Stories and Ballads of the Far Past Part 9

V. After that Hromund grew very famous. He was generous and popular.

One day he gave to a man called Hrok a ring of solid gold which weighed an ounce. Voli got to know about that and slew Hrok by night and stole the ring. And when the King heard of it he said he would be even with Voli some day for such a piece of villainy.

The King had two sisters, one called Dagny and the other Svanhvit.

Svanhvit was better than her sister in every way, and had no equal between Sweden and Halogaland.

Hromund Greipsson was at home at this time and became friendly with Svanhvit; but he took no precautions against either Voli or Bild. On one occasion she told Hromund that Voli and Bild were busy slandering him to the King.

He said: "I am not afraid of any low wretch, and I shall talk to you as long as you give me the chance."

This slander became so serious that Hromund and his brother had to leave the King's retinue and go home to their father.

A short time after, Svanhvit was talking to King Olaf and said:

"Hromund, who brought us the greatest glory, has now been banished from the royal retinue; and in his place you retain two men who care for neither honour nor virtue."

The King replied: "A rumour reached me that he intended to betray you; and the sword shall part your love."

"You have very soon forgotten," said she, "the time when he went alone into the barrow; and no-one else dared.--Voli and Bild will be hanged first."

And having said this, she departed hastily.

VI. Some time after this, two kings, both called Hadding, came from Sweden, and Helgi the brother of Hrongvith was with them. They challenged King Olaf to battle with them on the frozen surface of Lake Vener in the western part of the land. He preferred fighting them to abandoning his country, so he summoned Hromund and his brothers to follow him. Hromund, however, declined to go, saying that Bild and Voli were mighty fine fellows and always fought for the King.

The King departed with his host. Svanhvit was grieved at what had happened, and went to Hromund's home. Hromund welcomed her.

"Hearken now to my prayer," said she, "more favourably than you did to my brother's request, and help the King. I will give you a s.h.i.+eld with a strap attached. Nothing can harm you while you wear this strap."

Hromund thanked her for the gift and she was comforted; so he and his eight brothers made ready to set out.

In the meantime the King and his host reached the frozen Vener, where the Swedish army was waiting for them. And in the morning, as soon as it was light enough to fight, they armed themselves on the ice, and the Swedes made a fierce onslaught. Bild was slain as soon as the battle began, but Voli was nowhere to be seen. King Olaf and King Hadding were wounded.

Hromund had pitched his tent near the side of the lake. His brothers armed themselves early in the morning; but Hromund said:

"I had a bad dream in the night; some misfortune is in store for us, and I am not going into the battle today."

His brothers replied that it was disgraceful not to have the courage to support the King's army, when he had come for that very purpose.

They went into the battle and fought bravely and all those of the army of the Haddings who came against them fell in heaps. A witch had come among them in the likeness of a swan. She sang and worked such powerful spells that none of Olaf's men took heed to defend themselves. Then she flew over the sons of Greip, singing loudly.

Her name was Kara. At that same moment Helgi the Bold encountered the eight brothers and slew every one of them.

VII. At this point Hromund entered the battle. Helgi the Bold caught sight of him and cried:

"Here comes the man who slew my brother Hrongvith. Now you must beware of that sword of his which he got in the barrow.--You held aloof while I slew your brothers."

"You need not question my courage, Helgi," replied Hromund, "for one or other of us must fall now."

Helgi said: "Mistletoe is such a heavy weapon that you cannot use it.

I will lend you another that you can manage."

"You need not taunt me with faint-heartedness," cried Hromund.

"Remember the blow which I dealt Hrongvith, when I shattered his skull to atoms!"

Helgi said: "You have bound a girl's garter round your hand, Hromund.

Lay aside the s.h.i.+eld which you are carrying. It will be impossible to wound you so long as you carry that: I am sure that you are dependent on that girl."

Hromund could not endure these galling words, and flung down his s.h.i.+eld. Helgi the Bold had always been victorious, and it was by means of magic that he had gained his success. His mistress' name was Kara--she who was present in the form of a swan. Helgi brandished his sword so high over his head that it chopped off the swan's leg. He drove the sword down into the ground as far as the hilt, and said:

"My luck has fled now; and it was a bad business when I missed you."

Hromund replied: "You were very unlucky, Helgi, to be the slayer of your own mistress, and you will have no more happiness."

Kara dropped down dead. And with the stroke that Helgi made at Hromund, when the sword was buried up to the hilt, the point of the sword caught Hromund's belly and ripped it open, and Helgi fell forward with the force of his own stroke. Hromund was not behindhand then: he struck Helgi on the head with Mistletoe, cleaving helmet and skull down to the shoulders, and breaking a piece out of the sword.

Then Hromund took his belt-knife and thrust it into his belly where there was a gaping wound, and forced back the paunch fat which was hanging out. At the same time he st.i.tched up the edges of his belly with a cord, bound his clothes firmly over it, and so continued fighting valiantly. Men fell dead in heaps before him, and he fought on till midnight. Then the survivors of the army of the Haddings fled, and thereupon the battle came to an end.

Then Hromund saw a man standing before him on the ice, and he felt convinced that he must have made the ice on the lake by spells. He perceived that it was Voli. He remarked that it was not unfitting that he should give him his deserts, and rushed at him, brandis.h.i.+ng Mistletoe and intending to strike him. Voli blew the sword out of his hand, and it happened to light on a hole in the ice, and sank to the bottom.

Then Voli laughed and said: "You are doomed now that you have lost hold of Mistletoe."

Hromund replied: "You will die before me."

Then he leapt upon Voli and caught him up and dashed him down against the ice, so that his neck-bone was broken. There lay the great sorcerer dead! But Hromund sat him down on the ice, saying:

"I did not take the girl's advice, so now I have got fourteen wounds; and in addition to that my eight brothers lie slain, and my good blade Mistletoe has fallen into the lake, and nothing will ever make up to me for the loss of my sword."

Then he went back to his tent and got some rest.

VIII. Now the King's sisters were sent for. Svanhvit examined Hromund's wound, and st.i.tched his stomach together and tried to bring him round. She got him taken to a man called Hagal to be cured. This man's wife was very skilful, and they made him welcome and nursed him back to health. Hromund discovered that the couple were skilled in magic.

The man was a fisherman, and one day when he was fis.h.i.+ng, he caught a pike, and on going home and cutting it open he found Hromund's sword Mistletoe in its maw, and gave it to him. Hromund was glad to get it and kissed the sword-hilt and rewarded the peasant richly.

In King Hadding's army was a man called Blind the Evil. He told the King that Hromund was alive and was being nursed secretly in the home of the peasant couple. The King refused to believe it, declaring that they would not dare to conceal him; but he ordered a search to be made. Blind and some other men went to the dwelling of Hagal and his wife and asked if Hromund was under their care. The woman said he would not be found there. Blind searched thoroughly, but did not find Hromund because the woman had hidden him under her cauldron. Blind and his companions went away, and when they had gone some distance Blind said:

"Our quest has not been fruitful. We must go back again."

They did so. They went back and found the woman. Blind told her that she was a crafty one and had hidden Hromund under her cauldron.

"Look there then and see if you can find him," said she. This she said because, when she saw them returning, she had dressed Hromund in woman's clothes and set him to grind and turn the handmill. The men now made search in the house and when they came upon the girl turning the handmill they sniffed all round the place, but she cast an unfriendly look on the King's men, and they went away again without finding anything.

And when they had gone away, Blind said that the peasant's wife had made things look different from what they were, and he had his suspicions that it must have been Hromund who was turning the mill, dressed as a woman.--"And I see we have been deceived. We shall do no good struggling with the woman for she is more cunning than we."

They cursed her and went back home to the King, leaving matters as they stood.

IX. In the following winter Blind saw many things in a dream, and on one occasion he told his dream to the King, saying:

"I dreamed that a wolf came running from the east, and bit you and wounded you, O King."

The King said he would interpret his dream as follows:

"A King will come here from some other land, and his coming will be terrible at first; yet afterwards peace will be brought about."