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.