Stories and Ballads of the Far Past Part 18

Heithrek replied:

Your riddle is a good one, Gestumblindi. I have guessed it.

That is a cow. She has four feet and four udders, two horns and two eyes, and the tail dangles behind.

Gestumblindi said:

Who is that solitary one who sleeps in the grey ash and is made from stone only? This greedy one has neither father nor mother. There will he spend his life. King Heithrek, read me this riddle.

Heithrek replied:

Your riddle is a good one, Gestumblindi. I have guessed it.

That is a spark struck by a flint and hidden in the hearth.

Gestumblindi said:

I saw a horse standing....

Then the King said:

My retinue shall read this riddle.

They made many guesses, but not particularly good ones. And when the King saw that they could do nothing he said:

What you call a 'horse' is a piece of linen, and his 'mare' is the weaver's rod; and the linen is shaken up and down.

Gestumblindi said:

Who are the thanes who ride to the meeting, sixteen of them together? They send their men far and wide to make homes of their own. King Heithrek, read me this riddle!

Heithrek replied:

Your riddle is a good one, Gestumblindi. I have guessed it.

That is 'King Itrek's game.'

Gestumblindi said:

In summer time at sunset I saw the King's body-guard awake and very joyful. The n.o.bles were drinking their ale in silence, but the ale-b.u.t.ts stood screaming. King Heithrek, read me this riddle!

Heithrek replied:

Your riddle is a good one, Gestumblindi. I have guessed it. That is a sow with her litter. When the little pigs are feeding, she squeals and they are silent.--But I can't imagine who you are who can compose such things so deftly out of such unpromising materials!

The King then silently made a sign that the door of the hall was to be closed.

Gestumblindi said:

I saw maidens like dust. Rocks were their beds. They were black and swarthy in the suns.h.i.+ne, but the darker it grew, the fairer they appeared. King Heithrek, read me this riddle!

Heithrek replied:

Your riddle is a good one, Gestumblindi. I have guessed it.

They are pale embers on the hearth.

Gestumblindi said:

I sat on a sail, and saw dead men carrying a channel of blood in the bark of a tree. King Heithrek, read me this riddle!

Heithrek replied:

Your riddle is a good one, Gestumblindi. I have guessed it.

You sat on a wall, and watched a hawk flying and carrying an eider duck in its claws.

Gestumblindi said:

Who are those two who have ten feet, three eyes and one tail?

King Heithrek, read me this riddle!

Heithrek replied:

You are hard up when you have to turn back to things of long ago to bring forward against me. That is Othin riding his horse Sleipnir. It had eight feet and Othin two, and they had three eyes--Sleipnir two and Othin one.

Gestumblindi said:

Tell me lastly, Heithrek, if you are wiser than any other prince, what did Othin whisper in Balder's ear, before he was placed upon the pyre?

The King replied:

I am sure it was something scandalous and cowardly and thoroughly contemptible. You are the only person who knows the words which you spoke, you evil and wretched creature.

Then the King drew Tyrfing, and struck at Gestumblindi; but he changed himself into a falcon and flew out through the window of the hall. And the sword struck the tail of the falcon; and that is why it has had a short tail ever since, according to heathen superst.i.tion. But Othin had now become wroth with the King for striking at him; and that night he was slain.

XII. It is said that King Heithrek had some slaves, nine in all, whom he had taken in a freebooting expedition in the West. They came of n.o.ble families, and chafed against their captivity. One night, when King Heithrek lay in bed, attended by only a handful of men, the slaves armed themselves and went to the building in which he lay.

They first slew the sentries, and then went and broke into the King's chamber, and slew the King and all who were within. They took the sword Tyrfing, and all the treasure that they found there, and carried everything off with them.

For a while, no one knew who had done the deed or how vengeance was to be taken. Then Angantyr the son of King Heithrek had a meeting called, and by that a.s.sembly he was proclaimed King over all the territories that King Heithrek had held. And at the same meeting he swore a solemn oath that he would never sit on his father's throne until he had avenged him.

Shortly after the meeting, Angantyr went away by himself and travelled far and wide searching for these men. One evening he was walking down to the sea along a river called Graf. There he saw three men in a fis.h.i.+ng-boat, and presently he saw one of the men catch a fish, and heard him call to one of his companions to hand him a bait-knife to cut off the fish's head. The man replied that he could not spare it.

Then the first man said:

"Take down the sword from over there by the rudder, and hand it to me."

And he took it and unsheathed it, and cut off the fish's head, and then spoke a verse:

This pike at the mouth of the river Has paid the penalty For the slaughter inflicted on Heithrek, 'Neath the Mountains of Harvathi.

Angantyr immediately perceived that it was Tyrfing, and went off at once to the wood and waited there till it was dark. And the fishermen rowed to the land, and went to a tent which they had, and lay down and went to sleep. And when it was close on midnight, Angantyr went up to them and pulled down the tent on top of the slaves and slew all nine of them, and carried off the sword Tyrfing as a sign that he had avenged his father. He then went home and had a great funeral feast held to his father's memory on the banks of the Dnieper, at a place called Arheimar. The kings who ruled at that time were as follows: Humli ruled the Huns, Gizur the Gautar, Angantyr the Goths, Valdar the Danes, Kjar the Gauls; Alrek the Bold ruled the English people.

Hloth the son of King Heithrek was brought up at the court of King Humli, his grandfather. He was a very handsome and valiant man. There was an old saying at that time that a man was "born with weapons or horses." And the explanation is that it referred to the weapons which were being forged at the time when the man was born; also to any sheep, beasts, oxen and horses that were born about the same time.