Six Sagas of Adventure

by Ben Waggoner (trans)

  King Hrolf grew old, and he died of an illness. Eirek took the kingship after him, and all the realm that King Hrolf his father had ruled. He became a famous king, and was much like his father.

  People say that this saga is true. Although it hasn’t been inscribed on tablets, wise men have nonetheless kept it in memory, along with many of the brave deeds of King Hrolf that aren’t included here. His heroic deeds will be slow to fade.

  Concerning this saga, like many others, it happens that not everyone tells it the same way. But there are many men and they travel widely, and one hears what another one didn’t hear, yet both accounts may be true, if neither has quite gotten to the truth. People shouldn’t be surprised that men were once more outstanding in size and strength than they are now. It’s true that they could only reckon a few generations since the giants. Now the human race has all become the same, since the lineages are all blended. It’s true that many smaller men could fall at one blow of a mighty man, since their weapons were so heavy that weaker men could hardly lift them from the ground. One may note that smaller men would not be able to stand if mighty men struck at them with great strength and sharp blades, which would smash everything even if the weapon didn’t bite.

  I think it’s best for those who can’t improve the story not to find fault with it. Whether it’s true or not, let him have enjoyment from it who can, and let the others enjoy something that they like better.

  Here we end the saga of King Hrolf Gautreksson.

  [1] A hersir was a local military leader who owed allegiance to a jarl or king.

  [2] Kalinké (Bridal-Quest Romance, p. 74, n10) suggests that a similar apple-tree motif in a different saga is derived from the Biblical Song of Solomon 2:3: “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.” (KJV) But comparing men to trees is a common metaphor in Eddic poetry (e.g. brynþings apaldr, “mailcoat-assembly’s apple tree”, i.e. “apple tree of battle”, applied to Sigurðr in Sigrdrífumál; or rógapaldr, “apple tree of strife”, applied to Helgi in Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar).

  [3] As discussed in the Introduction, the theme of the maiden who chooses an older but more accomplished suitor over a younger man was probably based on Völsunga saga ch. 11, in which Hjordis chooses the aged but famous Sigmund over the young but less accomplished Lyngvi. In both sagas, the rejected younger king returns with an army and attacks his older rival; however, Hrolf kills Olaf in Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, while Lyngvi vanquishes Sigurd and takes Hjordis (thanks to the god Odin’s intervention) in Völsunga saga. (Kalinké, Bridal-Quest Romance, pp. 26-29)

  [4] In the old Norse rite of naming a child, a baby was brought to its father, who acknowledged his paternity, sprinkled the baby with water, and gave it its name. The entire rite was called ausa vatni, “to sprinkle water.” Despite outward similarity with the rite of Christian baptism (which is never called ausa vatni in the sagas, but always skírn, literally “cleansing; purification”), the rite seems to go back to pre-Christian times; it is well attested in sagas and Eddic poems.

  [5] Ullarakr (modern Swedish Ulleråker) is a district near Uppsala. The name probably means “Field of Wool”—it appears in Saxo’s Latin Danish History as Campus Laneus—but it could also mean “Field of Ullr,” referring to the Norse god of hunting and archery. Jóhanna Friðriksdóttir points out that in Heimskringla (Óláfs saga helga ch. 78, transl. Hollander, pp. 316-317), Princess Ingigerd of Sweden has an estate in her own right at Ullarakr, where she negotiates whether she should be betrothed to King Olaf of Norway to make peace between Norway and Sweden (Women in Old Norse Literature, p. 87, p. 161 n43).

  [6] The rule of primogeniture, under which the oldest son of a king is automatically heir to the throne, did not become established until the late 13th century (Jochens, Women in Old Norse Society, pp. 94-97). This “law” is an anachronism in the saga’s setting, but it probably reflects the royal ideology that had been introduced to Iceland after its union with Norway.

  [7] This is also said of both the legendary Hrolf Sturlaugson, known as Göngu-Hrólfr or “Hrolf the Walker”, in Göngu-Hrólfs saga (ch. 4), and also the historical Hrolf who conquered Normandy, also known as Rollo or Rolf the Ganger (Historia Norvegiae, transl. Kunin, History of Norway, pp. 8-9).

  [8] The fetch (fylgja, etymologically “follower” or “one that accompanies”) is a spirit being that accompanies a person; it is usually invisible, but often appears in dreams. It usually takes the form of an animal whose assumed nature is like its person’s: kings have “noble beasts” like lions or stags, warriors have bears or wolves or other fierce beasts, treacherous sorcerors have foxes, and so on. (Turville-Petre, “Dreams in Icelandic Tradition,” pp. 36-39)

  [9] Noble antagonists in the legendary sagas often hold some of their ships back in battle, in order to even the odds; e.g. Þórsteins saga Víkingssonar ch. 7, Örvar-Odds saga ch. 9.

  [10] White “peace-shields” were used to signal peaceful intent, while red “war-shields” signaled hostile intentions; see Eiríks saga rauða (chs. 10-11).

  [11] The word klámhögg, “foul blow” or “shaming-stroke”, was the legal term for a strike on the buttocks. It was disgraceful for a man to receive one, because it symbolically “womanized” him; law codes ranked it alongside castration (Meulengracht Sørensen, The Unmanly Man, pp. 68-70). Lendakláði, literally “loin-itching”, implies sexual wantonness, and the sword may be understood as a metaphorical penis (Heide, “Spinning Seiðr”, p. 168). Ketil is thus simultaneously insulting Thorberg’s masculinity and femininity.

  [12] The text just says that she struck him with the axe, but since Ketil survives, she presumably struck with the hammer-like back of the axehead. In the sagas, striking with the back of the axehead is sometimes done to humiliate opponents; the implication is they are not worth killing with the blade (Völsunga saga 35; Þórðar saga hreðu ch. 9; see Viking Weapons and Combat Techniques, p. 84).

  [13] Eating raw meat is typical of berserks, trolls, and other not-wholly-human villains (e.g. Grim Ægir in Göngu-Hrólfs saga ch. 2) It is specifically forbidden in Örvar-odds saga ch. 9, as líkari. . . vörgum en mönnum, “more suitable for wolves than for men.”

  [14] In the legendary sagas, huge clubs are “standard operating procedure” for dealing with berserks or enchanted enemies that cannot be harmed with bladed weapons. (Beard, “Á Þá Bitu Engi Járn,” pp. 16-17; see note 22 to Hrómundar saga Gripssonar)

  [15] A similar brilliantly colored ship, which the hero sees and instantly desires to own regardless of the cost, appears in Sörla saga sterka ch. 11.

  [16] Basins and towels for washing the hands were traditionally offered to guests at feasts; e.g. Hávamál 4 (transl. Orchard, The Elder Edda, p. 15).

  [17] In a number of sagas, the sword used to kill a giant or other monster—sometimes the only sword that can kill it—is kept in the monster’s own lair (e.g. Hjálmþers saga ok Ölvis ch. 9; Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana ch. 15; Fljótsdæla saga ch. 5; Þorsteins saga uxafóts ch. 9; cf. G519.2, “Ogre killed with his own iron bar”; Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk Loterature, vol. 3, p. 360). The same motif appears in folktales such as the Norwegian tale “Soria Moria Castle,” but its oldest appearance seems to be Beowulf’s encounter with Grendel’s mother (Beowulf 1557-1569).

  [18] This is a reworking of the “Polyphemus motif” familiar from the Odyssey; the same motif turns up in the legendary Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabani (ch. 10). Hollander points out a number of similarities with an episode in chapter 5 of Vatnsdælasaga, a “saga of Icelanders,” in which Thorstein kills a robber named Jokul in his hut (“The Gautland Cycle of Sagas I”, pp. 65-72). He also points out links with the fornaldarsaga Þórsteins saga Víkingssonar, in which, for
example, the evil giant Harek is also armed with a forked iron poker and skewers two men at a time. (“The Gautland Cycle of Sagas I”, pp. 72-77)

  [19] Hollander points out that in both Beowulf and Hrólfs saga Gautrekssonar, the monster-slaying sword is said to be so heavy that only the hero can wield it. (“The Gautland Cycle of Sagas I”, pp. 70-71)

  [20] This type of insult was defined in law as ýki, “exaggeration”; the old Norwegian law code Gulaþingslög defines ýki as “if a man says about another that which cannot be nor come to be, and has not been.” Insults equating a man with a mare itself, implying that the man has sought out sexual penetration, are more common in the sagas; accusations of bestiality with a passive animal partner are rarer (Meulengracht Sørensen, The Unmanly Man, pp. 15-17; Finlay, “Monstrous Allegations,” pp. 38-42).

  [21] All the names in this story are derived from horses: Hrosskell “horse-kettle” (short for Hross-ketill); Hrossþjóf “horse-thief”; Hesthofði “horse-head”. Boyer (Les Sagas Légendaires, pp. 143-145) suggests that a distant remembrance of totemism may be behind this story, pointing out that a number of legendary families are named for animals (Ylfingar from wolves, Hundingjar from dogs, and so on).

  [22] The Eddic poem Hyndluljóð 22 (Orchard, The Elder Edda, p. 253) mentions Thorir Ironshield. He is associated with “Hrolf the Old”, who is presumably Hrolf Gautreksson (who is said to have lived to an old age in ch. 37 of this saga).

  [23] “Ring Horn”. The god Baldr is said to have owned a ship by that name (Snorri Sturluson, Gylfaginning 49, ed. Faulkes, Edda, vol. 1, p. 46); the connection, if any, is not clear. Drinking horns that can provide omens appear in Þórsteins saga bæjarmagns (chs. 8-9), while weapons that give omens by making loud noises appear in Göngu-Hrólfs saga (ch. 1, note 8).

  [24] In Ragnarssona þáttr (ch. 2), Ragnar Lodbrok gets much the same warning from his wife Aslaug when he plans to invade England: large ships are inadvisable because the island is surrounded by treacherous currents and sandbars.

  [25] Kalinké (Bridal-Guest Romance, p. 58 n26) suggests that Thomas of Cantimpré’s Liber de natura rerum was the source for this beast-lore. Thomas states that elephants can be overcome by the grunting of pigs, and also that they are fond of wine. The saga author may have substituted a lion for the elephant, inspired by the “grateful lion” first found in Ívens saga (the Norse translation of Chrétien de Troyes’s Yvain) and appearing in several later sagas.

  [26] “Grim the Hardy” is mentioned in Hyndluljóð alongside Thorir Ironshield (Orchard, The Elder Edda, p. 253), and may have been intended as a retainer of “Hrolf the Old”, probably Hrolf Gautreksson (see note 22 above).

  [27] This is a possible reference to the “Loathly Lady” motif, in which a hero sleeps with (or just sleeps next to) an elderly and/or hideous woman, discovering the next morning that she has transformed into a young and beautiful woman. (D732 in Thompson, Motif-Index, vol. 2, p. 84; Z116 in Thompson, vol. 5, p. 560. For examples in the legendary sagas see Hrólfs saga kraka ch. 15, Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar ch. 19, and Gríms saga loðinkinna ch. 2)

  [28] Friðþjófs saga (ch. 12) also features a king testing the hero’s loyalty by falling asleep, or pretending to fall asleep, to see whether the hero will try to kill him or not. The ultimate source might be the Biblical story of David, who has an opportunity to kill Saul but spares him (1 Samuel 24:1-22). See Kalinké, Bridal-Quest Romance, pp. 59-60, 117-118.

  [29] Berserks are often depicted going around in groups of twelve in the sagas (this saga chs. 16, 20; also Egils saga ch. 9; Örvar-Odds saga ch. 14; Hrólfs saga kraka ch. 16, 37; Gautreks saga ch. 7). Harek’s eleven companions have no role in the story here; the saga writer may have included them solely to follow tradition.

  [30] In formal legal duels (holmganga), the combatants stood on a cow hide or on a cloak; a man who stepped off the cloak or out of bounds had forfeited the duel. Each man’s “second” held a shield before him. (e.g. Kormaks saga ch. 10)

  [31] Kalinké (Bridal-Quest Romance, pp. 61-62) suggests that the direct inspiration for this episode is an episode of Egils saga (ch. 64) in which Egil fights the berserk Ljot the Pale, who has challenged the unwarlike Fridgeir to a duel in order to take Fridgeir’s sister. Fridgeir’s mother and Thord’s sister both share the name Gyda. The Egils saga episode in turn may derive from an episode in Chrétien de Troyes’s Yvain (known in Norse translation as Ívens saga), in which Yvain saves a girl from the giant Harpin de la Montaigne, who has killed two of her brothers and is threatening to kill the other four.

  [32] This is a widespread folk motif; in Saxo’s Danish History (IX.321; transl. Davidson and Fisher, p. 297), King Gorm of Denmark makes a similar promise to kill whoever tells him that his son is dead. Usually, the point is that the messenger has to come up with a creative way to make the king blurt out the bad news himself (J1675.2.1, “Tidings brought to the king”; Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk Literature, vol. 4, p. 136).

  [33] The realm of the dead in Norse mythology, but by the date of composition probably not sharply distinguished from the Christian Hell.

  [34] This episode seems to draw on the imprisonment of Sigmund and Sinfjotli in a mound in Völsunga saga ch. 8; in both sagas, the imprisoned men are aided by a woman of their enemy’s family dropping a sword into their underground prison. (See also Sturlaugs saga ch. 17, note 40)

  [35] The saga text is býsn skal til batnaðar—“there must be a disaster for recovery,” i.e. “things must get worse before they get better.”

  [36] See K781, “Castle captured with assistance of owner’s daughter. She loves the attacker”, in Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk Literature, vol. 4, p. 339; R162, “Rescue by captor’s daughter”, in Thompson, vol. 5, p. 285.

  [37] Although this is not explicitly stated, the implication is probably that the king and his men are being forced to defecate inside their own hall—which was considered not just disgusting, but shameful. The episode may be based on a famous episode in Laxdæla saga (ch. 47): when Kjartan single-handedly blocks the residents of the farmhouse at Laugar from coming out for three days, forcing them to defecate indoors, the residents found it more disgraceful than if Kjartan had killed some of them outright. (Miller, Anatomy of Disgust, pp. 144-148; Larrington, “Diet, Defecation, and the Devil,” p. 146)

  [38] In Örvar-Odds saga (ch. 27), the hero has been concealing his identity by wearing bark, but his true identity is revealed when a tear in his costume reveals a red sleeve and a thick gold ring on his arm. In both legendary and historical sagas, red clothing is an especially strong token of wealth and luxury (Ewing, Viking Clothing, pp. 154-156); Thorir’s red sleeve and heavy gold ring are strong indicators, not just of his humanity, but of his noble rank.

  THE SAGA OF BOSI AND HERRAUD

  Bósa saga ok Herrauðs

  FOREWORD

  This saga does not originate from the nonsense that jokers make up for fun and games, full of useless twaddle. Instead, it proves its own truth by means of correct genealogies and ancient sayings that people often take from the matters that are described in this tale.[1]

  CHAPTER I

  There was a king named Hring who ruled over East Gautland. He was the son of King Gauti, the son of Odin who was a king in Sweden and who had come from Asia, from whom the most famous royal lineages in the Northlands are descended.[2] This King Hring was the half-brother of Gautrek the Generous on his father’s side, and his mother’s lineage was noble.

  King Hring married Sylgja, the daughter of Jarl Saefari of Smaland, a beautiful and mild-mannered woman. Her brothers were Dagfari and Nattfari,[3] retainers of King Harald Wartooth, who at that time ruled Denmark and the greater part of the Northlands.[4] They had one son who was named Herraud. He was tall and handsome, st
rong and so accomplished at skills that few men could equal him. He was popular with everyone, but he didn’t have much love from his own father, and the reason was that his father had another son by a concubine, whom he loved more. This son was named Sjod.[5] The king had sired him in his youth, and by now he was fully grown to manhood. The king gave him an important position: he was the king’s counsellor and collected his taxes, levies and land-rents, and he was in charge of all revenues and outlays. Most people found him greedy when collecting payments, but tight-fisted when paying others. But he was loyal to the king and always had his best interests in mind. An expression based on his name came into use: someone who earns the most profit for someone else, and best takes care of it, is called Sjóð-felldr, meaning lucrative. Sjod collected little sacks, which ever since then have been called money-purses, to keep the silver that was collected as taxes to the king. The money that he took above what was owed, he put into small purses and called that profit. He diverted this for his own expenses, but without affecting the taxes. Sjod wasn’t popular with the people, but the king loved him very much and let him have his way in everything.