was given to another.
14. King
Adils Married Yrsa
There was a king called
Adils, mighty and full of greed. He ruled oven Sweden and his royal seat was
the capital Uppsala. He heard of this
woman Yrsa, and readied his ships. He goes to meet Olof and Yrsa. Olof prepares
a feast for King Adils and receives him with every courtesy and courtly art. He
asks for Queen Yrsa to be his wife.
Olof answered, “You must have
heard how things stand with her, but we won’t object so long as she agrees.”
The news was brought to Yrsa.
What she said was, she doubted it would go well, “for you are not a well-liked
king.”
It goes ahead though,
whatever she said, and Adils went away with her, and King Helgi wasn’t told,
since Adils thought himself the greater king. King Helgi didn’t hear about it
till they came home to Sweden. Adils made a worthy wedding feast for her then.
And now King Helgi gets word
of this and he feels twice as bad as he did before. He slept alone in one of
the outbuildings. Olof is now out of the saga. It went on like this for a
while.
15. An
Elf-Woman Visited Helgi
But one Yule Eve, it’s said,
when King Helgi has gone to bed, and there’s bad weather outside, there came a
knock at the door, rather faint. It occurred to him that it wouldn’t be very
kingly to leave some poor wretch out there, when he might as well offer them
shelter. So he goes and opens the door.
He sees this poor ragged
thing has come. It said, “You’ve acted well, king,” and then it comes inside.
The king said, “Get this
straw and bearskin over you, so you don’t freeze.”
It said, “Let me into your
bed, lord, and I’ll lie with you. My life depends on it.”
The king says, “My gorge
rises at you, but if it’s as you say, then lie here at the edge in your clothes.
That won’t do me any harm.”
So that’s what she does. The
king turns his back on her. Light shone in the house. And after a while, he
happens to glance over his shoulder at her and sees a woman lying there now so
fair, he thinks he’s never seen the like of her. She was wearing a silk gown.
He turns quickly towards her, full of affection.
She spoke: “Now I want to go
away,” she says, “and you’ve saved me from a terrible curse, because this was
what my stepmother did to me, and I’ve visited many kings in their homes, so
don’t sink to shamefulness now. I don’t want to stay here any longer.”
“No,” said the king, “that’s
not an option. You won’t get away from me that fast, and we shan’t part like
this. It’ll have to be a quick wedding, I’m afraid, because I like you very
much.”
“It falls to you to decide,
lord,” she said, and so they slept together that night.
But when morning comes, she
says these words: “You’ve had your way with me, but know this: we’ll have a
child. Do as I say, king, come and see our child this time next winter at your
boatsheds, or you’ll pay if you don’t do as I say.” After this, she went away.
King Helgi is now a bit
happier than before. Time passes and he forgets all about it. And after three
years, so they say, there came three riders to the building which the king
sleeps in. It was midnight. They came with a girl-child and set her down beside
the building.
The woman who brought the
child spoke these words: “Know this, king,” she said, “your kin will pay
because you failed to do as I told you. But you’ll benefit, for releasing me
from that curse, and know this: the girl is called Skuld. She is our daughter.”
After which, they rode away.
It had been an elf-woman. The king never heard of her again. Skuld grew up
there and she’s soon vicious at heart.
It’s said that one time, King
Helgi gets ready to go abroad and forget his cares in that way. His son Hrolf
is left behind. He harries far and wide, and accomplished many great deeds.
16. Adils
Tricked King Helgi
King Adils is home in Uppsala
now. He had twelve berserks and their job was to defend his realm for him from any
danger or attack. King Helgi sets course now for Uppsala to carry off Yrsa. He
comes ashore there. And when King Adils hears that, that King Helgi has arrived
in the land, he asks Queen Yrsa what sort of a welcome she wants for King Helgi.
She says, “You’ll decide
about that, but you already know there isn’t a man I owe more to by the bonds
of kinship than him.”
So King Adils sees fit to
invite him to a banquet, but what he’s planning is not entirely above board. King
Helgi accepts and goes to the feast with a hundred men, but most of them stayed
down at the ships. King Adils welcomes him with open arms. Queen Yrsa thinks
she’ll make peace between the kings, and she treats Helgi with all due respect.
King Helgi was so happy to see the queen that he thought of nothing else. He wanted
to talk to her the whole time, every minute he possibly could. So there they
sit at the feast.
And then King Adils’ berserks
came home. And the moment they’d touched land, King Adils goes to meet them,
taking care that no one else knew. He tells them to go to a particular wood
that stood between the stronghold and King Helgi’s ships, and told them to
spring an attack on Helgi from there, when he went to his ships. “I’ll send a
force to help you, and they’ll cut them off from the rear, and we’ll catch them
in a pincer movement like that, because I want to make sure King Helgi doesn’t
get away, because I can tell he loves the queen so much, that I’d rather not risk
what he’ll do.”
Meantime King Helgi is
sitting at the feast and this plot was carefully kept from him, and from the
queen too. Queen Yrsa says to King Adils that she would like him to give King Helgi
splendid gifts, gold and treasures. He gives his word, but planned to enjoy
them for himself. Then King Helgi leaves, and Adils and the queen see him on
his way, and they part company, the queen and the two kings, on fairly good
terms.
But not long after, when King
Adils had left for home, Helgi and his men found themselves under attack, and a
battle ensued. King Helgi flung himself at the enemy and fought bravely, but due
to overwhelming odds he fell then, King Helgi, with great glory and many terrible
wounds, and some of Adils’ men came at them from the rear, and they were
crushed thus between hammer and anvil. Queen Yrsa knew nothing till Helgi was
fallen and the battle done. There fell with Helgi all the men who’d gone up to
the feast with him, and the rest fled home to Denmark. And here ends the tale
of King Helgi.
17. Of Queen
Yrsa
King Adils gloried in his
victory and thought he’d gained much glory by killing such a renowned and
widely-famed king as Helgi.
Queen Yrsa said, “Boasting’s
the last thing you should be doing, even if you have betrayed that man I’m most
obliged to, and the one I loved the most, and for this very reason I’ll never
be loyal to you if you come up against King Helgi’s kinsmen. I mean to get your
berserks killed just as soon as I can, if there’s anyone brave enough to do
that for my sake and their own prowess.”
King Adils asked her not to
threaten him or his berserks, “because it won’t do you any good. But I wish to
compensate you handsomely for your father’s death with gifts of great wealth
and good treasures, if you can find it in yourself to accept.”
At this, the queen becomes
calm and accepts redress from the king. But all the same, from then on her mood
was grim, and she often sat working out ways to get at the berserks, to hurt or
humiliate them. Since that day, no one sees the queen glad, or ever in a good
mood after the fall of King Helgi, and there was more disagreement in the hall
than there was before, and the queen preferred not to serve King Adils, not if
she had a choice.
King Adils considered himself
to have become hugely famous now, and anyone who serves with him and his
warriors is considered a great man indeed. He stays a while in his realm and doubts
that anyone will lift a finger against him and his berserks, or raise a shield
for war. King Adils was a great one for sacrifices and full of arcane powers.
Part Three: Svipdag’s Thread
18. Svipdag
Came to King Adils
There was a farmer named
Svip. He lived in Sweden well off the beaten track. He was rich and had been a
great fighter and not altogether what he seemed. He knew more than a little
wizardry. He had three sons named here: Svipdag, Beigad and Hvitserk. (He was
the eldest.) They were all of them sturdy men, strong and fine-looking.
And one day when Svipdag was
eighteen years old, he spoke to his father like this: “It’s a dull life we
lead, staying up here in the mountains all the time, in these wilds and out-of-the-way
valleys, and never going to see anyone, and no one comes to see us. It’d be a
finer thing to go to King Adils and join his retinue of warriors, if he’d take
us.”
Farmer Svip answers, “It
doesn’t seem like such a good idea to me, as King Adils is a vicious man and
not very sound, even if he puts on pleasant airs, and his men are full of envy,
albeit a sturdy lot. But sure, King Adils is a mighty man and well renowned.”
Svipdag says, “You’ve got
take a chance, if you want to get on in this world, and you never know, before
you try, which way your luck will go, but one thing’s for sure: I’m not staying
here any longer, whatever else lies ahead.”
And since his mind was made
up, his father gave him a large axe, beautiful and sharp.
He said to his son then,
“Don’t envy others, don’t behave arrogantly, or you’ll get a bad name. Instead,
defend yourself, if anyone attacks you, because it’s a great man who doesn’t
boast much but makes a good showing, if he’s put to the test.”
He gives him armour, all finely
made, and a good horse.
Svipdag rides off now, and
comes at evening to King Adils’ stronghold. He sees that there are games afoot out
in front of the hall, and there’s King Adils sitting on a great gold throne
with his berserks beside him. And when Svipdag comes to the stockade, the gate was
locked, since it was the custom then for people to ask leave to ride in.
Svipdag doesn’t bother with that. He breaks down the gate and just rides on
into the yard.
The king said, “This man’s a
careless rider, and no one’s ever tried that before. Could be, he’s so tough he
just doesn’t see it as challenge.”
At once the berserks started
scowling furiously, and it seems to them that he’s behaving rather arrogantly.
Svipdag rides up to the king and greets him nicely; he was well aware of
courtly manners. King Adils asks who he might be. He introduces himself. The
king remembers his father, and everyone guesses that the newcomer must be a great
warrior, a man of distinction. The game hadn’t finished yet. Svipdag sits
himself down on a log and watches the game. The berserks are giving him mean
looks, and now they say to the king that they going to test him out.
The king says, “What I think
is, he won’t be a push-over, but still it’s fine by me if you want to test him
and see if he’s as good as he thinks he is.”
They crowd into the hall now.
The berserks walk up to Svipdag and ask if he’s some sort of hero, since he’s
acting so big. He said he was as good as any of them. And at this, their anger
and eagerness to fight only grew, but the king told them to simmer down for the
evening.
The berserks scowled and
howled and they said to Svipdag, “Do you dare to fight with us? Because you’ll
need to use more than just big talk and brashness then, and we want to test you
and see what you’re really made of.”
He says, “I’ll fight you: one
at a time, and that way I’ll find out if anyone else wants a try.”
This was quite alright by the
king, that they should test each other.
Queen Yrsa said, “This man is
welcome here.”
The berserks answered her,
“We already know that you want us all dead, but we’re a bit too fit to be
felled by words or ill will.”
The queen said, “So what if
the king wants to test and see what sort of warriors he’s got in you, since he
believes in you so much?”
The berserk who was their
leader said, “I’ll mend your manners and set you down a peg in such a way that we
shan’t have to worry about this man.”
19. Of
Svipdag and the Berserks
And come morning, a tough
island duel took place, and no lack of hard hits there. They all saw that this
newcomer could swing a sword with great strength, and knew how to make it bite,
and the berserk backs off before him, and he kills the berserk. And
straightaway the next one wants to avenge his death, but he goes the same way,
and Svipdag doesn’t stop till he’s killed four.
Then King Adils said, “You’ve
dealt me a heavy loss, and now you’ll pay,” and ordered his men to get up and
kill him.
The queen, on the other hand,
musters supporters of her own to help him and says to the king, surely he can
see that there was much more worth in this one than in all those berserks put
together. So the queen negotiates a truce between them, and everyone considers
Svipdag a man of outstanding prowess. He sits now on the bench opposite the
king, and that’s Queen Yrsa’s idea.
And as it got dark, he looks
around and thinks he’s still been rather too light on the berserks, and wants to
provoke a fight with them, and he thinks it’s likely that if they see him on
his own, they’ll go for him. And that’s just what happened, as he expected,
because they’re on him in an instant.
And then when they’d been
fighting for a while, the king arrives and separates them. After that the king
outlawed the berserks, the ones who were left, as the whole lot of them
together hadn’t managed to beat one man on his own, and he said he’d no idea
till now that they were so useless, big talkers and nothing more. So they have
to leave now, but they swore to terrorise Adils’ kingdom. The king appeared not
to mind their threats and said that these bitches had no pluck in them. Off
they went now in disgrace and shame. But really it was King Adils who had egged
them on in the first place, to attack him as he left the hall and avenge
themselves, so that the queen wouldn’t know. Svipdag however had killed one by
the time the king came to separate them.
King Adils now asks Svipdag
to provide him with just as much help as he’d got before from all the berserks,
“all the more so, as the queen wants you to take their place.” So Svipdag
stayed there for a while.