Halfdan the Black Saga
Saga Hálfdanar svarta
By Snorri Sturlason (c. 1179 - 1241).
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.
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.