Halfdan the Black Saga
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.
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.
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. Back
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