Stories and Ballads of the Far Past Part 7

Then Hethin awoke and saw the fleeting shadow of Gondul, but she appeared to him now to be big and black; and he recalled everything and realised how much mischief he had done. He decided now to go away somewhere a long way off, where he would not each day have his wicked deeds cast in his teeth. So he went to his s.h.i.+p, and made haste to free her from her moorings. A fair breeze was blowing off the land, and so he sailed away with Hild.

VIII. When Hogni returned home, he learnt that Hethin had sailed away with Hild and the wars.h.i.+p Halfdanarnaut, leaving the dead body of the Queen in his tracks. Hogni was furious and bade his men start up on the spot and sail in pursuit of Hethin. This they did, and a fair breeze sprang up. Every evening they reached the harbour from which Hethin had sailed away in the morning.

It happened one day that as Hogni was making for a harbour, Hethin's sails were sighted out at sea; so Hogni and his men gave chase. As a matter of fact, it is said that at this point Hethin got a head wind against him, whereas Hogni had the luck to have a fair wind as before.

Hethin then lay to off an island called Hoy, and there he rode at anchor. Hogni quickly came alongside, and when they met, Hethin greeted him courteously.

"I must tell you, foster-brother," said Hethin, "that so great a misfortune has come upon me that no-one save you can remedy it. I have carried off your daughter and your wars.h.i.+p, and put your wife to death, yet from no personal wickedness of my own, but rather from promptings of evil spirits and wicked spells. My wish now is that you shall have your own way entirely in this matter between yourself and me. I also offer to give up to you both Hild and the wars.h.i.+p, and all the men and money contained in it, and to go to such distant lands that I can never return to the North nor into your sight as long as I live."

Hogni replied: "Had you asked me for Hild I would have married her to you; and even in spite of your having carried her off by force we might have made up our quarrel. Now, however, since you have been guilty of such an outrage as to put the Queen to death in a most shameful manner, I certainly will not make terms with you. We will try here, on the spot, which of us is the more valiant fighter."

Hethin replied: "It would be best, if nothing less than fighting will satisfy you, that we two should measure our strength alone; for you have no quarrel with any man here save with me. There is no use in making innocent men pay for my crimes and evil deeds."

Their followers all swore with one accord that they would rather fall dead in heaps than that they two should exchange blows alone. And when Hethin saw that nothing would satisfy Hogni, save that they should fight, he ordered his men to land, saying:

"I will no longer hold back from Hogni, nor make excuses to avoid fighting. Let every man bear himself bravely!"

They thereupon landed and fell to fighting. Hogni was full of fury, but Hethin was both dexterous with his weapons and mighty in his stroke. It is told for fact that so potent was the evil charm in the spell that even when they had cloven one another to the very shoulders, yet they started up as before and went on fighting. Hild sat in a grove and watched the battle.

This harrowing torment continued to oppress them from the time when they began to fight until Olaf Tryggvason became King of Norway. It is said to have gone on for a hundred and forty-three years, until it fell to the lot of this famous man that one of his retinue released them from their grievous calamities and tragic doom.

IX. In the first year of King Olaf's reign, it is said that he came one evening to the island of Hoy and anch.o.r.ed there. It was a regular occurrence in the neighbourhood of this island that watchmen disappeared every night, and no-one knew what had become of them. On this particular night it was Ivar the Gleam who kept guard. And when all the men on the s.h.i.+ps were asleep, Ivar took the sword that Jarnskjold had had and that Thorstein his son had given him, and all his armour, and went up on to the island. And when he had landed on the island he saw a man coming towards him. He was very tall and covered with blood, and his face was full of sorrow. Ivar asked him his name, and he replied that he was called Hethin, the son of Hjarrandi, and that he had come of a stock in far Serkland, adding:

"I am telling you the truth when I say that the vanis.h.i.+ng of the watchmen must be laid to the charge of me and Hogni, the son of Halfdan. For we and our men have been laid under such powerful and destructive spells that we go on fighting night and day; and this has continued for many generations, while Hild, the daughter of Hogni, sits and looks on. It is Othin who has laid this spell upon us; and our only hope of redemption is that a Christian man should give battle to us.--When that occurs, he whom the Christian slays shall not stand up again; and so will each one be freed from his distress. Now I would pray you that you will come to fight with us, because I know that you are a good Christian, and also that the King whom you serve is very lucky. I have a feeling too that we shall get some good from him and his men."

Ivar agreed to go with him.

Hethin was glad at that and said:

"You must take care not to encounter Hogni face to face, and also not to slay me before you slay him; because no mortal man can encounter Hogni face to face and slay him if I die before him, for the glance of his eye strikes terror and spares none. Therefore this is the only way: I will attack him in front and engage him in battle, while you go behind and give him his death stroke. You will find it an easy matter to slay me, when I am left alive last of all."

Then they went into the battle, and Ivar saw that all that Hethin had told him was quite true. He went behind Hogni and struck him on the head, and clove his skull down to the shoulders, whereupon Hogni fell down dead and never rose up again. After that he slew all the men who were fighting, and last of all he slew Hethin, which was no great task.

When he returned to the s.h.i.+ps the day was dawning. He went to the King and told him what he had done. The King was very well pleased with his work and told him that he had had great good luck. Next day they landed and made their way to the spot where the battle had taken place; but they saw no sign of what had happened there. Yet the bloodstains on Ivar's sword were visible proofs; and never again did watchmen disappear on that coast.

After that the King went home to his realm.

INTRODUCTION TO THE SAGA OF HROMUND GREIPSSON

In the _Saga of Thorgils and Haflithi_, ch. 10 (published in _Sturlunga Saga_, ed. by G. Vigfusson, Vol. I, p. 19), we are told that at a wedding held at Reykjaholar in Iceland in 1119, "There was fun and merriment and great festivity and all kinds of amus.e.m.e.nts, such as dancing and wrestling and story-telling.... Although it is a matter of no great importance, some record has been preserved of the entertainment which was provided, and who were the people who provided it. Stories were told which many people now reject, and of which they disclaim any knowledge; for it seems that many people do not know what is true, but think some things to be true which are really pure invention and other things to be fict.i.tious which are really true.

Hralf of Skalmarnes told a story about Hrongvith the Viking and Olaf 'the Sailors' King,' and about the rifling of the barrow of Thrain the berserk, and about Hromund Gripsson, and included many verses in his story. King Sverrir used to be entertained with this story and declared that fict.i.tious stories like this were the most entertaining of any. Yet there are men who can trace their ancestry to Hromund Gripsson. Hrolf himself had composed this story."

Among those whose ancestry was traced to Hromund Greipsson were Ingolf and Leif, the first Norwegian colonists of Iceland. According to _Landnamabok_, 1, ch. 3, they were second cousins, and their grandfathers, who had come from Thelamork in the south-west of Norway, were sons of Hromund. Olaf 'The Sailors' King' is mentioned also in the _Saga of Grim Lothinkinni_, ch. 3; and members of his family figure prominently in several other sagas.

These persons may actually be historical. But the fict.i.tious element is obvious enough in many places as, for instance, in Hromund's voyage to the west. Thrain himself is vividly presented to us as "black and huge, with talons like bird's claws, all clad in glittering gold, seated on a throne, roaring loudly and blowing a fire!" This chapter is indeed a tale of

Ghaisties and ghoulies, And lang-leggity beasties, And things that gae b.u.mp in the nicht.

The most curious features of the saga, however, are the blurred and perhaps confused reminiscences of stories and characters which form the subject of some of the Edda poems. The brothers Bild and Voli can hardly be other than corruptions of the G.o.d Balder and his avenger Vali. The name of Hromund's sword 'Mistletoe' too may be a reminiscence of the same story, though a sword of the same name is found in _Hervarar Saga_ (ch. 2). Again, the account of Hromund's sojourn with Hagal, disguised as a grinding-maid, and the search made by Blind (ch. 8) are certainly reminiscences of the Edda poem _Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II_ (sometimes called _Volsungakvitha_), where the same adventures are recorded in connection with the same names, except that Helgi here takes the place Hromund.

But the most interesting case, however, is the story of Hromund's opponent Helgi the Bold and Kara (ch. 7). In this story, Helgi is said to be in the service of two kings called Hadding, and there can be little doubt that Helgi and Kara are identical with Helgi Haddingjaskati and Kara, whose adventures formed the subject of a lost poem called _Karuljoth_. This poem is referred to in the prose at the end of _Helgakvitha Hundingsbana II_, where it is stated that they were reincarnations of Helgi Hundingsbani and Sigrun--just as the two latter were themselves reincarnations of Helgi the son of Hjorvarth and Svava--"but that is now said to be an old wives' tale."

Chapter 4 also has a special interest of its own. Breaking into barrows was a favourite exploit of the Nors.e.m.e.n, no doubt for the sake of the gold which they often contained. References to the practice are very common in the sagas, e.g. _Grettissaga_, ch. 18; _Hartharsaga_, ch. 15; cf. also Saxo Grammaticus, _Dan. Hist._, p. 200 ff., etc. The ruthlessness with which the Nors.e.m.e.n plundered the Irish barrows is mentioned with great indignation in the Irish Chronicles. In the _War of the Gaedhil with the Gaill_, cap. XXV, we read that certain Nors.e.m.e.n plundered in Ireland "until they reached Kerry, and they left not a cave there under ground that they did not explore." In the same work cap. LXIX, we are told that--

Never was there a fortress, or a fastness, or a mound, or a church, or a sacred place, or a sanctuary, when it was taken by that howling, furious, loathsome crew, which was not plundered by the collectors and acc.u.mulators of that wealth.

Neither was there in concealment under ground in Erin, nor the various solitudes belonging to Fians or to Fairies, anything that was not discovered by these foreign, wonderful Denmarkians, through paganism and idol wors.h.i.+p.

Finally in the _Annals of Ulster_ we read (sub anno 862) that

The cave of Achadh-Aldai (i.e. probably New Grange, near Dublin) and [the cave] of Knowth, and the cave of Fert-Boadan over Dowth, and the cave of the smith's wife were searched by the foreigners (i.e. Nors.e.m.e.n, etc.) which had not been done before.

And in England as late as 1344 Thomas of Walsingham records the slaying of the dragon that guarded a barrow, and the recovery of a great treasure of gold by the retainers of the Earl of Warrenne.

Popular imagination believed that barrows were occupied by a ghostly inhabitant 'haugbui,' who guarded the treasure. This was sometimes a dragon, as in _Beowulf_, or a reanimated corpse, as in our saga; but whatever he was, he inspired the outside world with such fear that the breaking into a grave-mound came to be regarded as a deed of the greatest courage and prowess. The 'hogboy' (_haugbui_) of Maeshowe, a barrow in the Orkneys, is still a living reality in the imaginations of the country people[1].

Unfortunately _The Saga of Hromund Greipsson_ is preserved only in late paper MSS., of which none apparently are earlier than the seventeenth century. None of the verses of which the notice in the _Saga of Thorgils and Haflithi_ speaks (cf. p. 58 above) have been preserved. There is, however, a rhymed version of the saga known as _Griplur_, dating apparently from about the year 1400 and evidently taken from a better text than any of those which have come down to us.

A short extract from these rhymed verses will be found on pp. 173-75.

For a full discussion of the relations.h.i.+p of the _Griplur_ to the extant texts of the saga and to the later ballads, the reader is referred to Kolbing, _Beitrage zur Vergleichenden Geschichte der Romantischen Poesie und Prosa des Mittelalters_ (Breslau, 1876), pp.

181-83, and to Andrews, _Studies in the Fornaldarsogur Northrlanda_[2]

in _Modern Philology_, 1911, 1912.

A full bibliography of texts, translations and literature relating to this saga will be found in _Islandica_, Vol. v, p. 30.

[Footnote 1: Cf. Joseph Anderson, _Scotland in Pagan Times: The Bronze and Stone Ages_, pp. 278-279 (publ. by Douglas, Edinburgh, 1886).]

[Footnote 2: It is pointed out by Andrews, p. 2, that the form Lara (which appears in Rafn's and asmundarson's editions, ch.

7) is due to a misreading. The MSS. have Cara.]

THE SAGA OF HROMUND GREIPSSON

I. There was a King called Olaf, the son of Gnothar-Asmund, and he ruled over Garthar in Denmark, and was very famous. Two brothers, Kari and ornulf, both mighty warriors, were entrusted with the defence of his territories. In that district there was a wealthy landowner called Greip, who had a wife called Gunnloth, the daughter of Hrok the Black.

They had nine sons whose names were as follows: Hrolf, Haki, Gaut, Throst, Angantyr, Logi, Hromund, Helgi, Hrok. They were all promising fellows, though Hromund was the finest of them. He did not know what fear was. He was blue-eyed and fair-haired; he was broad-shouldered, tall and strong, and resembled his mother's father. The King had two men called Bild and Voli. They were wicked and deceitful, but the King valued them highly.

On one occasion King Olaf was sailing eastwards with his fleet along the coast of Norway. They put in at Ulfasker, and lying to off one of the islands they began to plunder. The King bade Kari and ornulf go up on the island and look if they could see any wars.h.i.+ps. They went up on land and saw six wars.h.i.+ps under some cliffs, one of them being a most gorgeous 'Dragon.' Kari called to the men and asked whose s.h.i.+ps they were. One of the scoundrels on the 'Dragon' stood up and declared his name to be Hrongvith, adding:

"But what may your name be?"

Kari told him his own name and the name of his brother and added:

"You are the worst man I know and I am going to chop you into fragments."

Hrongvith replied: "For thirty-three years I have harried both summer and winter. I have fought sixty battles and been victorious every time with my sword Brynthvari, which has never grown blunt. Come here to-morrow, Kari, and I will sheathe it in your breast."

Kari said he would not fail to appear.