Stories and Ballads of the Far Past Part 5

So it came to pa.s.s; and the King took him into his favour and made him one of his retinue. Guest became a very good Christian and loyally followed the King's rules of life. He was also popular with everybody.

XII. It happened one day that the King asked Guest: "How much longer would you live if you could choose?"

Guest replied: "Only a short time, please G.o.d!"

The King said: "What will happen if you take your candle now?"

Thereupon Guest took his candle out of the frame of his harp. The King ordered it to be lighted, and this was done. And when the candle was lighted it soon began to burn away.

Then the King said to Guest: "How old are you?"

And Guest replied: "I am now three hundred years old."

"You are an old man," observed the King.

Then Guest laid himself down and asked them to anoint him with oil.

The King ordered it to be done, and when it was finished there was very little of the candle left unburnt. Then it became clear that Guest was drawing near to his end, and his spirit pa.s.sed just as the torch flickered out; and they all marvelled at his pa.s.sing. The King also set great store by his stories and held that the account which he had given of his life was perfectly true.

INTRODUCTION TO THE THaTTR OF SoRLI

This story, like the last, is taken from the long _Saga of Olaf Tryggvason_ contained in the _Flateyjarbok_, Vol. I, pp. 275-283. Its connection, however, with the story of that King is of the slightest.

According to the opinion of Finnur Jonsson[1] the story in its present form dates from the first half of the fourteenth century.

This story, like the _Thattr of Nornagest_, shows evidence of a definite structural plan and falls into three distinct parts. In the first two chapters the scene is laid among the G.o.ds, and the story is set in motion by the forging of a necklace for the G.o.ddess Freyja by some dwarfs. This is stolen by Loki and given to Othin, who refuses to restore it to Freyja till she promises to bring about a perpetual battle between two mighty kings.

Then in chs. III and IV we have an account of the adventures of a Viking prince named Sorli, from whom the story takes its (somewhat inappropriate) t.i.tle[2]. Sorli comes into contact (first as an enemy, later as a friend) with another prince called Hogni, and this leads up to the main theme--the friendship and subsequent quarrel of Hethin and Hogni, in whose tragic fate Freyja's promise is fulfilled. The perpetual battle between these two heroes is finally ended by one of Olaf Tryggvason's men, and it is through this that the story comes to be introduced into his Saga.

The story of Hethin and Hogni was a favourite one in the North. It is told in _Skaldskaparmal_, ch. 49 and in Saxo Grammaticus' _Danish History_, Book V (Elton, pp. 195-198). The earliest Norse reference to it is to be found in Bragi's _Ragnarsdrapa_, str. 3-7. The story must also have been well known in the Orkneys, since we find the following verses in the _Hattalykill_ by Jarl Rognvald (1136-58) and an Icelandic skald Hall who flourished 1140-48[3].

Who planned to carry off Hild?

Who fight all day long?

Who will be reconciled at last?

Who incited the kings?

Hethin planned to carry off Hild; The Hjathningar are always fighting; They will be reconciled at last; Hild incited the host.

Who reddens the keen blades?

Who chops meat for the wolf?

Who makes showers of helmets?

Who stirred up strife?

Harold reddened the keen blades; The host chops meat for the wolf; Hogni makes the shower of helmets; Hjarrandi stirred up strife!

In the Shetlands the story survived down to modern times in the form of a ballad known as _Hildina_, which was taken down by George Low[4]

from the recitation of an old man on the Isle of Foula in 1774. The Norwegian dialect (Norn) in which it is composed is so obscure as we have it in Low's script as to be almost untranslatable, though a serious attempt at its interpretation has been made by Dr M. Haegstad in _Skrifter udgivne af Videnskabsselskabet i Christiania_, 1900 (_Historisk-Filosofisk Kla.s.se_, II), with a very full discussion of all the linguistic difficulties involved[5]. According to Low "The subject is a strife between a King of Norway and an Earl of Orkney, on account of the hasty marriage of the Earl with the King's daughter in her father's absence." Further on[6] he gives the substance of the ballad at greater length:

An Earl of Orkney, in some of his rambles on the coast of Norway, saw and fell in love with the King's daughter of the country. As their pa.s.sion happened to be reciprocal he carried her off in her father's absence, who was engaged in war with some of his distant neighbours. On his return, he followed the fugitives to Orkney, accompanied by his army, to revenge on the Earl the rape of his daughter. On his arrival there, Hildina (which was her name) first spied him, and advised her now husband to go and attempt to pacify the King. He did so, and by his appearance and promises brought the King so over as to be satisfied with the match.

After this, with the introduction of a courtier Hiluge the story proceeds in a form totally different from anything found in the _thattr_, though an attempt has been made to connect it with the second part of the German poem _Kudrun_.

The story of Hethin and Hogni however was not confined to Norway and its colonies; indeed it seems to have been popular throughout the whole Teutonic world. It forms the subject of the first part of the mediaeval German poem _Kudrun_, and characters from the story are mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon poems _Widsith_, l. 21, and _Deor_, l. 36 ff.

For a treatment of the different versions of the story as it was known to men of old, the reader may be referred to Miss Clarke's _Sidelights on Teutonic History during the Migration Period_ (Cambridge, 1911), p. 190 ff., and to Chambers' _Widsith_, p. 100 ff. It may be mentioned here that in the main points of the story--the carrying off of Hild and the subsequent pursuit by the father--all the versions are agreed.

The German version, however, differs in many respects from those of the North (except that of the _Hildina_)--especially in the fact that the combatants become reconciled. The various Scandinavian versions of the story also differ somewhat in detail among themselves. The story translated below is the only one which mentions the slaying by Hethin of Hogni's wife, and it is only here that Hethin is described as being of foreign origin. Moreover this is the only version in which the G.o.ddess Freyja is made responsible for the Unending Battle. Indeed the supernatural element, and especially the influence of charms and spells, is more prominent in this version than in any of the others.

It is only here, too, that we find the story of Gondul and the "potion of forgetfulness." On the other hand our version contains no reference to the statement made in _Skaldskaparmal_ and Saxo that it was Hild who by her magic spells restored the dead to life each night.

In our version of the story the character of Hild is left wholly undeveloped. Indeed the writers of the Romantic Sagas are always so much more interested in incident than in character that highly individualised personality is rare. Even when as in the case of Hervor[7], the very nature of the story presents an interesting and somewhat unusual personality, we are sometimes left with a feeling of dissatisfaction and a conviction that the writer did not realise the full merits and possibilities of his material. Hogni is the usual type of hot-headed implacable sea-rover. The character of Hethin, however, presents some interesting features and strikes us as more modern in conception. Naturally gentle of disposition, he had been forced by malignant powers into a situation foreign to his nature. Hardly characteristic of a viking chief are his genuine regret for the harm he had done and his anxiety that the men of Hogni and himself should not be called upon to forfeit their lives for his "crimes and misdeeds." The conventional viking, clear-eyed and purely material in his view of life, would have stayed to brave out the consequences.

Hethin only wished "to go away somewhere a long way off, where he would not each day have his wicked deeds cast in his teeth." His remorse had broken him down.--"You will find it an easy matter to slay me when I am left alive last of all!"

The motif of the Everlasting Battle is not confined the story of Hethin and Hogni. Parallels can be found in many literatures, both ancient and modern[8].

This _thattr_ has been translated into English under the t.i.tle of _The Tale of Hogni and Hedinn_ in _Three Northern Love Stories_ by W.

Morris and Eirikr Magnusson, London, 1875.

For a full bibliography of MSS., translations, and the general literature dealing with this saga, cf. _Islandica_, Vol. v, pp. 41, 42.

[Footnote 1: _Oldnorske og Oldislandske Litteraturs Historie_, Vol. II, p. 837.]

[Footnote 2: The life of this prince is told at length in another saga--_Sorla Saga Sterka_ which is published in Vol.

III of asmundarson's edition of the _Fornaldarsogur_.]

[Footnote 3: Cf. Finnur Jonsson, _op. cit._, Vol. II, pp. 34, 35.]

[Footnote 4: Cf. _A Tour through the Islands of Orkney and Schetland_, by George Low, edited by J. A. Anderson (Kirkwall, 1879), p. 108 ff.]

[Footnote 5: On p. 217 ff. below I have attempted a translation of the first twelve stanzas from Haegstad's corrected text.]

[Footnote 6: _Op. cit._, p. 113.]

[Footnote 7: Cf. The _Saga of Hervor and Heithrek_ translated below, p. 87 ff.]

[Footnote 8: Cf. Panzer, _Hilde-Gudrun_ (Halle, 1901), _pa.s.sim_; Frazer, _Pausanias's Description of Greece_ (London, 1898), Vol. II, p. 443 ff.; etc.]

THE THaTTR OF SoRLI

I. To the East of Vanakvisl in Asia was a country called Asialand or Asiaheim. Its inhabitants were called aesir and the chief city they called Asgarth. Othin was the name of their King, and it was a great place for heathen sacrifices. Othin appointed Njorth and Frey as priests. Njorth had a daughter called Freyja who accompanied Othin and was his mistress. There were four men in Asia called Alfregg, Dvalin, Berling and Grer, who dwelt not far from the King's hall, and who were so clever that they could turn their hands to anything. Men of this kind were called dwarfs. They dwelt in a rock, but at that time they mixed more with men than they do now. Othin loved Freyja very much, and she was the fairest of all women in her day. She had a bower of her own which was beautiful and strong, and it was said that if the door was closed and bolted, no-one could enter the bower against her will.

It chanced one day that Freyja went to the rock and found it open, and the dwarfs were forging a gold necklace, which was almost finished.

Freyja was charmed with the necklace, and the dwarfs with Freyja.

She asked them to sell it, offering gold and silver and other costly treasures in exchange for it. The dwarfs replied that they were not in need of money, but each one said that he would give up his share in the necklace.... And at the end of four nights they handed it to Freyja. She went home to her bower and kept silence about it as if nothing had happened.

II. There was a man called Farbauti who was a peasant and had a wife called Laufey. She was thin and meagre, and so she was called 'Needle.' They had no children except a son who was called Loki. He was not a big man, but he early developed a caustic tongue and was alert in trickery and unequalled in that kind of cleverness which is called cunning. He was very full of guile even in his youth, and for this reason he was called Loki the Sly. He set off to Othin's home in Asgarth and became his man. Othin always had a good word for him whatever he did, and often laid heavy tasks upon him, all of which he performed better than could have been expected. He also knew almost everything that happened, and he told Othin whatever he knew.

Now it is said that Loki got to know that Freyja had received the necklace ... and this he told to Othin. And when Othin heard of it he told Loki to fetch him the necklace. Loki said that there was not much hope of that, because no-one could get into Freyja's bower against her will. Othin told him to go, and not come back without the necklace.

So Loki went off howling, and everyone was glad that he had got into trouble.