Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes, page 11
Then Yrsa went to King Helgi and told him what a bad end everything had come to. Hrólf said, “You had a mother with plenty of evil in her, but it is my desire that things stay as they are.”
But Yrsa said that they could no longer live together after this, and she went home with Queen Ólof to Saxony for a while. This affected King Helgi so much that he laid a long time in bed and remained completely in misery.
It was agreed by everyone that there was no better choice in women than Yrsa, but other kings were reluctant to ask for her hand. And the biggest reason for this was fear that Helgi would go after her and spread his suffering around if she married someone else.
Chapter 14
There was a king named Ađils, who was rich and greedy, and who ruled Sweden from his capital at Uppsala. He learned about Yrsa and prepared his ships, then journeyed to meet Ólof and Yrsa. Ólof greeted King Ađils with a feast, and he was treated to every art and courtesy.
Ađils asked for the hand of Queen Yrsa in marriage. Ólof answered, “Certainly you have heard of what her situation is, but I will not deny her to you if she agrees to it.”
The matter was then presented to Yrsa, who said she thought it was a bad match, “Because you are an unpopular king.” But the marriage went forward anyway, whether Yrsa wanted to speak for it or against it, and Ađils went home with her. King Helgi was not asked for his consent, because Ađils thought Helgi was the lesser king. King Helgi did {79} not become aware of the arrangement until Ađils and Yrsa had reached Sweden, where Ađils married Yrsa in a worthy ceremony.
It was now that King Helgi learned of this, and became half again as angry as he had been previously. He slept in a small hut outside, with no one else near.
Now Ólof is out of the saga, but things continued in this way for a while.
Chapter 15
It is told that one Yule Eve, King Helgi had gone to bed and the weather was bad outside. There was a knock at the door that spoke to great strength in the one knocking, and it occurred to the king that it would be unkingly for him to leave the poor beggar outside, and that he ought to save whoever it was.
He went and opened the door, and it was a poor woman dressed in rags that he saw there. The beggar woman said, “You have done well now, king,” and came into the hut.
The king said “Pull some of the straw and bear-pelts over you, so that you don’t get chilled.”
The beggarwoman said, “Let me have your bed, my lord, and I will sleep beside you. Otherwise my life is at risk.”
The king said, “This stretches my generosity, but if it is as you say, then lie down here on the edge of the bed in your clothes, and I won’t grudge you that.” She did so.
Now the king turned away from her, and a light flashed inside the hut. And after a little time passed, he happened to see her out of the corner of his eye, and he saw that a woman was resting there, dressed in a silk gown, who was so beautiful that he thought he had never seen one more beautiful. Now he rushed up to this woman eagerly.
“I want to go away now,” she said. “You have released me from a terrible curse, which was the work of my stepmother, and I have visited the homes of many kings before you. Now don’t follow a good deed with a bad one; I want to go away now and not stay here any longer.”
{80} “No,” said the king, “you don’t have a choice in that. You can’t go so soon, and we aren’t going to part like this. Now I’m going to marry you quickly, because I like the look of you.”
“It is yours to decide, lord,” she said, and they slept together that night. But then in the morning she said, “You have acted toward me with lust alone, and you ought to know that we will have a child together. Do as I tell you, king, visit our child in the second winter from now at this same time, in your boat-house. You will pay for it if you do not.” After this she went away.
Now King Helgi was more cheerful than before. Some time passed without him giving it much thought. But in the third winter it happened that three people rode to the same house that the king slept in at around midnight. They came with an infant girl and set her down beside the house.
The woman who held the baby said, “You ought to know, king, that your descendants will pay a price for how you disregarded what I said to you. But you will have some joy of the fact that you freed me from my curse. Know this, that this girl is named Skuld, and she is your and my daughter.” After this, these people rode away. The woman had been an elf-woman, and the king never saw her again.
Now Skuld grew up there, and soon she was cruel in disposition. It is said that one time, King Helgi prepared to journey away from the land and distract himself from his anguish, and his son Hrólf stayed behind. King Helgi now raided widely, and did many great things.
Chapter 16
King Ađils remained in Uppsala. He had twelve berserkers who guarded his land from every danger and conflict.
Now King Helgi prepared his expedition to go to Uppsala and take back Yrsa. He arrived in Sweden, and when King Ađils learned that Helgi was there, he asked Queen Yrsa how he ought to greet King Helgi.
She said, “You know the proper answer to that, but you knew already that there is no man I have a closer relationship to than to him.”
{81} And it seemed to King Ađils that it was right to invite Helgi to a feast, but he did not think it ought to be an invitation without some fraud in it. King Helgi anticipated this and went to the feast with a hundred men, leaving most of them in the ships nearby.
King Ađils greeted Helgi with both hands. Queen Yrsa intended to make some settlement between the kings, and she treated King Helgi with great honor. For his part, King Helgi was so glad to see Yrsa that he paid no attention to anything else. He wanted to spend all the time he could talking to her, and this is how it went all throughout the feast.
It so happened that this was when the berserkers of King Ađils came home. And when they had come home to Sweden, King Ađils went to greet them secretly, so that others were not aware. He told them to go into the forest between the city and King Helgi’s ships, and told them to attack King Helgi from there when he went to his ships. “And I will send you some reinforcements, and they will come at them from behind so that they’ll be pinned in, because I want to be certain that King Helgi cannot get away. He is so in love with the queen that I don’t want to risk some ingenious maneuver by him.”
Meanwhile King Helgi was sitting at the feast and was completely unaware of this treacherous plan, as was Queen Yrsa. She sent a message to King Ađils, asking him to give King Helgi some nobleman’s gifts, gold and treasures. He promised this, but he intended the gifts for himself instead. Now King Helgi began to leave, and King Ađils and Queen Yrsa followed him out to the road, and that is where they parted. And not long after King Ađils had disappeared from view, King Helgi and his men became aware of the men waiting in ambush, and then the battle began.
King Helgi made a good advance forward, and he fought hard, but because of the superior numbers that faced him there, King Helgi died there with a good reputation and many large wounds.
Some of his army came back to King Ađils, and they were caught as if between a rock and a hammer. Queen Yrsa knew nothing about it before King Helgi was dead and the battle was over.
It was here that Helgi died with all his army that had traveled with him, and the rest returned home to Denmark. Here the story of King Helgi ends.
{82} Chapter 17
Now King Ađils praised the victory and thought that he had become much more famous, because he had defeated a king as great and widely famed as Helgi had been. But Queen Yrsa said, “There is no clear reason to boast so much, even if you have betrayed the man who was most closely related of all to me, and who of all men was my greatest love. And because of this, I will never be loyal to you if you attack King Helgi’s relations. I will cause the deaths of your berserkers, whichever ones I can, if any one of Helgi’s kinsmen is so brave that he will attack us for my sake and his own manhood’s.”
King Ađils told her not to promise such things about him or his berserkers, “Because it won’t help you. But I will compensate you for your father’s death with a great deal of money and with good treasures, if you will accept them.” The queen calmed down when she heard this, and she accepted honor from the king.
But Yrsa was now uneasy in her mind, and she often sat and thought about how to do some harm or shame to the berserkers. Ađils’s men never again found Queen Yrsa cheerful or in a good mood after the death of King Helgi, and there was more disagreement in the king’s hall than there had been before, and Queen Yrsa would not settle peacefully with King Ađils if she had any say over a matter.
For King Ađils’s part, he thought he had become very famous, and anyone who came among the king and his great champions was considered the greatest of men. For a while he stayed in his kingdom and thought that no one would dare attack him or his berserkers.
King Ađils was a man who made many sacrifices, and he was very knowledgeable in magic.
Part 3: The Tale of Svipdag
Chapter 18
There was a wealthy farmer named Svip, who lived in Sweden far from other men. He was very rich, and he had been the greatest of champions, and not only in matters where witnesses had seen him. He {83} was also very wise. He had three sons, and their names were Svipdag, Beigađ, and Hvítserk. Hvítserk was the oldest. All of Svip’s sons were large men, strong and handsome.
And when Svipdag was eighteen years old, he told his father one day, “It is a waste of our lives to be up here in the mountains in remote valleys, never visiting other people or being visited by other people. It would be a better idea to go to King Ađils and be in his district with him and his champions, if he would receive us.”
Svip answered, “This doesn’t seem advisable to me, because King Ađils is a cruel man and not well in mind, even if he does speak fairly. And his men are jealous, though great, and certainly King Ađils is a powerful and wealthy man.”
Svipdag said, “I’ll have to take a risk, if I want to get some fame. And I won’t know until I try just which way my luck will turn. And I certainly won’t sit here any longer, whatever else is destined for me.”
And because he had decided on this venture, Svip gave him a large ax, beautiful and sharp. And then he said to his son, “Do not be greedy with others, and don’t behave arrogantly, because that will get you a bad reputation. And defend yourself, if someone attacks you, because it is not the habit of great men to puff themselves up, but to earn a great reputation if they are faced with some kind of test.” Then he gave Svipdag the most excellently constructed armor, and a good horse.
Now Svipdag rode away, and in the evening he came to King Ađils’s fortress, where he saw that games were being held outside the king’s hall where King Ađils sat on a great golden throne with his berserkers seated around him.
And when Svipdag came to the surrounding fence, he found the gate locked, because it was the custom then to ask for permission to enter. Svipdag didn’t bother with this, but just broke open the gate and rode right in.
King Ađils said, “This man is riding uncarefully, and no one has tried such a thing before. It may be that he’s as tough as he looks, but he still might not be able to deliver what he’s trying to.”
The berserkers frowned deeply at Svipdag, and thought he was acting dangerously arrogant. But Svipdag rode right in front of the king and greeted him well, as he knew how to do in the proper style. The king asked him who he was, and Svipdag told him. The king {84} recognized him right away then, and everyone thought he would be the greatest of champions and a man of great deeds. The games were still going on, and Svipdag sat down on a tree and watched them.
The berserkers looked at Svipdag unhappily, and now they told the king that they were going to test him. The king said, “I don’t think he lacks toughness, but it seems to me a good idea for you to find out if he is what he seems to be.”
Now men came into the hall, and the berserkers came to Svipdag and asked him whether he was any kind of fighter, because he acted like such a tough man. Svipdag said that he was just like any one of them. And when he said this, their anger and aggressiveness rose in response, but the king told them to stay calm during the evening. The berserkers frowned, and howled loudly, and said to Svipdag, “Do you dare to fight us? If you do, you’ll need more than tough words and a tough attitude, and we want to test just how much of a man you are.”
Svipdag said, “I’ll agree to fight one of you at a time, and then we’ll see if more want to join in.”
The king thought it was fine if these men wanted to test each other, but Queen Yrsa said, “This man ought to be welcome here.”
The berserkers answered her, “We already know that you want all of us in Hel, but we are tougher than the kind of men who would die from just words, or from ill will alone.”
The queen said that nothing would come of it if the king tested them how he wanted, “Considering what men you are, men he trusts as much as he does.”
The leader of the berserkers then said, “I will settle you and settle your arrogance down, and show you that we are unafraid of him.”
Chapter 19
And in the morning there was a hard-fought duel between Svipdag and one of the berserkers, and there was no shortage of strong blows. Every man could see that this newcomer knew how to make a sword cut with a great deal of force, and the berserker kept falling back {85} before him, before finally Svipdag killed him there. And immediately another berserker wanted to kill Svipdag in revenge, and it went much the same way, and Svipdag did not let up before he had killed four of them in this way.
Then King Ađils said, “You have done severe damage to me, and now you’re going to have to pay for it,” and he told his men to stand up and kill Svipdag.
In another place the queen had assembled her own force of men, which she wanted to use to help Svipdag, and she told King Ađils that he could see how much more value there was in this one man than in all the berserkers. So the queen made a truce with them, and everyone considered Svipdag to be a greatly accomplished man.
Now Svipdag sat on the second bench facing the king, on the recommendation of Queen Yrsa.
And when the night came, Svipdag looked around and thought he still had not done enough to get back at the berserkers, and he wanted to face them again. He thought it was likely that they would attack him if they saw him alone. And it went as he predicted, because they immediately fell into fighting right there. And then the king showed up after they had fought a little while, and separated them.
After this had happened, the king outlawed the remaining berserkers because all of them had fought against one single man, and he said that he hadn’t been aware earlier of just what meager men they were, outside of their tough words. The berserkers went away, but swore that they would raid in Ađils’s kingdom.
The king acted as if he didn’t care about the berserkers’ threats, and said there was no kind of courage in these dogs. So they departed in shame and disgrace.
But in fact it was King Ađils who had egged the berserkers on to attack and kill Svipdag in the first place, when they had seen Svipdag walking alone out of the hall. He had intended to avenge himself on Svipdag in this way, without the queen becoming aware of it. But it was Svipdag who had killed one of the berserkers when the king had come to separate the fighters. King Ađils now told Svipdag not to serve the king’s interests any less than all the berserkers had together, “Especially because the queen wants you to serve in the place of the berserkers.” So Svipdag remained there for a time.
{86} Chapter 20
A little later, it was reported to King Ađils that the berserkers had assembled a large army and were raiding his land. King Ađils now commanded Svipdag to rise up against the berserkers, saying it was his duty and that he would provide Svipdag with as large an army as he might need. Svipdag did not feel like being in charge of the army. Nonetheless, he agreed to go with the king wherever he wanted to go, but the king insisted that he take charge.
Svipdag said, “Then I ask for the lives of twelve men as my price, at a time of my choice.”
The king said, “I’ll grant you that.” And after this Svipdag went to battle with a great army, and the king stayed home. Svipdag had booby traps made, and he threw them down where the battlesite was marked off, and he had many other tricks up his sleeve too. Then a battle began, and a hard one, and the army of the berserkers fell back and recognized they were losing when they hit the booby traps. One of the berserkers was killed, and much of their army, and those who survived fled to their ships and sailed away.
Now Svipdag came home to King Ađils, and he had a victory to brag about. King Ađils thanked him well for his initiative and for defending the land. Queen Yrsa said, “The seat where Svipdag sits is certainly better occupied than it was when your berserkers sat in it!” The king said this was true.
After they got away, the berserkers then assembled a new army, and they raided anew in King Ađils’s country. And once again the king urged Svipdag to go against them and said he would offer him full control of the army. Svipdag went to war with one-third the number of troops the berserkers had, and King Ađils swore to come to the battle himself with his bodyguards. This time, Svipdag had moved quicker than the berserkers expected. When they met, there was a hard battle. For his part, King Ađils assembled an army and meant to come against the berserkers by surprise on their flank.
{87} Chapter 21
The saga now turns to the farmer Svip. He awoke one time from his sleep, breathing heavily, and he said to his two sons, “Your brother Svipdag seems to need some help, because he’s in the middle of a battle not far from here and he has the smaller army. He has already lost one eye, and he has many other injuries too, though he’s killed three berserkers and there are still three left.”
