The Guests of Odin (6 page)

“That Amlodi should turn up at his own funeral!”

“Where are the men who went with you?” someone asked.

Amlodi pointed to the sticks he bore. “Here they are,” he replied, to the laughter of all. Then he jollied the cupbearers, asking them to ply more drink. Next he girdled his sword on his side, then drew it several times, and cut himself with it. To protect him from himself, the king’s thanes had sword and scabbard riveted with iron nails. Then Amlodi plied the thanes with horn after horn of mead, until all were drunk. They fell asleep one by one in the hall itself.

Now Amlodi took from his rags the wooden crooks he had fashioned so long ago, then cut down the hanging his mother had made, which covered both the inner and the outer walls of the hall. Flinging this over the sleeping thanes, the then applied the crooked stakes, knotting and binding them so none could rise. Then he set fire to the hall.

As the fire spread, he went to Feng’s chamber, where he took his uncle’s sword from where it hung over the bed, and replaced it with his own. Then he woke Feng.

“Your men are dying in flames,” he said. “And here am I, Amlodi, armed with my crooks to help me, athirst for long overdue vengeance, for my father’s murder.”

On hearing this, Feng leapt from his couch and tried to draw the sword that hung over his bed. But Amlodi cut him down as he struggled to unsheathe the weapon.

Uncertain of how the Jutish nation would react to his deeds, Amlodi lay in hiding until he could learn the people’s thoughts. Everyone living nearby had watched the hall burn through the night, and in the morning they came to see what had occurred. Searching the ruins they found nothing but a few burnt corpses, and the body of Feng stabbed with his own sword. Some were angry, others saddened, others happy that the tyrant had been slain.

At this, Amlodi abandoned his hiding place, and called an assembly. Here he told the Jutes of the circumstances that had brought this about, where upon the people proclaimed him king, seeing him as a man of wisdom and cunning.

With this done, Amlodi equipped three ships, and sailed back to England to see his wife and his father-in-law. With him went the best of his thanes, well equipped and richly clad. He had had a shield made for him, upon which was painted the story of his exploits.

The King of England received them well, treating them as befits a king and his retinue. During the feast he asked: “Is my old friend Feng alive and well?”

Amlodi shook his head. “He died by the sword,” he replied.

“Who slew him?” asked the king sharply.

“It was I,” replied Amlodi.

At this the king said nothing, but secretly he was horrified, for in their youth he and Feng had sworn that each should avenge the other’s death if one of them were to be slain. But the slayer was his son-in-law. Which should he chose, to honour his vow, or to respect the ties of blood and marriage? At last, he chose the former, but decided that he would achieve vengeance by the hands of another.

“I have sad tidings to relate, also,” he said. “While you were among the Jutes, my wife died of illness.”

Amlodi offered his condolences, and asked if he intended to marry again. “Indeed,” the king replied, “and since I am delight with you cunning and craft, I would like you to find me a fresh match.”

“Do you have any preferences?” asked Amlodi.

The king replied that he did. “In Scotland there reigns an unmarried queen named Jormunthrud. I wish to marry her.” But he neglected to tell Amlodi that the reason the queen was unmarried was because she had the custom of killing all who wooed her.
Amlodi set out for Scotland with his thanes and some of the king’s attendants. When he was near the hall of the queen, he came to a meadow by the road where he rested his horses. Finding the spot pleasing, he resolved to rest himself there, too, and posted men to keep watch some way off.

Queen Jormunthrud learnt of this, and sent ten warriors to spy on the foreigners. One of them slipped past the guards and took Amlodi’s shield, which Amlodi was using as a pillow, and the letter the King of England had entrusted him with. When he brought these things to Queen Jormunthrud, she examined the shield, and saw that this was the man who had with cunning and craft unsurpassed avenged on his uncle the murder of his father. She also read the letter with distaste. She had no desire to marry an old man. She rubbed out all the writing, and wrote in their place saying that the bearer was to ask her hand himself. Then she told the spies to replace both shield and letter.

Meanwhile, Amlodi had found the shield had been stolen, kept his eyes shut and feigned sleep when the spy returned. As the man was replacing the shield and letter, Amlodi sprang up, and seized him. Then he woke his thanes, and they rode on to the queen’s palace.

He greeted her. “I am here to represent my father-in-law, the King of England,” he told her, and he handed her the letter, sealed with the king’s seal.

Jormunthrud too it, and read it. “I have heard of you,” she said. “You are said to be very cunning. Your uncle deserved all he received at your hands. You achieved deeds beyond mortal estimation. Not only did you avenge you father’s death and your mother’s faithlessness, but at the same time you gained a kingdom. You have made only one mistake.”

“And that is?” challenged Amlodi.

“Why, your lowly marriage,” Jormunthrud replied, as if it was obvious. “Your wife’s parents were both of the stock of thralls, even if they became kings by accident. When looking for a wife, a man must regard firstly her birth over her beauty. I, whose origin is far from humble, am worthy of your bed and your embraces, since you surpass me in neither wealth nor ancestry. I am a queen, and whoever I deem worthy of my bed is king.” She embraced him.

Amlodi, overjoyed by her words, kissed her back, and told her that her wishes were as his own. A banquet was held, the Scots gathered, and they were married. When this was done, Amlodi returned south with his bride, and a strong band of Scots followed to guard against attack. They met the King of England’s daughter.

“It would be unworthy of me to hate you as an adulterer more than I love you as a husband,” she said, “for I have now a son as a pledge of our marriage, and regard for him, if nothing else, means I must show the affection of a wife. He may hate his mother’s supplanter, I will love her. But I tell you that you must beware your father-in-law.”

A
s she was speaking, the King of England came up and embraced Amlodi, and welcomed him to a banquet. But Amlodi, being forewarned, took a retinue of two hundred horsemen, and rode to the hall appointed. As he did so, the king attacked him under the porch of the hall, and thrust at him with a spear, but Amlodi’s mailshirt deflected the blow. Amlodi was slightly wounded, and he went back to the Scottish warriors. Then he sent to the king Jormunthrud’s spy, who he had taken prisoner. The man was to explain what had occurred, and then absolve Amlodi.

The king pursued Amlodi, and slew many of his men. The next day, Amlodi, wishing to fight, increased his apparent numbers by setting some of the corpses on horseback, and tying others to stones, and giving the impression that his forces were undiminished, and striking fear into the hearts of his opponents, who fled. Amlodi’s forces came down upon the king as he was retreating, and slew him.

Amlodi amassed a great amount of plunder, and then went with his two wives back to his own land.

In the meantime, Vadilgaut had died, and Vigleik, his son, had become king of the Angles. He had immediately begun to harass Gerutha, Amlodi’s mother, and stripped her of her royal wealth, saying that Amlodi had usurped the kingdom of the Jutes, and defrauded the King of the Angles, his overlord.

In a spirit of conciliation, Amlodi presented Vigleik with the richest of his spoils, but soon after he seized the chance for revenge, by attacking and subduing him. After this, Vigleik recruited the forces of the Angles, and challenged the Jutes to war. Amlodi saw that he was caught between disgrace and danger: if he accepted the challenge he would risk defeat or death, but to flee would be dishonourable. Finally, he decided to meet Vigleik on the field of combat.

But because he loved Jormunthrud so much, he was more concerned about her widowhood than his death. She said that she had a man’s courage, and would not abandon him on the battlefield. But she did not keep this promise. Amlodi rode against Vigleik in Jutland, and met his end in the fray. Now Jormunthrud accepted Vigleik’s offer of marriage, thus betraying Amlodi’s memory. So fell the Jutish royal house.

Bane of Champions

There was a king named Budli who ruled Sweden. He had a daughter named Hild. One day two men came before him, whose names were Alius and Olius,
and both bragged of their skill as smiths. When he heard this, King Budli demanded that they prove their boasts. “Forge two swords for me, both of incomparable sharpness, which will cut through iron as well as they cut through wood or linen.”

Both smiths did as they were asked, and while Alius’ sword survived every test the king imposed upon it,
King Budli found that Olius’ sword broke in the testing and he told the smith to forge another.

Unwillingly, Olius did as he was told but when he gave the king the new sword he said, “It will be the bane of Princess Hild’s two sons.”

Angered by this, the king struck at the smiths with the sword, but both vanished into thin air. Wanting to defy the prophecy, King Budli had his men take the sword, put it in a piece of hollow wood weighted with lead, and throw it into Lake Malaren near Agnafit.

Hildibrand the King of Hunland had a valiant so
n named Helgi, who came to King Budli’s court to sue for the hand in marriage of Princess Hild. King Budli approved of the man, and when he grew old found Helgi a great help in defending the borders of the realm. The Hun and his Swedish princess had a son who they named Hildibrand after his grandfather, with whom he was fostered when he grew older. In Hunland, young Hildibrand showed great promise.

Helgi was slain defending King Budli’s realm, and the Danish king Alf entered Sweden and slew King Budli in battle. King Alf’s greatest warrior was a man named Aki, and he gave him Princess
Hild as a reward for his valour. Aki fathered a son on Hild, and they named the boy Asmund. Even while still a youth, Asmund made a name for himself as a Viking.

By then his half-brother Hildibrand had travelled widely and earned a name for himself by his courageous deeds: Champion of the Huns. Word came to him at last of his father’s death and he made his way to the Danes to gain revenge on King Alf. Aki and Asmund were off raiding in foreign lands. No one could withstand Hildibrand’s attack
; the Hun Champion charged through Alf’s ranks in a berserk fit, and King Alf himself was slain, leaving only his daughter, Asa the Fair. By the time Aki and Asmund returned from their raids Hildibrand had gone and all was quiet again in the kingdom.

Asmund courted Asa but found a contender in another suitor, Eyvind Skinnhall. Faced by the two rivals for her affections, Asa gave them a capricious-seeming challenge; “Next autumn,” she said, “I will marry whichever one of you has the fairest hands.”

Accordingly, Eyvind spent the summer at his leisure, wearing gloves and sparing his hands any work. Asmund, however, returned to the life of a Viking, and gained much booty and honour although his hands were scarred and disfigured in numerous battles.

That autumn both suitors came to Asa’s hall to show the queen their hands for her judgement. Eyvind removed his gloves, showing his hands to be white and beautiful. Asmund’s hands on the contrary were cut and scarred, but upon his arms as far as his shoulders, he wore golden rings, booty he had taken in his plunderings. Asa declared, “I think Asmund’s hands are the fairest, but I lay upon you one more condition before I will marry
you: that you avenge my father’s death at the hands of Hildibrand the Hun-Champion. In order to kill Hildibrand,” she added, “you must find the sword of Olius that was cast into the waters of Lake Malaren near Agnafit.”

Asmund travelled to Sweden and Lake Malaren. At Agnafit, he encountered an old man who remembered where the swords had been thrown into the water. He guided Asmund to the place from which he took Olius’ sword.

Meanwhile, Hildibrand had been fighting against the Saxons and he had taken almost all their lands. Each year he challenged their counts’ men to fight against his warband of berserks, the penalty for losing being the loss of a count’s estate. By now, the counts of the Saxons had only twelve estates left to them. But when they had reached the depths of their despair, Asmund appeared among them and promised that he would fight their persecutor.

When the appointed day for combat came, Hildibrand sent one of his berserks to fight the Saxons’ champion but Asmund cut the man in half with the sword of Olius. The following day Hildibrand sent two berserks against Asmund, but he slew them both. As the days went by Hildibrand sent more and more berserks against Asmund but to no avail.

One day he sent eight berserks against Asmund, confident of victory, but Asmund slew them all. Angry now, Hildibrand sent all eleven of his remaining berserks against Asmund. Despite his misgivings, Asmund went against them after the goddesses of Asgard appeared to him in a dream and egged him on, and again he defeated all.

When he heard about this, Hildibrand went into a berserk frenzy, killing anyone who came near him, and slew his own son in the process.

Now he travelled up the Rhine to meet Asmund, carrying on his shield a tally of all the men he had slain during his life. Asmund came to meet him and a long, savage fight ensued which ended when Hildibrand’s sword broke on Asmund’s helmet. Then Hildibrand, who was by then severely wounded, chanted a lay that revealed to Asmund that they were brothers, born of the same mother. Asking that he might be buried in Asmund’s clothing, Hildibrand died.

With little joy at his victory, or his new title of ‘Bane of Champions,’ Asmund returned to the Danes, where he discovered that Asa was being courted by another. She was happy at his return and after he slew the new rival, she accepted him as her husband.

In later life, Asmund grew even more renowned.