The Guests of Odin (7 page)

T
he Trollwife’s Fosterling

There was a king
named Hring who ruled the Baltic isle of Rugen and had three children; two sons, Halfdan and Asmund, and a daughter named Ingibjorg. Hring ruled with the aid and counsel of two men; Earl Thorfinn, who was foster-father to his children, and Earl Thorir the Strong, a mighty warrior who had been cursed by a trollwife so that he could not stand the sight of blood.

One morning, Princess Ingibjorg awoke from a restless sleep. She had been dreaming, and she told her foster father, Earl Thorfinn that in her dream she had been by the shore.

“I saw what looked like ducks out to sea, but when they came closer, I recognised them as ships. From out of the ships came a pack of wolves, led by two foxes, and the wolves and the foxes ravaged the land.”

She asked the Earl what this dream signified. He told her: “It means war is coming, and I will soon no longer be the king’s counsellor.”

That evening, when the king was feasting in his hall, Thorir the Strong entered followed by his men, and he reported that Vikings had landed. “Two brothers, Soti and Snaekol, lead them and Soti wishes to marry the princess.”

The king asked Thorir the Strong to describe his daughter’s suitor, and the earl said, “He is a berserk, and is bald, except for a single hair on top of his head: he wears no clothes and his body is blue on one side and red on the other.”

The king did not think Soti was a suitable match for the princess, and said, “It would be better to fight him than let him carry her off.”

When they heard that the king was resolved to fight them, Soti and Snaekol gave him two days to gather troops and then they would fight. The evening before the battle, the king’s son Halfdan told his brother Asmund, “I want to go down to the ships and see what Soti looked like.”

Asmund did not like the idea, since he thought it would lead to his death, but when Halfdan taunted him for his cowardice, he grudgingly agreed to accompany his brother.

They came to the Vikings’ camp where Soti received Halfdan hospitably and spoke courteously with him, giving the brothers silver. When Halfdan and Asmund returned to the town and told people of this, all were impressed. The next day, the Vikings attacked.

They split their forces in three and attacked the town’s three gates. The king was defending one gate, with Thorfinn at another (accompanied by Halfdan) and Thorir the Strong at the third. Soti led the forces against the king, while Snaekol attacked Thorir the Strong. Thorir fought well but when he saw blood shed, he fled back into the town where Snaekol slew him.

Thorfinn saw this and led some of his men to defend this gate, leaving Halfdan behind. The battle grew furious, and Thorfinn saw that Soti intended to kill the king. He went to King Hring’s aid, and went to defend him but Soti split his shield and then cut off the king’s feet. Then he slew the king and Thorfinn fell among the corpses, weary and wounded. Night fell and the Vikings returned to their ships.

Earl Thorfinn awoke among the slain. He searched the bodies and found that the king was dead, as was his son Asmund. Halfdan, however, still lived but he had fallen through weariness. Thorfinn led him to Ingibjorg’s bower, where they told the princess what had happened. Thorfinn took them away from the town and concealed them at the farm of a woman named Grima. Earl Thorfinn returned to the town.

Soti and his men came ashore the next morning and when they came to the town, they searched the bodies, plunder
ed them, and discovered that Halfdan was missing. Then Soti went to Ingibjorg’s bower and found that she had gone, too. They questioned Thorfinn about the missing children, but he would not cooperate, even when Soti threatened to tear him limb from limb. The Viking did not carry out this threat, but made himself king of the land, although he was unpopular with his subjects. Soti searched for Halfdan and Ingibjorg but could not find them.

In the spring, Earl Thorfi
nn visited Grima’s farm and took the children down to the shore where they saw a fleet of ships. One ship belonged to Thorfinn, and he told the two children that it would take them to his brother, Ottar, who was an earl in Permia. He gave them a token to prove to Ottar that they were Thorfinn’s foster children. Halfdan said he would do so as long as Thorfinn came with them but the earl refused. He kissed them farewell and they went aboard.

After a long voyage around Scandinavia, they came to Permia where Earl Ottar received them and asked for news. They told him of all that had happened and asked for succour. Ottar seemed unwilling to do so until they gave him Thorfinn’s token. He had Halfdan sit beside him on the high seat and sent Ingibjorg to the bower of his daughter Thora.

One day Halfdan asked the earl, “Will you give me ships and men so I can go on a voyage?”

The earl agreed, and Halfdan and his sister spent that summer at sea before heading back towards Permia in the autumn. But as they sailed home, they ran into difficulties. A storm blew up and scattered the ships, sinking all but Halfdan’s own vessel, a large dragonship, which was blown
far off course.

They found themselves driven onto a mysterious shore beneath a great cliff.

Halfdan told his companions, “We must stay here for the while.” They made a hut out of driftwood. Halfdan’s followers asked him where they could be and he said, “It must be a land uninhabited by men.”

One day he went up onto a glacier in search of food. Here he discovered a path that he followed to a cave mouth where a fire was burning. Coming closer he saw two trolls, a male and a female, who were eating from a cauldron that contained both horseflesh and human flesh. The man had a hook in his nose while the woman wore a ring, and they passed the time by pulling each other back and forth by the hook and ring. When the male troll suddenly slipped his hook out of the ring, the female fell flat on her back.

She got up and said, “I will not play that game again.”

Then the male troll, whose name was Jarnnef, asked the female, Sleggja, to go and get him some of the men he had
lured here that winter by sorcery. She went into the back of the cave and returned clutching two men in her hands. Putting them down by the fire, she commented on their taciturnity. Halfdan saw that they were fine-looking men, apparently twins.

Before Jarnnef could put the two men in the pot, Halfdan rushed forward and hacked his head off with an axe. Sleggja rose and attacked him
with a knife, but Halfdan evaded her attack and they began to wrestle. She dragged him across the cave floor to the edge of a chasm where they fought again. Her legs slipped over the edge. Halfdan grabbed her by her hair and cut her head off with the knife.

Now Halfdan explored the cave, finding a side-cave where a woman
sat on a chair, with her hair tied to the chair post and nothing to eat or drink except icy water.

When she saw him, she said, “You must have killed Jarnnef to be here.”

Halfdan said, “I killed Jarnnef and Sleggja as well. What is your name?”

She said, “I am called Hild and my father was a Scottish earl named Angantyr. I went sailing the previous year
with my twin brothers Sigmund and Sigurd but Jarnnef bewitched us and we ran aground on the shore.”

Jarnnef had wanted to possess her, but Hild added that she wished Halfdan had not killed Sleggja.

Halfdan released her and they went to find the two brothers, who they revived. Sigmund and Sigurd asked, “Who do we have to thank for saving us?”

Hild introduced Halfdan. They remained there five days and nights before they went back to join Halfdan’s men
. Halfdan took much gold, silver and jewels from the cave. His men were overjoyed to see him return safely, but happiest was his sister.

They spent the rest of the winter there, and they set sail in the spring but were driven against the cliffs on the far side of the fjord.

Here they had to settle again, and Halfdan, Sigurd, and Sigmund went up onto the glacier every day to look for food. One day they encountered three trollwives. One, who wore a red kirtle, had the form of a human, while the other two did not.

The trollwife in the red kirtle said, “I am delighted to see the people from the ships. Surely you are a prince, boy?” She introduced herself as Brana, and her two sisters were Mold and Mana.

Halfdan spoke insultingly of her ugly sisters and they fought, wrestling for a long time, while Sigurd and Sigmund fought the sisters. Brana mocked Halfdan for his youth but then he threw her.

She told him, “I helped you in Sleggja’s cave by pulling the trollwife’s feet from under her.”

Halfdan told her to bend down while he attended to her sisters. He went to where they were fighting the brothers and he flung the trollwives one after the other down a crevasse. Brana was grateful for this, since her sisters had worked great shame, and she offered to give Halfdan a ship if he would accompany her back to her cave while the brothers returned to the rest. Halfdan did as he was asked, and several days later, the brothers came to Brana’s cave. Brana asked Halfdan to kill her father, Jarnhauss, and Halfdan agreed. Brana ensured that Jarnhauss and his fellow trolls were all drunk and then Halfdan and the two brothers entered the cave bearing iron-shod clubs and laid about them. Many two-headed trolls died there, and then they came to Jarnhauss. The trio attacked him but he grabbed Sigurd and lifted him into the air.

Halfdan knocked the troll down
, but he did not know how to kill him, so Brana hacked off his head with a knife. Then she disposed of the other troll corpses by throwing them down a trapdoor the led to the sea. She asked Halfdan to remain with her that winter and he did so, accompanied by Hild, Ingibjorg and the twins.

There was a day when Brana set out in the morning and did not return until dusk. Another day, she asked Halfdan how long it was until summer, and he told her that six weeks remained.

She told him, “You should leave on the first day of summer. I will not be lonely since soon I will bear your son.”

Halfdan said, “
Send the child to me if you have a son, but keep it if it is a girl.”

Brana agreed and told Halfdan that he should sail to England, where a king called Olaf ruled. Brana told Halfdan about Olaf’s daughter Marsibil, who was the most beautiful woman alive, and said that Halfdan should marry her. She gave Halfdan some magic grass
. “Give this to Marsibil while visiting her in the guise of a merchant. If the princess lays her head upon it, she will love you eternally.”

Brana also gave Halfdan magical clothes that would make him invulnerable to all edged weapons apart from his own knife, and would ensure that he never tired while swimming. She also gave him a ring named Hnitud, which was in three parts. It would show him if his enemies were near and when they intended to kill him.
“If it turns red,” she explained, “then they will attack you with weapons, but if it goes black then they intend to poison you.”

Next, she took him down to the strand where he saw a large dragonship. Brana said this was his also, that she had made it during the winter, and that he would always get a favourable wind when he sailed in it. The name of the ship was Skrauti. Halfdan thanked her for her gifts, and she told him that from now on he would be known as Halfdan, Brana’s Fosterling. She went on to warn him about King Olaf’s counsellor, a man named Aki who was skilled in sport and exercises, and would betray Halfdan if he could. Halfdan thanked her again, and they returned to the cave for the night.

Next day Halfdan and his men went to the ship Skrauti, which Brana had prepared for him. Halfdan bade Brana farewell, and his foster-brothers helped him carry his box of gold onto the ship. Brana pushed the ship out into the surf and they sailed away.

They had a good wind, which Brana brewed with her magic, and it took them to the Hladey islands, where the woman who ruled them, who was called Hladgerd, greeted them. They stayed there in honour for some time, and when they departed for England, Hladgerd told them they would be welcome at any time.

They reached England and came to the city of King Olaf. Halfdan gained an audience with the king who asked him who he was.

Halfdan said, “I am a merchant and I seek shelter over the winter.”

The king granted him this boon, and he secured his treasure in his ship, leaving his men to guard over it before going ashore again with Sigurd and Sigmund.

One day they were walking in the city when they came to a wooden fence. Inside it was a beautiful garden and at the centre of the garden was a well-built bower. Halfdan asked his friends if they could run across the garden, and they tried. Sigurd got a third of the way across, Sigmund got halfway across, but Halfdan crossed the garden and came to the bower where he saw a young woman playing catch with a gold bauble. She dropped the bauble and couldn’t find it however hard she searched. Halfdan went up to her and gave her a large piece of gold.

She thanked him, and said, “You are a very handsome man.” She added, “I wish my kinswoman, Marsibil, knew you because you have a lot in common.”

She returned to her bower and Halfdan re-joined the brothers.

The maiden was Alfifa, daughter of Sigurd, king of Scarborough, uncle of King Olaf. She gave her mistress, Princess Marsibil, the gold she had got from Halfdan and described him to her, saying, “He is your equal.” Angry with this, Princess Marsibil boxed her ear. Alfifa burst into tears and they spoke no more.