Hromund thanked her for this gift, and then she cheered up. He and his eight brothers prepared to travel.
Now the king came to frozen Lake Vanern with his forces. The Swedish forces were there ahead of him. In the morning, as soon as there was enough light for fighting, they armed themselves on the ice, and the Swedes attacked fiercely. Bild was killed as soon as the battle began, and Vali wasn’t there. King Olaf and King Hadding were wounded.[17]
Hromund had set up his tent on that side of the lake. His brothers put on their armor early in the morning. Hromund said, “I had a bad dream last night, and everything won’t go as we wish. I won’t go to the battle today.”
His brothers said that it would be a great disgrace to come on this mission but not dare to offer the king assistance. They went to the battle and pressed forward fiercely, and when they met the Haddings’ forces, one foe fell across another.
A sorceress had come there in the form of a swan. She shrieked such powerful magic spells that none of Olaf’s men remembered to defend himself. She flew over the sons of Grip and sang out loud. Her name was Kara. Helgi the Bold encountered the brothers all at once, and killed all eight of them together.
CHAPTER VII
At that moment, Hromund entered the battle. Helgi the Bold noticed him and said, “Now the man who killed my brother Hrongvid has arrived. You may beware of his sword, which he retrieved from the mound. You were far away when I killed your brothers.”
Hromund said, “You don’t need to question my courage, Helgi, because either I or you must now fall.”
Helgi said, “Mistletoe is such a heavy weapon that you can’t manage to wield it. I want to lend you this other sword that you’ll be able to wield.”
Hromund said, “You don’t need to accuse me of being timid. You must remember the blow that I gave Hrongvid, when his skull shattered.”
Helgi said, “Hromund, you’ve tied a certain maiden’s garter around your arm. Put away that shield that you bear. You won’t be wounded as long as you carry it, and I believe it’s true that you believe in that maiden.”
Hromund couldn’t stand these taunts, and flung down his shield. Helgi the Bold had always won victory, and accomplished it by means of sorcery. His lover was named Kara, the one who was there in the likeness of a swan. Helgi swung his sword up so high over himself that it cut through the swan’s leg, and he plunged the sword downwards into the earth up to the hilt. He said, “Now my luck is gone, and it went badly when I missed you.”
Hromund said, “You’ve suffered the worst mishap, Helgi, since you killed your lover yourself. Your luck must be gone.”
Kara dropped down dead. But as Helgi struck that blow at Hromund, when the sword plunged down to the hilt, the swordpoint touched Hromund’s belly and sliced it downwards. Helgi bent over from the blow. Hromund lost no time and struck Helgi’s head with Mistletoe, splitting his helmet and his head, so that the sword came to rest in his shoulders. The blade suffered a notch.
After that, Hromund took his knife, which hung from a thong on his belt, and stuck it into the edges of the wound ripped in his belly. He pushed his intestines back inside, which were hanging out, wrapped up his belly with the ribbon and bound it firmly with a cloth. He fought fiercely and felled one man across another, and fought on until the middle of the night. What was left of the Haddings’ forces fled, and with that the battle ended.
Hromund then saw one man standing there on the ice. He knew that the same man must have made the lake freeze over with spells. He recognized that it was Vali. He said that he wasn’t free of the obligation to pay him back, and he rushed at him, brandishing Mistletoe and meaning to strike him. Vali blew the sword out of his hand, and it landed in a hole in the ice and sank down to the bottom. Then Vali laughed and said, “Now you’re doomed to die, since you let Mistletoe slip out of your hand.”
Hromund said, “You’ll die before I do.” He leaped at Vali and heaved him up and slammed him down against the ice, so that his neck broke. That sorceror lay there dead.
Hromund sat down on the ice. He said, “I didn’t take the maiden’s advice. For that, I have now suffered fourteen wounds, and still my eight brothers have fallen, and my good sword Mistletoe fell into the lake, and I’ll never get compensation for having lost the sword.”
He went away from there and went back to his tent, and rested a little.
CHAPTER VIII
Now the king’s sisters were sent for. Svanhvit examined Hromund’s wounds and sewed his belly together and tried to find relief for him. She had him brought to an old man for healing; his name was Hagal. His wife was clever. They accepted him and nursed him back to health. Hromund found that this couple was skilled in many things.[18]
The old man customarily went fishing, and on one occasion when he was fishing, he hauled in a pike. When he came home and gutted it, he found Hromund’s sword Mistletoe in its stomach, and he brought it to him. Hromund was happy and kissed the sword’s hilt, and rewarded the old man well.[19]
There was one man in King Hadding’s host who was named Blind the Evil. He told the king that Hromund was alive and well, in hiding with the old man Hagal and his wife. The king said that it was unbelievable that they would dare to conceal him. The king ordered a search for him. Blind went with some men to the house of Hagal and his wife, and asked if Hromund was being kept there. The old woman said that he wouldn’t be found there. Blind searched carefully and didn’t find him, because the old woman had hidden Hromund under her stew-kettle.
Blind and his fellows went away, and when they had gone on their way, Blind said, “Our trip has accomplished nothing, and we should go back.”
They did so, and came to the house and found the old woman. Blind said that she was crafty and she had kept Hromund under her kettle. “Search and take him then,” she said. She said that because as soon as she saw them turn back, she put Hromund in women’s clothing and had him grind grain and turn the grindstone. They searched the buildings, and as soon as they came to where the woman was turning the grindstone, they went peering all around. She likewise stared at the king’s men, scowling. They turned and left and didn’t find her.
When they had gone on their way, Blind said that the old woman must have deceived their sight, and said that he suspected that Hromund must have been the one who was turning the grindstone in women’s clothes. “I see that we have been outdone. It did us no good to contend with the old woman, because she’s cleverer than we are.” They wished her ill and went back home to the king, leaving matters as they stood.[20]
CHAPTER IX
The winter afterwards, many things appeared to Blind in his sleep, and he told the king one of his dreams. He said, “A lone wolf appeared to me, running from the east. He bit you, king, and gave you a wound.”
The king said that he interpreted the dream in this way: “A king from some place will come here. The meeting will be hostile at first, but end in a settlement.”
Again Blind said that he had dreamed that many hawks were sitting in one house—“and I noticed your falcon there, lord. It was completely featherless and skinned.”
The king said, “Wind shall come from the clouds and shake our fortress.”
Blind told a third dream in this way: “I saw many swine running from the south to the king’s hall. They rooted up the earth with their snouts.”
The king said, “That means swells on the sea, wet weather, and the growth of plants that grow on moisture from the lake, when the sun shines on the heath.”
Blind told a fourth dream. “A horrible giant appeared to me, coming from the east. He bit you and made a great wound.”
The king said, “Messengers from some kings will come into my hall. They will stab upwards with all their weapons, and that will make me angry.”
“I had a fifth dream,” said Blind, “that a savage serpent appeared to
be lying around Sweden.”
“A splendid dragon-ship will land here,” said the king, “laden with treasures.”
“I dreamed a sixth time,” said Blind, “that dark clouds with talons and wings appeared to be coming from the land, and they flew away with you, king. Then I had another dream that a lone serpent was with the old man Hagal. He bit men fiercely, and devoured both you and me and all the king’s men. What can this mean?”
The king said, “I have heard that a certain bear lies in his den a short way from Hagal’s home. I will go and defeat the bear, and then he will bristle a great deal.”
“Next I dreamed that a dragon’s skin was dragged around the king’s hall, and it hung there next to Hromund’s belt.”
The king said, “Don’t you know that Hromund lost his sword and shield in the lake? Or are you scared of Hromund now?”
Blind dreamed more dreams, every one of which he told the king, but the king interpreted all of them in his favor, but none as a sign of any importance.[21]
Now Blind told one more of his dreams that concerned himself, and he said, “It seemed to me that an iron ring was set on my neck.”
The king said, “The interpretation of that dream is that you will be hanged, and besides, that both of us are doomed to die.”
CHAPTER X
After that, King Olaf summoned his forces and set his course for Sweden at once. Hromund went with him. They came to King Hadding’s hall by surprise. He was lying in an outbuilding. He didn’t become aware of anything until the building’s doors were broken down. Hadding shouted to his men and asked who was attacking in the night. Hromund said that it was he.
The king said, “You must want to avenge your brothers.”
Hromund said that he shouldn’t say anything about the fall of his brothers. “Now you’ll pay for that, and lose your life here.”
A champion of King Hadding’s rushed up, as huge as a giant. Hromund killed him. King Hadding defended himself in his bed and suffered no wounds, because every time Hromund struck at him, the flat of the sword struck the king. Then Hromund took a club and bashed King Hadding down to Hel.[22] Hromund said, “Here I have felled King Hadding, and I have never seen a more renowned man.”
The old man Blind, whose real name was Bolvis, was tied up and hanged, and so his dream came true.[23] They took a great deal of gold and other wealth and then headed for home.
King Olaf betrothed Svanhvit to Hromund. They loved each other well, and had sons and daughters together, and were more excellent than others. Kingly lineages and great champions are descended from them.
Here ends the saga of Hromund Gripsson.
[1] The text as printed by Guðni Jónsson, ultimately from manuscript AM 587b, has Görðum í Danmörk, “Gardar in Denmark.” As a common noun, garðar means “towns; fortresses”, and the author of AM 587b may have meant that Olaf ruled over towns in Denmark. But other manuscripts just have Görðum, “Gardar” (Andrews, “Studies in the Fornaldarsǫgur Norðrlanda,” p. 529), which usually refers to Russia (often called Garðaríki, “realm of towns”). This reading makes more sense, since both Göngu-Hrólfs saga and Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana place Olaf’s father in Russia (although they disagree as to who Olaf’s father actually is; see footnote 2). However, Andrews (p. 543 n1) read Görðum as a mistake for Hörðum, Hordaland in Norway.
[2] Asmund is one of the heroes of Egils saga einhenda ok Ásmundar berserkjabana. The Gnóð was his legendary ship. Note that Göngu-Hrólfs saga makes Olaf the son of Hrólf, not Asmund.
[3] Hrok the Black appears in Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka.
[4] The text has Úlfasker, “Wolf Skerries,” which don’t seem to exist. Andrews considers this an error for Elfasker, the Elfar Skerries, at the mouth of the Göta alv river (“Studies in the Fornaldarsǫgur Norðrlanda,” p. 543).
[5] Old Norse Brynþvari; the word brynþvari is used in Egils saga ch. 53 for a spear with a swordlike blade. See note 6 to Bósa saga.
[6] The reason for the goat’s beard and hat isn’t clear. Brown (“Saga of Hrómund Gripsson,” p. 63) considered it simply comedy, but Hromund may be concealing his identity from Hrongvid, since it was believed that a dying enemy might cast a deadly curse on his foe if he knew his name (e.g. Fáfnismál 1-2; transl. Orchard, The Elder Edda, pp. 160-161). Uncanny villains who can’t be cut by iron weapons are fairly common in legendary sagas (e.g. Sóti in Göngu-Hrólfs saga chs. 17-18), and it is more or less standard operating procedure for heroes to dispatch them with clubs—as Hromund does again at the very end of the saga.
[7] Blámenn, “black men”, are stock villains in the legendary sagas. The word is occasionally used for Africans, but blámenn in the legendary sagas have nothing to do with actual Africans. Hideous and trollish, their main function is to be killed entertainingly by heroes.
[8] The text reads Var þat á nóttu, “That was at night”—but the point of Hromund’s dealings with Thrain seems to be that Thrain is weak by day and strong at night. If it is night when Hromund enters the mound, the point is lost and the timing of the scene is confused. Brown suggests that the saga writer misread Griplur, which at this point in the narrative reads nógt um þókti nadda lesti, nær sem væri frykrinn mesti, “the shield-breaker felt that he was nearly overcome by the greatest stench” (II.60; Finnur Jónsson, Fernir Forníslenskir Rímnaflokkar, p. 26). If the manuscript was partly illegible here, the saga writer may have read nótt, “night”, for nógt, “almost”. (“Saga of Hrómund Gripsson,” p. 76) I’ve taken the liberty of emending my translation to something closer to the sense of Griplur.
[9] The implication seems to be that Thrain must consume special food from the cauldron in order to have his full strength—a motif that appears in Saxo’s History of the Danes III.76-77 (ed. Ellis-Davidson and Fisher, pp. 74-75).
[10] The text reads that the cauldron is fullr í búki, “full in body” or “full in torso; full in belly,” which is ambiguous. Kershaw interprets búkr as the cauldron’s own rounded shape (Stories and Ballads, p. 67), while Bachman and Erlingsson read the phrase to mean that the cauldron is right up against Thrain’s belly (Six Old Icelandic Sagas, p. 6). I’ve followed Stitt (Beowulf and the Bear’s Son, p. 230 n20), who noted that a later manuscript of the saga reads fullr af búkum, “full of bodies.” Griplur also reads fullur ketill af búkum (III.4; Finnur Jónsson, Fernir Forníslenskir Rímnaflokkar, p. 27). Several sagas depict trolls and giants as cannibals, and some specifically depict them feeding on human flesh cooked in a cauldron, e.g. Hálfdanar saga Brönufóstra ch. 4.
[11] Stitt points out that flesh-tearing nails are more typical of giants and trolls than of the undead (Beowulf and the Bear’s Son, p. 142). The comparison with a cat may be more than simple metaphor, since trolls sometimes appear as cats; Orms þáttr Stórólfssonar (ch. 8) includes a troll in cat-shape who claws the hero, and in Vatnsdæla saga (ch. 28) the sorcerous villain Thorolf Sledge has a herd of twenty huge black cats that are mjök trylltir, “very trollish”.
[12] Possibly the same as the legendary King Sæmingr. Snorri Sturluson calls Sæmingr a legendary king of Norway who was the son of the god Odin (Edda, Prologue 11, ed. Faulkes, vol. 1, p. 6; Ynglinga saga 8, transl. Hollander, Heimskringla, pp. 12-13), but also cites a now-lost poem that states that he was the son of the god Yngvi-Freyr, who was especially worshipped in Sweden. (Hemiskringla, Prologue, transl. Hollander, p. 3).
[13] In Griplur (IV.4-7; Finnur Jónsson, Fernir Forníslenskir Rímnaflokkar, p. 31), Hromund gives a ring to a man named Grundi, in return for Grundi’s gift of an excellent dog named Hrok, and Vali (or Vóli, as his name appears in Griplur) kills the dog. The saga-writer may have misread or misremembered the text of Griplur, or worked from a defective manuscript (Brown, “Saga of Hrómund Gripss
on,” p. 74).
[14] The saga actually states that the king makes this threat, but according to Griplur, it is Hromund who promises to pay Vali back. This makes more dramatic sense, given that the king will soon be accepting Vali’s slander of Hromund. This is probably an error in the sags resulting from the writer misreading a manuscript of Griplur. (Brown, “Saga of Hrómund Gripsson,” p. 76) I have emended the saga accordingly.
[15] Some authors (e.g. Kershaw, Stories and Ballads, p. 59) have seen a reflection of the myth of Balder’s death in the characters Bildr and Vali, and in the name of Hromund’s sword Mistletoe (since in Saxo Grammaticus’s version of the myth of Balder, he is killed with a sword named Mistletoe, not a sprig of the plant mistletoe). The relationship, if any, seems very distant.
[16] In the saga text as printed, the kings are named Halding, and Helgi’s valkyrie lover is named Lara. The names are Hadding and Kára in Griplur, as well as in Helgakviða Hundingsbana II and other sources, and I’ve emended them here; Lara may be Rafn’s misreading of the name Cara in manuscript (Andrews, “Studies in the Fornaldarsǫgur Norðrlanda,” p. 528). The tradition of a pair of kings both named Hadding seems to be a very old one (Turville-Petre, Myth and Religion of the North, pp. 216-220).
[17] Jesch points out that this battle is modeled on a more famous battle on the ice of Lake Vanern—the battle between Aðils and Áli, told in the lost Skjöldunga saga (see Miller, “Fragments of Danish History”, p. 18), described by Snorri Sturluson in Ynglinga saga (ch. 29; in Heimskringla, transl. Hollander, p. 33) and the Prose Edda (Skáldskaparmál 44, ed. Faulkes, pp. 58-59), and even alluded to in Beowulf (2392-2396). Hromund and his eleven brothers correspond to Hrólfr kraki’s twelve berserks who fight on Aðils’s side. (“Hrómundr Gripsson Revisited,” p. 93)
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