The Guests of Odin (4 page)

After Beimuni died, Starkad was asked to join the champions of Permia, in the far north. Then he stayed at Uppsala for seven years with the brother-kings Alrek and Eirik, and he went on Viking raids with them. The brother-kings had twelve berserks at court, who were swaggering bullies, particularly two brothers named Ulf and Otrygg. Starkad had little to say, and these brothers used to mock him, saying that he was a traitor and the reincarnation of a giant. He grew weary with Uppsala, especially at the time of the great sacrifice when the unmanliness of the rituals disgusted him. By now, Starkad was an old man, although he had many years left of his life.

Eirik and Alrek settled down and gave up the Viking life, but they gave Starkad a ship with a crew of Norsemen and Danes, and he travelled widely. Later, he heard that Eirik had murdered his brother Alrek, beating him to death with a horse bridle.

Starkad joined the Viking fleet of Haki and Hagbard, and he became one of Haki’s twelve champions, accompanying Haki when he attacked Sweden, now ruled by Hugleik,
grandson of Alrek. Hugleik was very rich, but also very greedy and mean, except to the many musicians and jesters and wizards he had at court. With his great riches, King Hugleik gathered a vast army to defend himself. It included his court jesters, but also two brothers named Svipdag and Geigad, who were very powerful warriors.

Haki’s army met King Hugleik’s forces on the Fyris Wolds, where there was a battle. Svipdag and Geigad fought fiercely when Hugleik’s court jesters fled before Haki’s attack, and Geigad wounded Haki s
everely and gave Starkad a serious head-wound which never fully left him, and continued to fester beneath the scar-tissue. But he and the rest of Haki’s champions went against them six to one, and took them both prisoners. Haki broke through King Hugleik’s shield wall and slew him and two of his sons, whereupon the Swedes fled the field and Haki became king. Starkad had Hugleik’s court jesters and musicians beaten for their cowardice. The treasure of Uppsala was taken out of the city and divided equally between all Haki’s warriors. Haki remained there for three years while the rest of his warriors went out on Viking raids, amassing plunder for themselves.

Starkad himself was called upon to accompany Vin, king of the Wends, and help him quell a revolt in the east. Fighting the Baltic tribes, they were always victorious. During this time, Starkad knew the hospitality of Sigar, king of the Siklings. When Haki went to avenge his brother Hagbard’s death at Sigar’s hands, Starkad deserted him
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Starkad heard of a berserk named Visinn who lived in Russia upon a rock named Anafial. He was able to blunt men’s blades with his gaze, and he used to abduct men’s wives and rape them before their husbands’ eyes. Starkad challenged Visinn, and went into the fight after covering his blade with a very fine skin that protected it from the berserk’s sorcery.

After
winning the victory against Visinn, Starkad went to Constantinople, where he defeated a giant named Tanni, and sent him into outlawry. Next, he overcame a man in Wendland named Vazi. Later, his ship was wrecked on the shores of the kingdom of Frodi the Brave and he was the sole survivor. Frodi welcomed him, gave him a new ship and charged him with guarding Frodi’s coasts. He also gave him his young son Ingjald to foster.

At this time, Frodi’s kingdom included the lands of the Danes, which he had taken from the Skjoldung king Halfdan, although his young sons Hroar and Helgi had escaped and were in hiding. Frodi had many foes among the Danes and since they could not defeat him in war, they decided to challenge him to a duel. Starkad, who had just returned from his voyages, heard of this and he told the challengers that it was not fitting for men of lowlier station to duel with a king.

The Danes went to a champion named Hami and offered him his own weight in gold if he would fight for them. When Hami found that the champion he had to confront was the ancient Starkad, he sneered at his foe and beat him to the ground with one blow of his fist. But then Starkad rose, drew his sword, and split Hami in half with one blow.

After this, Frodi lorded it over the Danes until the brothers Hroar and Helgi came to his hall one night and burned it around his head. Thus they regained their kingdom.

Ingjald succeeded Frodi, but he had none of the qualities of his father, giving himself up to feasting and drunkenness, showing no interest in warfare. Starkad was so disgusted by this he left the kingdom and sought service with the king of the Swedes. But when Starkad heard that Ingjald’s sister Helga was being courted by a goldsmith, he hurried back to the kingdom and drove the goldsmith away, after castrating him.

Shortly after, a man named Helgi came and asked for Helga’s hand, and Ingjald agreed to the match on the condition that Helgi
fight any rival suitor in single combat. Helgi met a challenge from a berserk named Angantyr, and offered to fight the man and his eight brothers. But on sober reflection and advice from Helga, Helgi went to Starkad.

“Help me, Starkad,” he said
.

“For Helga’s sake, I will,”
Starkad agreed, and told Helgi, “Return to Ingjald’s court. I will follow soon after.”

Twelve days after Helgi left, Starkad followed, and yet they entered Ingjald’s hall at the same time.

During the wedding, Angantyr and his brothers poured scorn on the aged Starkad, who stood on guard outside Helga and Helgi’s bower when the couple went to bed. Early the next morning, Helgi rose and dressed himself, but since daybreak had not yet come he went back to sleep. Starkad had not the heart to wake him, so he went to meet the champions on his own.

He sat down on the hill that had been chosen for the battle and
waited in the wind and snow. When Angantyr and his brother came, they found Starkad up to his neck in the snow. He leapt up at their approach, and they asked him, “Will you fight us singly or together?”

He chose the latter and slew them all, despite taking seventeen serious wounds
, from one of which his entrails hung out.

Weak from the fight
, he leant against a rock. A man went past and offered Starkad help, but the old warrior spurned him since he was one of the king’s bailiffs and lived by other men’s sorrows. Another man passed and also offered to help the warrior, but again Starkad refused, since the man had married a thrall and was in service to her master in order to free her. A woman passed, and offered help, but Starkad refused because she was a bondwoman who should have been at home caring for her baby. At last, a farmer passed driving a cart, and Starkad accepted his aid, and allowed him to bind his wounds.

When Starkad returned to Ingjald’s hall, he burst into the bridal chamber. Seeing this, Helgi dealt Starkad a strong blow to his head. At this, Starkad was satisfied that, despite his failure to face Angantyr and his brother, Helgi was a fit match for Helga since he would face Starkad himself. He departed for Sweden again.

Shortly afterwards, Ingjald was betrothed to Freyvar, daughter of Hroar, king of the Danes, and peace seemed assured between the two kingdoms. When Starkad heard that Ingjald was at peace with the slayers of his father, he went to Ingjald’s wedding feast in disguise. He sat at the foot of the table. Freyvar greeted him scornfully. Starkad’s rage grew as he saw Ingjald and the Danes dispose of course after course of luxurious dishes, which he compared with the coarse fare his father Frodi had found sufficient.

He egged Ingjald on to break off the peace with the Danes and go to war against Hroar. There was a fight in the hall, after which the Danes returned home, taking Freyvar with them. In the ensuing war, Ingjald burnt down Hroar’s hall, but Hroar and his cousin Hrolf Kraki defeated Ingjald’s men and slew him. Inciting this war was Starkad’s second shameful deed.

4.
Starkad’s Third Shameful Deed

Later Starkad joined the forces of Ragnald, who fought his enemy Sigvaldi in a battle on Zealand in Denmark, from which battle Starkad fled. Then he joined the army of Ali the Brave, an ally of Sigurd Hring, and when the great conqueror Harald Wartooth came to demand tribute from his friend, Ali joined the war on Sigurd Hring’s side, commanding the fleet while Sigurd Hring controlled the land army.

In the battle of
Bravalla, Starkad encountered the shieldmaiden Vebjorg, who fought on Harald Wartooth’s side. She cut through his chin so it dropped so much that he had to hold it up by biting his beard. He fought his way through many of Harald’s champions and even cut the hand off Visna, the shieldmaiden who was Harald’s standard-bearer. Then he fought a champion named Haki and slew him, although his own wounds were severe: he had one through his throat so that a man might see inside him, another in the chest through which his lung protruded and also he lost a finger. At last, Harald Wartooth was slain and his army fled, leaving Sigurd Hring master of the field. Now Sigurd Hring came to rule over Harald’s empire.

Many years later, while Sigurd Hring was defending his domain against the Kurlanders, Starkad was with his champions Alfar and Alfarin, the sons of Gandalf, who challenged the
Gjukungs, Gunnar and Hogni, to fight against them. The battle took place at Jarnamotha, near Slesvig in Denmark.

In the battle, Starkad made short work of the Gjukungs’ forces, until Gunnar sent Sigurd
the Volsung against him.

Sigurd asked Starkad, “What is your name?”

“I am Starkad the Old,” Starkad replied.

Sigurd
said, “I have had heard little to your credit.”

Starkad was angered by this. “What is the name of this man who insults me?” he demanded, but when Sigurd identified himself, he tried to flee. Sigurd pursued Starkad and knocked out two of his teeth with a blow from his sword Gram.

Starkad and the sons of Gandalf retreated and the Gjukungs won the battle.

Starkad returned to Ali’s warband. After several battles, they seized Uppsala from King On, son of Jorund, driving him away to Gautland. Here Ali reigned for twenty-five years. He committed acts of great cruelty until his half-brother and twelve of his earls conspired against him. They bribed Starkad with one hundred and twenty gold marks to murder Ali. Starkad took his sword and entered Ali’s bath chamber, where he was struck by the king’s keen gaze, which no man could endure, and he faltered. But Ali covered his eyes, knowing how they affected people, and he told his old champion, “Come closer and give me your message.”

Now Starkad drew his sword and thrust it into Ali, who laughed as he died, knowing that his murder was his brother’s work. This was Starkad’s third and final shameful act.

Starkad was so stricken with grief at what he had done that rather than accept the praises of the conspirators, he slew many of them. Soon after, King On returned to his throne. He ruled for many years, buying longer and longer life by sacrificing his sons to Odin until he was so old and enfeebled he had to suck up his food through a horn. At last the Swedes refused to let him sacrifice the last of his sons and he died.

Meanwhile, bent with sorrow and age, Starkad wandered the lands, bearing around his neck his reward for killing Oli, hoping to find someone he could pay to wreak due vengeance upon himself. Now he was so old he had to walk with the aid of crutches, but still he carried two swords. He met a noble youth named Hader, and between his words and the gold he offered, he succeeded in persuading the lad to behead him. He advised Hader to jump between the severed head and the body, which would make him invulnerable. But Hader realised this was a final trap – Starkad’s massive body would crush him. He cut off Starkad’s head and yet it bit at the grass as it landed on the ground.

Hader buried
Starkad on the heath of Roliung. It is said that for years it was possible to see the hero’s sword in the river nearby, when the water was low.

Hagbard and Haki

Hagbard was one of the sons of King Hagmund. One of his brothers was the sea-king Haki and they sailed widely as Vikings, plundering wherever they went. Sometimes they went raiding together, sometimes separately.

One summer Hagbard went raiding with his other brothers Helvin and Hagmund and they met Alf and Alfgeir, sons of Sigar, king of the Siklings. The ensuing battle was ended only by nightfall, where they kept truce according to a vow they had made. The next day they began to fight again, and the losses on both sides were so great that they were forced to make peace.

At the court of King Sigar, (near Sigtuna in what is now Sweden), Princess Signy had been approached by a man called Hildegisl, who was handsome and of high rank. Yet she spurned him: she loved Hagbard’s brother Haki because of his fame as a warrior. When Hagbard accompanied Sigar’s brothers to the king’s hall, he managed to speak with her without her brothers’ knowledge and she agreed to become his mistress.

Afterwards, the serving-women were comparing noblemen
, a popular pastime in those days, she said, “I prefer Haki to Hildegisl,” and recited a verse praising the sea-king in such a way that people thought she praised Hagbard under Haki’s name.

There were two men who were advisers at King Sigar’s court, one named Bolvis, the other Bilvis; the latter delighted in bringing peace, the other fomented strife between people. Hildegisl went to Bolvis and persuaded him to make trouble between the sons of Sigar and the sons of Hagmund. This he did
: one day while Hagbard was elsewhere, Alf and Alfgeir, together with Hildegisl, attacked Helvin and Hagmund and slew them at a place since called Hagmund’s Bay. Learning of this, Hagbard returned. He drove off the sons of Sigar and forced Hildegisl from the battle with a spear through his buttocks.

Now Hagbard disguised himself as a woman, and went to Signy, claiming to be one of Haki’s shieldmaidens with a message from him to Sigar. When he was taken to bed with the handmaidens, and a serving woman washed his legs, they asked him, “Why are your legs so hairy and your hands so hard?”

He told them, “Such is the lot of a shieldmaiden.” Signy, who had learnt the truth, backed him up.

That night they slept together, and declared undying love. Signy said, “I could never outlive you, Hagbard, and I will die when you do.”

But the serving-women betrayed them. In the morning, Sigar’s warriors tried to rush into the bower. Hagbard fought them off. He stood in the doorway and killed many men before he was finally overpowered and taken before the people for judgment.

Many people thought he should be punished, but Bilvis said, “It would be better to invite such a great warrior to join Sigar’s warband.”

Bolvis stepped forward now and said, “This is no time to show mercy for the man who slew Sigar’s sons and deflowered his daughter.”

This swayed the people and a gallows was erected to deal with Hagbard.

Sigar’s queen handed Hagbard a horn of mead, taunting him. He took it with the hand that had killed her sons, and flung it in her face.

Meanwhile Signy, weeping, asked her women, “Can you bear to join in the deed I intend to undertake?”

They said, “We will do anything you wish.”

She told them, “I have no wish to outlive my lover. You must set fire to the bower and hang yourselves.”

Trembling, they agreed, and she gave them all mead to ease their terror.

Now Hagbard was taken to his gallows. He wanted to test Signy’s love, so he asked his executioners to hang his mantle from the noose, so he could see what would happen to him. They agreed, and a message was brought to Signy from a man looking from the hall that he had seen Hagbard hanged. At once, Signy and her maidens set alight their bower and hanged themselves.

On seeing the flames licking the bower far away, knowing the full extent of Signy’s love, Hagbard joyfully allowed the hangman to tighten the noose and soon he was swinging from the gallows.