by Mark Coakley
Before the fight, Egil insisted on inspecting Halfdan's weapons.
"Why?" Halfdan asked.
"Yes, why?" King Haakon said.
Egil said, "Because in the west-lands, where both Halfdan and I are from, sneaky men have been known to put poison on the iron of their weapons. I must check if Halfdan is planning such a trick!"
"Ridiculous!" Halfdan said.
But King Haakon shrugged and said, "It can do no harm to look."
According to the traditions of duelling, Halfdan wore a helmet and body-armour; he had brought a spear, a shield and a sword. As Egil inspected the spear and the sword, he secretly held a rune-covered piece of walrus-horn in a hand and touched it to both of the weapons. The piece of walrus-horn had been enchanted by Thrand, so that "any weapon that he tries to use against you will leap out of his hand, leaving you unharmed."
Halfdan did not notice Egil's sneaky action with the magic item.
"Do you want to check my weapons for poison?" Egil asked.
"No. Enough silliness. Let's fight."
The duelling-square was surrounded by King Haakon and his Oslo-fighters. Egil and Halfdan stood in opposite corners of the stone-marked square, glaring at each other with old hate.
In a Norse duel, one party strikes a blow at the other, who defends himself. Then the positions are reversed.
As Halfdan had made the challenge, Egil attacked first. He ran across the packed, crunchy snow at Halfdan and hurled his spear at him. The well-thrown spear sped towards Halfdan's leg — Halfdan lowered his shield in time to block it. The spear slammed into the oak-wood circle and knocked Halfdan back a step, but did no hurt. Halfdan yanked Egil's spear from his shield and tossed it aside, out of the square.
"My turn," the Fjordane-man snarled at the Sogn-man.
Halfdan held his spear over his right shoulder, ran towards Egil and hurled it at Egil's head. But, just before the spear left his hand, the weapon magically twitched, ruining the throw. The spear flew high and to the right over Egil's grinning face, splashing into the grey, ice-clogged river and sinking.
"Nice throw!" Egil mocked.
Now Egil drew his sword and charged at Halfdan. Halfdan, shield held high, sword in hand for blocking, waited for his foe's sword-swing. The well-aimed blade whipped at the shoulder of Halfdan's sword-arm. Halfdan half-blocked it with the edge of his shield, but as the deflected blade swung down, it slashed Halfdan's leg. The blade tore Halfdan's pants and scraped a deep cut into Halfdan's leg.
King Haakon shouted, "First blood to Egil!"
It was now Halfdan's turn. He charged at Egil, swinging his sword at Egil's leg. Egil sneered. Just before the sword struck Egil, the enchanted weapon twisted itself out of his hand and spun away, landing just outside the line of stones.
"It's outside the square!" Egil crowed. "Out of bounds!"
Halfdan scowled. Once a weapon left the duelling-square, it could not be recovered.
All he had left was a shield.
Halfdan said, "I suspect that more evil magic is at work here!"
King Haakon looked troubled, but said nothing, allowing the duel to continue.
Egil's next sword-swing made it past Halfdan's shield, clanging off Halfdan's helmet, stunning Halfdan and painfully pulling a muscle in his neck.
"Now it's my turn," Halfdan growled.
King Haakon said, "Halfdan, you are without weapons. If you wish to surrender now, Egil will have the right to take all of your property, but I say that you will be able to leave my kingdom in safety."
Halfdan spat, "Never!" and charged.
The wizard had told Egil to touch the magic walrus-horn to all Halfdan's weapons, but Egil had only enchanted Halfdan's spear and sword, forgetting that a shield was a weapon too.
Behind his round shield, Halfdan charged at Egil. Their shields collided with a huge impact. Egil fell back, with Halfdan on top of him, pushing him down to the snowy ground. Egil let go of his sword and shield, Halfdan let go of his shield, and they rolled back and forth on the snow, wrestling furiously. Halfdan grabbed the back of Egil's body-armour with one hand, trying to pull it up over Egil's head, and with his other, Halfdan tried to scrape his fingers across Egil's eyes.
Both of their helmets had fallen off.
"Run out of magic tricks?" Halfdan grunted.
Egil grabbed at Halfdan's neck with strong fingers, trying to choke. Halfdan pushed his chin down, squeezing Egil's hands between Halfdan's chest and jawbone.
They rolled wildly, to the cheers of the excited crowd, until Halfdan was under Egil, who was stronger. (The stabbing had forever weakened some of Halfdan's gut-muscles.) Halfdan kicked one of his legs out from under Egil's heavy bulk, wrapping it around Egil's hips. Halfdan twisted himself flat on his back under Egil, managing to wrap his other leg around him too. Both of Halfdan's legs were wrapped around Egil's hips; he locked his ankles together behind Egil's back, squeezing him in a tight ring of muscle and bone. Halfdan's hands were still trying to scratch out Egil's eyes. Then Halfdan changed tactics, trying to put his hands over Egil's mouth and nose to block his breath.
Egil wriggled and threw ineffective punches at Halfdan's sides and head.
Soon Egil was breathing hard, yanking his head from side to side to escape the breath-blocking hands. Egil's eyes were starting to bulge. He gripped Halfdan's neck again and tried, at the same time, to both choke Halfdan and hammer the back of his head onto the hard-packed snow.
Halfdan closed his eyes and kept squeezing his legs around Egil's flabby middle.
Egil pulled his hands from Halfdan's neck and pushed his left hand down onto one of Halfdan's forearms. Egil managed to pin Halfdan's right arm to the snow. Egil's free hand stormed punches down into Halfdan's face, pounding the thick lips, knocking out teeth.
Halfdan spat out the bits of teeth and tried to block the punches with his own free hand.
Drooling blood-pink spit, Egil said, "Die! Die!"
"No, thank you," Halfdan grunted.
Egil surprised Halfdan by smashing his forehead down to strike Halfdan's bloody mouth. Another of Halfdan's teeth was knocked out. Halfdan swallowed the jagged little chunk, wriggling on his back as he kept squeezing his legs around Egil's strong and twisting body.
The squeezing made it hard for Egil to breathe; now he was gasping for air, red-faced. Egil tried to pull away. Halfdan managed to pull both his arms free and to wrap one around the back of Egil's neck, shoving the other arm up into the front of the foe's throat. Egil tried, more frantic now, to pull away, but could not — Halfdan's arms ruled his neck and Halfdan's legs ruled the middle of Egil's body.
Halfdan moved his mouth to the side of Egil's head and bit through Egil's sweaty yellow hair, his teeth finding the lobe of Egil's ear. Halfdan bit it off. Spat.
Egil screamed, panicking, wriggling!
Halfdan's arms and legs squeezed and squeezed.
"I give up," Egil finally whispered.
"I don't care."
Halfdan squeezed Egil's neck and mid-section until Egil went limp. Halfdan rolled over, so that he was lying on top of Egil now. Egil was still, barely breathing.
Halfdan grabbed Egil's beard and pulled it upwards, showing everybody Egil's pale throat.
The crowd was roaring its approval, but Halfdan heard nothing.
He closed his broken, jagged mouthful of teeth onto Egil's throat, biting hard into the flesh. Halfdan yanked back his head, pulling out a chunk of blood-dripping flesh, the dripping ends of veins and arteries dangling down his beard. Blood sprayed up from Egil's torn throat, fountaining into Halfdan's face, turning the nearby snow dark red, with steam rising in the cold air.
Halfdan spat out the meat, lowered his mouth to the bloody mess of throat, filled his mouth with the flowing blood. He raised his head to the sky and gargled the mouthful of warm gore, then drank it.
Drooling blood, Halfdan chanted a mocking-poem about Egil, roaring crude, cruel words up at the blank clouds.
King Haakon ann
ounced that Halfdan had won the duel.
Later, Solvi confessed to her father that she had been involved. For her punishment, one of her favourite silk dresses was taken away, and she was ordered to stay out of the hall.
The suburban shack that was home to the wizard from Finland was attacked by an angry mob of Oslo-men. Thrand turned himself into a bat and tried to fly away, but somebody shot at the bat with an arrow, bringing the bat to the ground. Fatally hurt, the wizard changed back to the shape of a man. Before dying, he confessed to using his outlandish magic against Halfdan — and to many other crimes. Oslo was a better place without that nasty wizard, everybody agreed.
Halfdan left Oslo in the spring, loaded with silver and fame.
Chapter 33
SAGA'S END
A few years later, unlucky King Atli fell head-first into a barrel of Yule-mead and drunkenly drowned. His end inspired many poems.
A good king.
Halfdan was elected the next king of Sogn and Fjordane.
He ruled peacefully and justly for many years, and was beloved by all.
A great king!
This is how folk say that King Halfdan met his end: as an old man, during a forest-walk with his family near the sacred waterfall, he tripped on a tree-root and struck his head on a sharp rock. He stood — his skull broken, globs of brains dribbling down his face — and he sang a now-famous poem:
I've walked from place to place
With my art of poetry
Describing my heart's dreams
Pouring words for all to drink
The lovely bird of life
Flew in through a window
Flapped, bright-feathered, through my hall
Then out another window
Everywhere, folk wonder
What is death? What is life?
Life is a light burden
And death weighs even less
When he finished, King Halfdan kissed Queen Yngvild and Harald and Yngebjørg (their younger son) and Ragnhild (their daughter).
Then he fell.
King Halfdan's body rests, even to this day, on the deck of a war-ship inside a burial-mound near Eid. It is blanketed by thick snow in winter, every summer sprouting wildflowers.
Though still a very young man, Harald the Messy-Haired was elected the next king of Sogn and Fjordane. King Harald and his well-led fighters soon forced the king of Førde into exile and took over his lands. Over the following years, King Harald conquered Norse kingdom after Norse kingdom, from Hålogaland in the north to Oslo in the south, until he ruled all Norway. Never before had there been a unified kingdom of Norway with a single king. King Harald ended the tradition of king-elections; his oldest son Erik inherited his rule. Rule of Norway has passed from fathers to oldest sons ever since. Every king of Norway, even to this day, has been a direct descendant of Halfdan the Black and Yngvild of Starheim.
So ends this saga.
Time-Line of Norse History
751 - Election of King Lambi
753 - First exile of Gødrød
757 - Start of Third Swedish War
757 - Aasa leaves Nubia
762 - End of Third Swedish War
765 - Birth of Halfdan
767 - Death of Aasa
767 - Second exile of Gødrød
767 - Birth of Yngvild
780 - King Charlemagne's conquest of Germany
781 - Halfdan joins King Lambi's hall
792 - Death of King Lambi
792 - Battle of the Beacon
793 - Death of King Njal
793 - Battle of the Frozen River
793 - First Norse raid on England (start of Viking era)
793 - Yngvild's divorce
793 - Election of King Atli
794 - Yngvild and Halfdan marry
795 - Death of Harald (Halfdan's uncle)
795 - Birth of Harald (Halfdan's son)
799 - Second Norse raid on England
799 - Death of Egil
800 - Death of King Charlemagne
801 - First Norse raids in Ireland, Russia and France
804 - Birth of Yngebjørg
805 - Birth of Ragnhild
813 - Death of King Atli
813 - Election of King Halfdan
815 - Start of Fourth Swedish War
816 - End of Fourth Swedish War
818 - First Norse raids on Spain and North Africa
822 - Halfdan visits Nubia
823 - Death of King Halfdan
824 - Election of King Harald
824 - King Harald's conquest of Førde
828 - King Harald's conquests of Morer, Tøten, Vik, Agder, Vingulmark and Ærkdalen
829 - King Harald's conquest of Gudbrandsdal
831 - King Harald's conquests of Rogaland, Hålogaland and Telemark
833 - Death of Yngvild
849 - King Harald's conquest of Oslo (Norway unified)
868 - Death of King Harald
868 - Crowning of King Erik
868 - Deaths of Yngebjørg and Ragnhild
870 - Norse settlement of Iceland
907 - King Erik's conquest of Northumbria
912 - Norse settlement of France (Normandy)
947 - King Olaf makes Christianity the official religion of Norway
986 - Norse settlement of Greenland
1000- King Olaf makes Christianity the official religion of Iceland
1005- Norse settlement of North America
1006- Norse settlers chased from North America by Natives
1066- Death of King Hardrada (end of Viking era)
1313- Viking Saga written in Iceland (author unknown)
1847- First English translation of Viking Saga
1933- First North American translation of Viking Saga
2010- Mark Coakley's translation of Viking Saga
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Copyright 2009 Mark Coakley
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