PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
Of this saga there are other versions found in "Fagrskinna"
and
in "Flateyjarbok". The "Flateyjarbok" version is
to a great
extent a copy of Snorre. The story about Halfdan's
dream is
found both in "Fagrskinna" and in "Flateyjarbok".
The
probability is that both Snorre and the author of "Fagrskinna"
must have transcribed the same original text. -- Ed.
1. HALFDAN FIGHTS WITH GANDALF AND SIGTRYG.
Halfdan was a year old when his father was killed, and
his mother
Asa set off immediately with him westwards to Agder, and
set
herself there in the kingdom which her father Harald had
possessed. Halfdan grew up there, and soon became
stout and
strong; and, by reason of his black hair, was called Halfdan
the
Black. When he was eighteen years old he took his
kingdom in
Agder, and went immediately to Vestfold, where he divided
that
kingdom, as before related, with his brother Olaf.
The same
autumn he went with an army to Vingulmark against King
Gandalf.
They had many battles, and sometimes one, sometimes the
other
gained the victory; but at last they agreed that Halfdan
should
have half of Vingulmark, as his father Gudrod had had
it before.
Then King Halfdan proceeded to Raumarike, and subdued
it. King
Sigtryg, son of King Eystein, who then had his residence
in
Hedemark, and who had subdued Raumarike before, having
heard of
this, came out with his army against King Halfdan, and
there was
great battle, in which King Halfdan was victorious; and
just as
King Sigtryg and his troops were turning about to fly,
an arrow
struck him under the left arm, and he fell dead.
Halfdan then
laid the whole of Raumarike under his power. King
Eystein's
second son, King Sigtryg's brother, was also called Eystein,
and
was then king in Hedemark. As soon as Halfdan had
returned to
Vestfold, King Eystein went out with his army to Raumarike,
and
laid the whole country in subjection to him.
2. BATTLE BETWEEN HALFDAN AND EYSTEIN.
When King Halfdan heard of these disturbances in Raumarike,
he
again gathered his army together; and went out against
King
Eystein. A battle took place between them, and Halfdan
gained
the victory, and Eystein fled up to Hedemark, pursued
by Halfdan.
Another battle took place, in which Halfdan was again
victorious;
and Eystein fled northwards, up into the Dales to the
herse
Gudbrand. There he was strengthened with new people,
and in
winter he went towards Hedemark, and met Halfdan the Black
upon a
large island which lies in the Mjosen lake. There
a great battle
was fought, and many people on both sides were slain,
but Halfdan
won the victory. There fell Guthorm, the son of
the herse
Gudbrand, who was one of the finest men in the Uplands.
Then
Eystein fled north up the valley, and sent his relation
Halvard
Skalk to King Halfdan to beg for peace. On consideration
of their
relationship, King Halfdan gave King Eystein half of Hedemark,
which he and his relations had held before; but kept to
himself
Thoten, and the district called Land. He likewise
appropriated
to himself Hadeland, and thus became a mighty king.
3. HALFDAN'S MARRIAGE
Halfdan the Black got a wife called Ragnhild, a daughter
of
Harald Gulskeg (Goldbeard), who was a king in Sogn.
They had a
son, to whom Harald gave his own name; and the boy was
brought up
in Sogn, by his mother's father, King Harald. Now
when this
Harald had lived out his days nearly, and was become weak,
having
no son, he gave his dominions to his daughter's son Harald,
and
gave him his title of king; and he died soon after.
The same
winter his daughter Ragnhild died; and the following spring
the
young Harald fell sick and died at ten years of age.
As soon as
Halfdan the Black heard of his son's death, he took the
road
northwards to Sogn with a great force, and was well received.
He
claimed the heritage and dominion after his son; and no
opposition being made, he took the whole kingdom.
Earl Atle
Mjove (the Slender), who was a friend of King Halfdan,
came to
him from Gaular; and the king set him over the Sogn district,
to
judge in the country according to the country's laws,
and collect
scat upon the king's account. Thereafter King Halfdan
proceeded
to his kingdom in the Uplands.
4. HALFDAN'S STRIFE WITH GANDALF'S SONS.
In autumn, King Halfdan proceeded to Vingulmark.
One night when
he was there in guest quarters, it happened that about
midnight a
man came to him who had been on the watch on horseback,
and told
him a war force was come near to the house. The
king instantly
got up, ordered his men to arm themselves, and went out
of the
house and drew them up in battle order. At the same
moment,
Gandalf's sons, Hysing and Helsing, made their appearance
with a
large army. There was a great battle; but Halfdan
being
overpowered by the numbers of people fled to the forest,
leaving
many of his men on this spot. His foster-father,
Olver Spake
(the Wise), fell here. The people now came in swarms
to King
Halfdan, and he advanced to seek Gandalf's sons.
They met at
Eid, near Lake Oieren, and fought there. Hysing
and Helsing
fell, and their brother Hake saved himself by flight.
King
Halfdan then took possession of the whole of Vingulmark,
and Hake
fled to Alfheimar.
5. HALFDAN'S MARRIAGE WITH HJORT'S DAUGHTER.
Sigurd Hjort was the name of a king in Ringerike, who
was stouter
and stronger than any other man, and his equal could not
be seen
for a handsome appearance. His father was Helge
Hvasse (the
Sharp); and his mother was Aslaug, a daughter of Sigurd
the worm-
eyed, who again was a son of Ragnar Lodbrok. It
is told of
Sigurd that when he was only twelve years old he killed
in single
combat the berserk Hildebrand, and eleven others of his
comrades;
and many are the deeds of manhood told of him in a long
saga
about his feats. Sigurd had two children, one of
whom was a
daughter, called Ragnhild, then twenty years of age, and
an
excellent brisk girl. Her brother Guthorm was a
youth. It is
related in regard to Sigurd's death that he had a custom
of
riding out quite alone in the uninhabited forest to hunt
the wild
beasts that are hurtful to man, and he was always very
eager at
this sport. One day he rode out into the forest
as usual, and
when he had ridden a long way he came out at a piece of
cleared
land near to Hadeland. There the berserk Hake came
against him
with thirty men, and they fought. Sigurd Hjort fell
there, after
killing twelve of Hake's men; and Hake himself lost one
hand, and
had three other wounds. Then Hake and his men rode
to Sigurd's
house, where they took his daughter Ragnhild and her brother
Guthorm, and carried them, with much property and valuable
articles, home to Hadeland, where Hake had many great
farms. He
ordered a feast to be prepared, intending to hold his
wedding
with Ragnhild; but the time passed on account of his wounds,
which healed slowly; and the berserk Hake of Hadeland
had to keep
his bed, on account of his wounds, all the autumn and
beginning
of winter. Now King Halfdan was in Hedemark at the
Yule
entertainments when he heard this news; and one morning
early,
when the king was dressed, he called to him Harek Gand,
and told
him to go over to Hadeland, and bring him Ragnhild, Sigurd
Hjort's daughter. Harek got ready with a hundred
men, and made
his journey so that they came over the lake to Hake's
house in
the grey of the morning, and beset all the doors and stairs
of
the places where the house-servants slept. Then
they broke into
the sleeping-room where Hake slept, took Ragnhild, with
her
brother Guthorm, and all the goods that were there, and
set fire
to the house-servants' place, and burnt all the people
in it.
Then they covered over a magnificent waggon, placed Ragnhild
and
Guthorm in it, and drove down upon the ice. Hake
got up and went
after them a while; but when he came to the ice on the
lake, he
turned his sword-hilt to the ground and let himself fall
upon the
point, so that the sword went through him. He was
buried under a
mound on the banks of the lake. When King Halfdan,
who was very
quick of sight, saw the party returning over the frozen
lake, and
with a covered waggon, he knew that their errand was accomplished
according to his desire. Thereupon he ordered the
tables to be
set out, and sent people all round in the neighbourhood
to invite
plenty of guests; and the same day there was a good feast
which
was also Halfdan's marriage-feast with Ragnhild, who became
a
great queen. Ragnhild's mother was Thorny, a daughter
of
Klakharald king in Jutland, and a sister of Thrye Dannebod
who
was married to the Danish king, Gorm the Old, who then
ruled over
the Danish dominions.
6. OF RAGNHILD'S DREAM.
Ragnhild, who was wise and intelligent, dreamt great dreams.
She
dreamt, for one, that she was standing out in her herb-garden,
and she took a thorn out of her shift; but while she was
holding
the thorn in her hand it grew so that it became a great
tree, one
end of which struck itself down into the earth, and it
became
firmly rooted; and the other end of the tree raised itself
so
high in the air that she could scarcely see over it, and
it
became also wonderfully thick. The under part of
the tree was
red with blood, but the stem upwards was beautifully green
and
the branches white as snow. There were many and
great limbs to
the tree, some high up, others low down; and so vast were
the
tree's branches that they seemed to her to cover all Norway,
and
even much more.
7. OF HALFDAN'S DREAM.
King Halfdan never had dreams, which appeared to him an
extraordinary circumstance; and he told it to a man called
Thorleif Spake (the Wise), and asked him what his advice
was
about it. Thorleif said that what he himself did,
when he wanted
to have any revelation by dream, was to take his sleep
in a
swine-sty, and then it never failed that he had dreams.
The king
did so, and the following dream was revealed to him.
He thought
he had the most beautiful hair, which was all in ringlets;
some
so long as to fall upon the ground, some reaching to the
middle
of his legs, some to his knees, some to his loins or the
middle
of his sides, some to his neck, and some were only as
knots
springing from his head. These ringlets were of
various colours;
but one ringlet surpassed all the others in beauty, lustre,
and
size. This dream he told to Thorleif, who interpreted
it thus:
-- There should be a great posterity from him, and his
descendants should rule over countries with great, but
not all
with equally great, honour; but one of his race should
be more
celebrated than all the others. It was the opinion
of people
that this ringlet betokened King Olaf the Saint.
King Halfdan was a wise man, a man of truth and uprightness
--
who made laws, observed them himself, and obliged others
to
observe them. And that violence should not come
in place of the
laws, he himself fixed the number of criminal acts in
law, and
the compensations, mulcts, or penalties, for each case,
according
to every one's birth and dignity (1).
Queen Ragnhild gave birth to a son, and water was poured
over
him, and the name of Harald given him, and he soon grew
stout and
remarkably handsome. As he grew up he became very
expert at all
feats, and showed also a good understanding. He
was much beloved
by his mother, but less so by his father.
ENDNOTES:
(1) The penalty, compensation, or manbod for every
injury, due
the party injured, or to his
family and next of kin if the
injury was the death or premeditated
murder of the party,
appears to have been fixed for
every rank and condition,
from the murder of the king down
to the maiming or beating a
man's cattle or his slave.
A man for whom no compensation
was due was a dishonored person,
or an outlaw. It appears
to have been optional with the
injured party, or his kin if
he had been killed, to take the
mulct or compensation, or to
refuse it, and wait for an opportunity
of taking vengeance
for the injury on the party who
inflicted it, or on his kin.
A part of each mulct or compensation
was due to the king;
and, these fines or penalties
appear to have constituted a
great proportion of the king's
revenues, and to have been
settled in the Things held in
every district for
administering the law with the
lagman. -- L.
8. HALFDAN'S MEAT VANISHES AT A FEAST
King Halfdan was at a Yule-feast in Hadeland, where a
wonderful
thing happened one Yule evening. When the great
number of guests
assembled were going to sit down to table, all the meat
and all
the ale disappeared from the table. The king sat
alone very
confused in mind; all the others set off, each to his
home, in
consternation. That the king might come to some
certainty about
what had occasioned this event, he ordered a Fin to be
seized who
was particularly knowing, and tried to force him to disclose
the
truth; but however much he tortured the man, he got nothing
out
of him. The Fin sought help particularly from Harald,
the king's
son, and Harald begged for mercy for him, but in vain.
Then
Harald let him escape against the king's will, and accompanied
the man himself. On their journey they came to a
place where the
man's chief had a great feast, and it appears they were
well
received there. When they had been there until spring,
the chief
said, "Thy father took it much amiss that in winter I
took some
provisions from him, -- now I will repay it to thee by
a joyful
piece of news: thy father is dead; and now thou shalt
return
home, and take possession of the whole kingdom which he
had, and
with it thou shalt lay the whole kingdom of Norway under
thee."
9. HALFDAN S DEATH.
Halfdan the Black was driving from a feast in Hadeland,
and it so
happened that his road lay over the lake called Rand.
It was in
spring, and there was a great thaw. They drove across
the bight
called Rykinsvik, where in winter there had been a pond
broken in
the ice for cattle to drink at, and where the dung had
fallen
upon the ice the thaw had eaten it into holes. Now
as the king
drove over it the ice broke, and King Halfdan and many
with him
perished. He was then forty years old. He
had been one of the
most fortunate kings in respect of good seasons.
The people
thought so much of him, that when his death was known
and his
body was floated to Ringerike to bury it there, the people
of
most consequence from Raumarike, Vestfold, and Hedemark
came to
meet it. All desired to take the body with them
to bury it in
their own district, and they thought that those who got
it would
have good crops to expect. At last it was agreed
to divide the
body into four parts. The head was laid in a mound
at Stein in
Ringerike, and each of the others took his part home and
laid it
in a mound; and these have since been called Halfdan's
Mounds.