Heimskringla; Or, The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway
4. HALFDAN'S STRIFE WITH GANDALF'S SONS.
In autumn, King Halfdan proceeded to Vingulmark. One night when he was
there in guest quarters, it happened that about midnight a man came to
him who had been on the watch on horseback, and told him a war force was
come near to the house. The king instantly got up, ordered his men to
arm themselves, and went out of the house and drew them up in battle
order. At the same moment, Gandalf's sons, Hysing and Helsing, made
their appearance with a large army. There was a great battle; but
Halfdan being overpowered by the numbers of people fled to the forest,
leaving many of his men on this spot. His foster-father, Olver Spake
(the Wise), fell here. The people now came in swarms to King Halfdan,
and he advanced to seek Gandalf's sons. They met at Eid, near Lake
Oieren, and fought there. Hysing and Helsing fell, and their brother
Hake saved himself by flight. King Halfdan then took possession of the
whole of Vingulmark, and Hake fled to Alfheimar.
5. HALFDAN'S MARRIAGE WITH HJORT'S DAUGHTER.
Sigurd Hjort was the name of a king in Ringerike, who was stouter and
stronger than any other man, and his equal could not be seen for a
handsome appearance. His father was Helge Hvasse (the Sharp); and his
mother was Aslaug, a daughter of Sigurd the worm-eyed, who again was a
son of Ragnar Lodbrok. It is told of Sigurd that when he was only twelve
years old he killed in single combat the berserk Hildebrand, and eleven
others of his comrades; and many are the deeds of manhood told of him in
a long saga about his feats. Sigurd had two children, one of whom was
a daughter, called Ragnhild, then twenty years of age, and an excellent
brisk girl. Her brother Guthorm was a youth. It is related in regard
to Sigurd's death that he had a custom of riding out quite alone in the
uninhabited forest to hunt the wild beasts that are hurtful to man, and
he was always very eager at this sport. One day he rode out into the
forest as usual, and when he had ridden a long way he came out at a
piece of cleared land near to Hadeland. There the berserk Hake came
against him with thirty men, and they fought. Sigurd Hjort fell there,
after killing twelve of Hake's men; and Hake himself lost one hand, and
had three other wounds. Then Hake and his men rode to Sigurd's house,
where they took his daughter Ragnhild and her brother Guthorm, and
carried them, with much property and valuable articles, home to
Hadeland, where Hake had many great farms. He ordered a feast to be
prepared, intending to hold his wedding with Ragnhild; but the time
passed on account of his wounds, which healed slowly; and the berserk
Hake of Hadeland had to keep his bed, on account of his wounds, all the
autumn and beginning of winter. Now King Halfdan was in Hedemark at the
Yule entertainments when he heard this news; and one morning early, when
the king was dressed, he called to him Harek Gand, and told him to go
over to Hadeland, and bring him Ragnhild, Sigurd Hjort's daughter. Harek
got ready with a hundred men, and made his journey so that they came
over the lake to Hake's house in the grey of the morning, and beset all
the doors and stairs of the places where the house-servants slept. Then
they broke into the sleeping-room where Hake slept, took Ragnhild, with
her brother Guthorm, and all the goods that were there, and set fire
to the house-servants' place, and burnt all the people in it. Then they
covered over a magnificent waggon, placed Ragnhild and Guthorm in it,
and drove down upon the ice. Hake got up and went after them a while;
but when he came to the ice on the lake, he turned his sword-hilt to
the ground and let himself fall upon the point, so that the sword went
through him. He was buried under a mound on the banks of the lake. When
King Halfdan, who was very quick of sight, saw the party returning over
the frozen lake, and with a covered waggon, he knew that their errand
was accomplished according to his desire. Thereupon he ordered the
tables to be set out, and sent people all round in the neighbourhood to
invite plenty of guests; and the same day there was a good feast which
was also Halfdan's marriage-feast with Ragnhild, who became a great
queen. Ragnhild's mother was Thorny, a daughter of Klakharald king in
Jutland, and a sister of Thrye Dannebod who was married to the Danish
king, Gorm the Old, who then ruled over the Danish dominions.
6. OF RAGNHILD'S DREAM.
Ragnhild, who was wise and intelligent, dreamt great dreams. She dreamt,
for one, that she was standing out in her herb-garden, and she took a
thorn out of her shift; but while she was holding the thorn in her hand
it grew so that it became a great tree, one end of which struck itself
down into the earth, and it became firmly rooted; and the other end of
the tree raised itself so high in the air that she could scarcely see
over it, and it became also wonderfully thick. The under part of the
tree was red with blood, but the stem upwards was beautifully green and
the branches white as snow. There were many and great limbs to the tree,
some high up, others low down; and so vast were the tree's branches that
they seemed to her to cover all Norway, and even much more.
7. OF HALFDAN'S DREAM.
King Halfdan never had dreams, which appeared to him an extraordinary
circumstance; and he told it to a man called Thorleif Spake (the Wise),
and asked him what his advice was about it. Thorleif said that what he
himself did, when he wanted to have any revelation by dream, was to take
his sleep in a swine-sty, and then it never failed that he had dreams.
The king did so, and the following dream was revealed to him. He thought
he had the most beautiful hair, which was all in ringlets; some so long
as to fall upon the ground, some reaching to the middle of his legs,
some to his knees, some to his loins or the middle of his sides, some
to his neck, and some were only as knots springing from his head. These
ringlets were of various colours; but one ringlet surpassed all the
others in beauty, lustre, and size. This dream he told to Thorleif, who
interpreted it thus:--There should be a great posterity from him, and
his descendants should rule over countries with great, but not all with
equally great, honour; but one of his race should be more celebrated
than all the others. It was the opinion of people that this ringlet
betokened King Olaf the Saint.
King Halfdan was a wise man, a man of truth and uprightness--who made
laws, observed them himself, and obliged others to observe them. And
that violence should not come in place of the laws, he himself fixed
the number of criminal acts in law, and the compensations, mulcts, or
penalties, for each case, according to every one's birth and dignity
(1).
Queen Ragnhild gave birth to a son, and water was poured over him, and
the name of Harald given him, and he soon grew stout and remarkably
handsome. As he grew up he became very expert at all feats, and showed
also a good understanding. He was much beloved by his mother, but less
so by his father.
ENDNOTES:
(1) The penalty, compensation, or manbod for every injury, due
the party injured, or to his family and next of kin if the
injury was the death or premeditated murder of the party,
appears to have been fixed for every rank and condition,
from the murder of the king down to the maiming or beating a
man's cattle or his slave. A man for whom no compensation
was due was a dishonored person, or an outlaw. It appears
to have been optional with the injured party, or his kin if
he had been killed, to take the mulct or compensation, or to
refuse it, and wait for an opportunity of taking vengeance
for the injury on the party who inflicted it, or on his kin.
A part of each mulct or compensation was due to the king;
and, these fines or penalties appear to have constituted a
great proportion of the king's revenues, and to have been
settled in the Things held in every district for
administering the law with the lagman.--L.
8. HALFDAN'S MEAT VANISHES AT A FEAST
King Halfdan was at a Yule-feast in Hadeland, where a wonderful thing
happened one Yule evening. When the great number of guests assembled
were going to sit down to table, all the meat and all the ale
disappeared from the table. The king sat alone very confused in mind;
all the others set off, each to his home, in consternation. That the
king might come to some certainty about what had occasioned this event,
he ordered a Fin to be seized who was particularly knowing, and tried to
force him to disclose the truth; but however much he tortured the man,
he got nothing out of him. The Fin sought help particularly from Harald,
the king's son, and Harald begged for mercy for him, but in vain. Then
Harald let him escape against the king's will, and accompanied the man
himself. On their journey they came to a place where the man's chief had
a great feast, and it appears they were well received there. When they
had been there until spring, the chief said, "Thy father took it much
amiss that in winter I took some provisions from him,--now I will repay
it to thee by a joyful piece of news: thy father is dead; and now thou
shalt return home, and take possession of the whole kingdom which he
had, and with it thou shalt lay the whole kingdom of Norway under thee."
9. HALFDAN S DEATH.
Halfdan the Black was driving from a feast in Hadeland, and it so
happened that his road lay over the lake called Rand. It was in
spring, and there was a great thaw. They drove across the bight called
Rykinsvik, where in winter there had been a pond broken in the ice for
cattle to drink at, and where the dung had fallen upon the ice the thaw
had eaten it into holes. Now as the king drove over it the ice broke,
and King Halfdan and many with him perished. He was then forty years
old. He had been one of the most fortunate kings in respect of good
seasons. The people thought so much of him, that when his death was
known and his body was floated to Ringerike to bury it there, the people
of most consequence from Raumarike, Vestfold, and Hedemark came to
meet it. All desired to take the body with them to bury it in their own
district, and they thought that those who got it would have good crops
to expect. At last it was agreed to divide the body into four parts. The
head was laid in a mound at Stein in Ringerike, and each of the others
took his part home and laid it in a mound; and these have since been
called Halfdan's Mounds.
HARALD HARFAGER'S SAGA.
1. HARALD'S STRIFE WITH HAKE AND HIS FATHER GANDALF.
Harald (1) was but ten years old when he succeeded his father (Halfdan
the Black). He became a stout, strong, and comely man, and withal
prudent and manly. His mother's brother, Guthorm, was leader of the
hird, at the head of the government, and commander ('hertogi') of the
army. After Halfdan the Black's death, many chiefs coveted the dominions
he had left. Among these King Gandalf was the first; then Hogne and
Frode, sons of Eystein, king of Hedemark; and also Hogne Karuson came
from Ringerike. Hake, the son of Gandalf, began with an expedition of
300 men against Vestfold, marched by the main road through some valleys,
and expected to come suddenly upon King Harald; while his father Gandalf
sat at home with his army, and prepared to cross over the fiord into
Vestfold. When Duke Guthorm heard of this he gathered an army, and
marched up the country with King Harald against Hake. They met in
a valley, in which they fought a great battle, and King Harald was
victorious; and there fell King Hake and most of his people. The place
has since been called Hakadale. Then King Harald and Duke Guthorm turned