HALFDAN THE BLACK SAGA.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

Of this saga there are other versions found in "Fagrskinna" and

in "Flateyjarbok".  The "Flateyjarbok" version is to a great

extent a copy of Snorre.  The story about Halfdan's dream is

found both in "Fagrskinna" and in "Flateyjarbok".  The

probability is that both Snorre and the author of "Fagrskinna"

must have transcribed the same original text. -- Ed.

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. -- L.

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.