Here are the remaining books of the Gesta Danorum that mention Wends or related peoples. Since the Russians are referred to in the Latin as Ruthenos, that is kept in the English translation to avoid confusion. Some of these may well be Slavs but most are most likely the “Rus”.
Book III
Chapter 4
1. Now although Odin was regarded as chief among the gods, he would approach seers, soothsayers, and others whom he had discovered strong in the finest arts of prediction, with a view to prosecuting vengeance for his son. Divinity is not always so perfect that it can dispense with human aid. Rosthiof the Finn foretold that Rinda, daughter of the Ruthenian king, must bear him another son, who was destined to take reprisal for his brother’s killing; the gods had ordained that their colleague should be avenged by his future brother’s hand. Acting on this intelligence, Odin muffled his face beneath a hat so that he would not be betrayed by his appearance and went to this king to offer his services as a soldier. By him Odin was made general, took over his master’s army, and achieved a glorious victory over his enemies. On account of his adroit conduct of this battle the monarch admitted him to the highest rank of friendship, honouring him no less generously with gifts than decorations. After a brief lapse of time Odin beat the enemy’s line into flight singlehanded and, after contriving this amazing defeat, also returned to announce it. Everybody was astounded that one man^s strength could have heaped massacre’on such countless numbers. Relying on these achievements Odin whispered to the king the secret of his love. Uplifted by the other’s very friendly encouragement, he tried to kiss he girl and was rewarded with a slap across the face.
15. Later, after he had called his chieftains to a meeting, Høther announced that he was bound to take on Bo and would perish in the fight, a fact he had discovered not by doubtful surmises but from the trustworthy prophecies of seers. He therefore begged them to make his son Rørik ruler of the kingdom and not let the votes of wicked men transfer this privilege to unknown foreign houses, declaring that he would experience more delight in the assurance of his son’s succession than bitterness at his own approaching death. When they had readily acceded to his request he met Bo in battle and was slain. But Bo had little joy in his victory; he was so badly stricken himself that he withdrew from the skirmish, was carried home on his shield in turns by his foot-soldiers and expired next day from the agony of his wounds. At a splendidly prepared funeral the Ruthenian army buried his body in a magnificent barrow erected to his name, so that the record of this noble young man should not soon fade from the memory of later generations.
Chapter 5
1. The Kurlanders and Swedes, who used to show their allegiance to Denmark each year with the payment of taxes, felt as though the death of Høther had liberated them from their oppressive tributary status and had the idea of making an armed attack on the Danes. This gave the Wends also the temerity to rebel and turned many of the other vassal states into enemies. To check their violence Rorik recruited his countrymen and incited them to courageous deeds by reviewing the achievements of their forefathers in a spirited harangue. The barbarians saw that they needed a leader themselves, for they were reluctant to enter the fray without a general, and therefore they elected a king; then, putting the rest of their military strength on display, they hid two companies of soldiers in a dark spot. Rørik saw the trap. When he perceived that his vessels were wedged in the shallows of a narrow creek, he dragged them off the sandbanks where they had grounded and steered them out into deep water, fearing that if they struck into marshy pools the enemy would attack them from a different quarter. He also decided that his comrades should find a site where they could lurk during the day and spring unexpectedly on anyone invading their ships; this way, he said, it was quite possible that the enemy’s deception would rebound on their own heads. The barbarians had been assigned to their place of ambush, unaware that the Danes were on the watch, and as soon as they rashly made an assault, every man was struck down. Because the remaining band of Wends were ignorant of their companions’ slaughter, they hung suspended in great amazement and uncertainty over Rørik’s lateness. While they kept waiting for him, their minds wavering anxiously, the delay became more and more intolerable each day, and they finally determined to hunt him down with their fleet.
2. Among them [the Wends] was a man of outstanding physical appearance, a wizard by vocation. Looking out over the Danish squadrons he cried: ‘As the majority may be bought out of danger at the cost of one or two lives, we could forestall a general catastrophe by hazarding single persons. I won’t flinch from these terms of combat if any of you dare attempt to decide the issue along with me. But my chief demand is that we employ a fixed rule for which I have devised the phrasing: “If I win, grant us immunity from taxes; if I am beaten, the tribute shall be paid to you as of old.” This day I shall either be victorious and relieve my homeland of its slavish yoke, or be conquered and secure it more firmly. Accept me as pledge and security for either outcome.’
3. When one of the Danes, who had a stouter heart than body, heard this, he ventured to ask Rørik what remuneration the man who took on the challenger would receive. Rørik happened to be wearing a bracelet of six rings inextricably interlocked with a chain of knots and he promised this as a reward for whoever dared to enter the contest. But the young man, not so sure of Fate, replied: ‘If things go well for me, Rørik, your generosity must judge what the winner’s prize should be and award a suitable palm. But if this proposal turns out very much against my wishes, what compensation shall be due from you to the defeated, who will be enveloped in cruel death or severe dishonour? These are the usual associates of weakness, the recompense of the vanquished; what is left for such persons but utter disgrace? What payment can a man earn, what thanks can he receive, when his bravery has achieved nothing? Who has ever garlanded the weakling with the ivy crown of war or hung the tokens of victory on him? Decorations go to the hero not to the coward. His mischances carry no glory. Praise and exultation attend the former, a useless death or an odious life the latter. I am not sure which way the fortune of this duel will turn, so that I have no rash aspirations to any reward, having no idea whether it should rightly be my due. Anyone unexpectant of victory cannot be allowed to take the victor’s expected fee. Without assurance of obtaining the trophy I am not going to lay any firm claim to a triumphal wreath. A presentation which could equally signify the wages of death or life, I refuse. Only a fool wants to lay his hands on unripe fruit and pluck something before he knows if he has earned it properly. This arm will secure me laurels or the grave.’
4. With these words he smote the barbarian with his sword, with a more forward disposition than his fortunes warranted. In return the other delivered such a mighty stroke that he took his life at the first blow. This was a woeful spectacle for the Danes, whereas the Wends staged a great procession accompanied by splendid scenes of jubilation for their triumphant comrade. The following day, either carried away by his recent success or fired by greed to achieve a second one, he marched close up to his enemies and began to provoke them with the same challenge as before. Since he believed he had felled the most valiant Dane, he thought no one was left with the fighting spirit to respond to another summons. He trusted that with the eclipse of one champion the whole army’s strength had wilted, and estimated that anything to which he bent his further efforts he would have no trouble at all in dealing with. Nothing feeds arrogance as much as good fortune nor stimulates pride more effectively than success.
5. Rørik grieved that their general bravery could be shaken by one man’s impudence, and that the Danes, despite their fine record of conquests, could be received with insolence and even shamefully despised by races they had once beaten; he was sad too that among such a host of warriors no one could be found with so ready a heart and vigorous an arm that he was capable of wanting to lay down his life for his country. The first noble spirit to remove the damaging illrepute which the Danes’ hesitancy had cast on them was Ubbi. He had a mighty frame and was powerful in the arts of enchantment. When he deliberately enquired what the prize for this match was to be, the king pledged his bracelet again. Ubbi answered: ‘How can I put any faith in your promise, when you carry the stake in your hands and will not trust such a reward to anyone else’s keeping? Deposit it with someone standing by, so that you can’t possibly go back on your word. Champions’ souls are only aroused when they can depend on the gift not being withdrawn.’ Without any doubt he spoke with his tongue in his cheek, since it was sheer valour that had armed him to beat off this insult to his fatherland.
6. Rørik thought that he coveted the gold; as he wanted to prevent any appearance of withholding the reward in an unkingly fashion or revoking his promise, he decided to shake off the bracelet and hurl it hard to his petitioner from his station aboard ship. However, the wide intervening gap thwarted his attempt. It needed a brisker and more forceful fling and the bracelet consequently fell short of its destination and was snatched by the waves; afterwards the nickname ‘Slyngebond’ always stuck to Rørik. This incident gave strong testimony to Ubbi’s courage. The loss of his sunken fee in no way deterred him from his bold intention, for he did not wish his valour to be thought a mere lackey to payment. He therefore made his way to the contest eagerly to show that his mind was set on honour, not gain, and that he put manly resolution before avarice; he would advertise that his confidence was grounded rather in a high heart than in wages. No time was lost before they made an arena, the soldiers milled round, the combatants rushed together, and a din rose as the crowd of onlookers roared support for one or the other competitor. The champions’ spirits blazed and they flew to deal one another injuries, but simultaneously found an end to the duel and their lives, I believe because Fortune contrived that the one should not gain praise and joy through the other’s fate. This affair won over the rebels and restored Rørik’s tribute.
Book IV
Chapter 9
1. After him Dan assumed the monarchy. While only a 12 year old, he was pestered by insolent envoys who told him he must give the Saxons tribute or war. His sense of honor put battle before payment, driving him to face a turbulent death rather than live a coward. In consequence he staked his lot on warfare; the young warriors of Denmark crowded the River Elbe with such a vast concourse of shops that one could easily cross it over the decks lashed together like a continuous bridge. Eventually the king of Saxony was compelled to accept the same terms he was demanding from the Danes.
Book V
Chapter 4
1. Word came later of an invasion by the Wends. Erik was commissioned to suppress this with the assistance of eight ships, since Frothi appeared to be still raw in matters of fighting. Never wishing to decline real man’s work, Erik undertook the task gladly and executed it bravely. When he perceived seven privateers, he only sailed one of his ships towards them, ordering that the rest be surrounded by defences of timber and camouflaged with the topped branches of trees. He then advanced as if to make a fuller reconnaissance of the enemy fleet’s numbers, but began to beat a hasty retreat back towards his own followers as the Wends gave chase. The foes were oblivious of the trap and, eager to catch the turn-tail, struck the waves with fast, unremitting oars. Erik’s ships with their appearance of a leafy wood could not be clearly distinguished. The pirates had ventured into a narrow, winding inlet when they suddenly discovered themselves hemmed in by Erik’s fleet. At first they were dumbfounded by the extraordinary sight of a wood apparently sailing along and then realized that deceit lay beneath the leaves. Too late they regretted their improvidence and tried to retrace the incautious route they had navigated. But while they were preparing to turn their craft about they witnessed their adversaries leaping on to the decks. Erik, drawing up his ship on to the beach, hurled rocks at the distant enemy from a ballista. The majority of the Wends were slaughtered, but Erik captured forty, who were chained and starved and later gave up their ghosts under various painful tortures.
2. In the meanwhile Frothi had mustered a large fleet equally from the Danes and their neighbours with a view to launching an expedition into Wendish territory. Even the smallest vessel was able to transport twelve sailors and was propelled by the same number of oars. Then Erik told his comrades to wait patiently while he went to meet Frothi with tidings of the destruction they had already wrought. During the voyage, when he happened to catch sight of a pirate ship run aground in shallow waters, in his usual way he pronounced serious comment on chance circumstances: ‘The fate of the meaner sort is ignoble,’/ he remarked, ‘the lot of base individuals squalid.’ Next he steered closer and overpowered the freebooters as they were struggling with poles to extricate their vessel, deeply engrossed in their own preservation.
3. This accomplished, he returned to the royal fleet and, desiring to cheer Frothi with a greeting which heralded his victory, hailed him as one who, unscathed, would be the maker of a most flourishing peace. The king prayed that his words might come true and affirmed that the mind of a wise man was prophetic. Erik declared that his words were indeed true, that a trifling conquest presaged a greater, and that often predictions of mighty events could be gleaned from slender occurrences. He then urged the king to divide his host and gave instructions for the cavalry from Jutland to set out on the overland route, while the remainder of the army should embark on the shorter passage by water. Such a vast concourse of ships filled the sea that there were no harbours capacious enough to accommodate them, no shores wide enough for them to encamp, nor sufficient money to furnish adequate supplies. The land army is said to have been so large that there are reports of hills being flattened to provide short-cuts, marshes made traversable, lakes and enormous chasms filled in with rubble to level the ground.
4. Although Strumik, the Wendish king, sent ambassadors in the meanwhile to ask for a cessation of hostilities, Frothi refused him time to equip himself; an enemy, he said, should not be supplied with a truce. Also, having till now spent his life away from fighting, once he had made the break he shouldn’t let matters hang doubtfully in the air; any combatant who had enjoyed preliminary success had a right to expect his subsequent military fortunes to follow suit. The outcome of the first clashes would give each side a fair prognostication of the war, for initial achievements in battle always boded well for future encounters. Erik praised the wisdom of his reply, stating that he should play the game abroad as it had begun at home, by which he meant that the Danes had been provoked by the Wends. He followed up these words with a ferocious engagement, killed Strumik along with the most valiant of his people, and accepted the allegiance of the remnant.
5. Frothi then announced by herald to the assembled Wends that if any persons among them had persistently indulged in robbery and pillage, they should swiftly reveal themselves, as he promised to recompense such behaviour with maximum distinction. He even told all who were skilled in the pursuit of evil arts to step forward and receive their gifts. The Wends were delighted at the offer. Certain hopefuls, more greedy than prudent, declared themselves even before anyone else could lay information against them. Their strong avarice cheated them into setting profit before shame and imagining that crime was a glorious thing. When these folk had exposed themselves of their own accord, Frothi cried: ‘It’s your business, Wends, to rid the country of these vermin yourselves.’ Immediately he gave orders for them to be seized by the executioners and had them strung up on towering gallows by the people’s hands. You would have calculated that a larger number were punished than went free. So the shrewd king, in denying the self-confessed criminals the general pardon he granted to his conquered foes, wiped out almost the entire stock of the Wendish race. That was how deserved punishment followed the desire for reward without desert, how longing for unearned gain was visited by a well-earned penalty. I should have thought it quite right to consign them to their deaths, if they courted danger by speaking out when they could have stayed alive by holding their tongues.
Chapter 5
1. The king was exhilarated by the fame of his recent victory and, wanting to appear no less efficient in justice than in arms, decided to redraft the army’s code of laws; some of his rules are still practised, others men have chosen to rescind in favour of new ones. He proclaimed that each standard-bearer should receive a larger portion than the other soldiers in the distribution of booty; the leaders who had the standards carried before them in battle, because of their authority, should have all the captured gold. He wished the private soldier to be satisfied with silver. By his orders a copious supply of arms must go to the champions, captured ships to the ordinary people, to whom they were due, inasmuch as these had the right to build and equip vessels.
Chapter 7
1. During this period the king of the Huns heard of his daughter’s dissolved marriage and, joining forces with Olimar, king of the East [Rus], over two years collected the equipment for a war against the Danes. For this reason Frothi enlisted soldiers not merely among his own countrymen but from the Norwegians and Wends too. Erik, dispatched by him to spy out the enemy^s battle array, discovered Olimar, acting as admiral (the Hunnish king led the land troops), not far from Ruthenia; he addressed him with these words:
2. ‘Tell me, what means this weighty provision for war, King Olimar? Where do you race to, captaining this fleet?’
Olimar replied:
‘Assault on Frithlef’s son is the strong desire of our hearts. And who are you to ask these arrogant questions?’
Erik answered:
‘To allow into your mind hope of conquering the unconquerable is fruitless; no man can overpower Frothi.’
Olimar objected:
‘Every thing that happens has its first occurrence; events unhoped-for come to pass quite often.’
3. His idea was to teach him that no one should put too much trust in Fortune. Erik then galloped on to meet and inspect the army of the Huns. As he rode by it he saw the front ranks parade past him at dawn and the rear-guard at sunset. He enquired of those he met what general had command of so many thousands. The Hunnish king, himself called Hun, chanced to see him and, realizing that he had taken on the task of spying, asked the questioner’s name. Erik said he was called the one who visited everywhere and was known nowhere. The king also brought in an interpreter to find out what Frothi’s business was. Erik answered: ‘Frothi never waits at home, lingering in his halls, for a hostile army. Whoever intends to scale another’s pinnacle must be watchful and wakeful. Nobody has ever won victory by snoring, nor has any sleeping wolf found a carcass.’ The king recognized his intelligence from these carefully chosen apothegms and reflected: ‘Here perhaps is the Erik who, so I’ve heard, laid a false charge against my daughter.’ He gave orders for him to be pinioned at once, but Erik pointed out how unsuitable it was for one creature to be manhandled by many. This remark not only allayed the king’s temper, but even inclined him to pardon Erik. But there was no doubt that his going unscathed resulted not from Hun’s kind-heartedness but his shrewdness; the chief reason for Erik’s dismissal was that he might horrify Frothi by reporting the size of the king’s host.
4. After his return he was asked by his lord to reveal what he had discovered; he replied that he had seen six captains of six fleets, any one of which comprised five thousand ships; each ship was known to contain three hundred oarsmen. He said that each millenary of the total assemblage was composed of four squadrons. By ‘millenary’ he indicated twelve hundred men, since each squadron included three hundred. But while Frothi was hesitating over how he should combat these immense levies and was looking about purposefully for reinforcements, Erik said: ‘Boldness helps the virtuous; it takes a fierce hound to set upon a bear; we need mastiffs, not lapdogs.’ After this pronouncement he advised Frothi to collect a navy. Once this had been made ready they sailed off in the direction of their enemies. The islands which lie between Denmark and the East were attacked and subdued. Proceeding farther, they came upon several ships of the Ruthenian fleet. Although Frothi believed it would be unchivalrous to molest such a small squadron, Erik interposed: ‘We must seek our food from the lean and slender. One who falls will rarely grow fat; if he has a great sack thrown over his head, he won’t be able to bite.’ This argument shook the king out of his shame at making an assault, and he was led to strike at the few vessels with his own multitude, after Erik had shown that he must set profitability higher than propriety.
5. Next they advanced against Olimar, who, on account of the slow mobility of his vast forces, chose to await his opponents rather than set upon them; for the Ruthenian vessels were unwieldy and seemed to be harder to row because of their bulk. Even the weight of their numbers was not much help. The amazing horde of Ruthenians was more conspicuous for its abundance than valour and yielded before the vigorous handful of Danes. When he wished to return to his own land, Frothi found an unusual obstruction to his navigation: that whole bight of the sea was strewn with myriads of dead bodies and as many shattered shields and spears tossing on the waves. The harbours were choked and stank, the boats, surrounded by corpses, were Locked in and could not move. Nor were they able to push off the rotten floating carcasses with oars or poles, for when one was removed another quickly rolled into its place to bump against the ships’ sides. You would have imagined that a war against the dead had begun, a new type of contest with lifeless men.
6. (sometimes chapter 8.1) Then Frothi assembled the races he had conquered and decreed by law that any head of a family who had fallen in that year should be consigned to a burial-mound along with his horse and all his panoply of arms. If any greedy wretch of a pall-bearer meddled with the tomb, he should not only pay with his lifeblood but remain unburied, without a grave or last rites. The king believed it just that one who interfered with another’s remains should not receive the benefit of a funeral, but that the treatment of his body should reflect what he had committed on someone else’s. He ordained that a commander or governor should have his corpse laid on a pyre consisting of his own boat. A single vessel must serve for the cremation of ten steersmen, but any general or king who had been killed should be cast on his own ship and burnt. He desired these precise regulations to be met in conducting the obsequies of the slain, for he would not tolerate lack of discrimination in funeral ritual. All the Ruthenian kings had now fallen in battle, apart from Olimar and Dag.
7. (sometimes chapter 8.3) He ordered the Ruthenians to celebrate their wars in the Danish fashion, and that no one should take a wife without purchasing her; it was his belief that where contracts were sealed by payment there was a chance of stronger and securer fidelity. If anyone dared to rape a virgin, the punishment was castration; otherwise the man must make a compensation of a thousand marks for his lechery.
8. (sometimes chapter 8.2) He also ruled that any sworn soldier who sought a name for proven courage must attack a single opponent, take on two, evade three by stepping back a short distance, and only be unashamed when he ran from four adversaries. The vassal kings must observe another usage regarding militiamen’s pay: a native soldier in their own bodyguard should be given 3 silver marks in wintertime, a common soldier or mercenary 2, and a private soldier who had retired from service just 1. This law slighted their bravery, since it took notice of the men’s rank more than their spirits. You could call it a blunder on Frothi’s part to subordinate desert to royal patronage.
Chapter 8
1. (sometimes chapter 7.6) After this, when Frothi asked Erik whether the armies of the Huns were as profuse as Olimar‘s forces, he began to express himself in song:
‘l perceived, so help me, an innumerable throng, a throng which neither land nor sea could contain. Frequent campfires were burning, a whole forest ablaze, betokening a countless troop. The ground was depressed beneath the trample of horses’ hooves, the hurrying wagons creaked along, wheels groaned, the chariot drivers chased the wind, matching the noise of thunder. The cumbered earth could hardly sustain the weight of the warrior hordes running uncontrolled. The very air seemed to crash, the earth tremble as the outlandish army moved its might. Fifteen companies I saw with their flashing banners, and each of these held a hundred smaller standards, with twenty more behind, and a band of generals to equal the number of ensigns.’
2. (sometimes chapter 7.7) As Frothi enquired how he might combat such multitudes, Erik told him that he must return home and first allow the enemy to destroy themselves by their own immensity. His advice was observed and the scheme carried out as readily as it had been approved. Now the Huns, advancing through trackless wastes, could nowhere obtain supplies and began to run the risk of widespread starvation. The territory was vast and swampy, and it was impossible to find anything to relieve their necessity. At length, having slaughtered and eaten the pack animals, they began to scatter owing to shortage of transport as well as food. This straying from the route was as dangerous as the famine; neither horses nor asses were spared and rotting garbage was consumed. Eventually they did not even abstain from dogs; the dying men condoned every monstrosity. Nothing is so unthinkable that it cannot be enforced by dire need. In the end wholesale disaster assailed them, spent as they were with hunger; corpses were carried to burial ceaselessly, and though everyone dreaded death no pity was felt for those who were expiring; fear had shut out all humanity. At first only squads of soldiers withdrew from the king gradually,’then the army melted away by companies. He was abandoned also by the seer Ugger, a man whose unknown years stretched beyond human span; as a deserter he sought out Frothi and informed him of all the Huns’ preparations.
3. (sometimes chapter 7.8) Meanwhile Hithin, king of a sizable people in Norway, approached Frothi’s fleet with a hundred and fifty vessels. Selecting twelve of these, he cruised nearer, raising a shield on his mast to indicate that they came as friends. He was received by Frothi into the closest degree of amity and brought a large contingent to augment his forces. Afterwards this man and Hild fell in love with each other; she was a girl of most excellent repute, the daughter of Hogni, a Jutland princeling; even before they met, each was impassioned by reports of the other. When they actually had a chance to look upon one another, they were unable to withdraw their eyes, so much did clinging affection hold their gaze.
4. (sometimes chapter 7.9) During this time Frothi had spread his soldiery through the townships and was assiduously collecting the money needed for their winter provisions. Yet even this was not sufficient to support a cripplingly expensive army. Ruin almost on a par with the Huns’ calamity beset him. To discourage foreigners from making inroads he sent to the Elbe a fleet under the command of Revil and Mevil, to make sure that no one crossed it. When the winter had relaxed its grip, Hithin and Hegni decided to cooperate in a pirating expedition. Hegni was unaware that his colleague was deeply in love with his daughter. He was a strapping fellow, but headstrong in temperament, Hithin very handsome, but short.
5. (sometimes chapter 7.10) Since Frothi realized that it was becoming more and more difficult to maintain the costs of the army as days went by, he directed Roller to go to Norway, Olimar to Sweden, King Ønef and the pirate chieftain Glomer to Orkney to seek supplies, assigning each man his own troops. Thirty kings, his devoted friends or vassals, followed Frothi. Immediately Hun heard that Frothi had dispersed his forces, he gathered together a fresh mass of fighting men. Høgni betrothed his daughter to Hithin and each swore that if one perished by the sword, the other would avenge him.
6. (sometimes chapter 7.12) In the autumn the hunters of supplies returned, richer in victories than actual provisions. Roller had killed Arnthor, king of the provinces of Sørmøre and Nordmøre, and laid these under tribute. Olimar, that renowned tamer of savage peoples, vanquished Thori the Tall, king of the Jämts and Hälsings, with two other leaders just as powerful, not to mention also Estland, Kurland, Öland, and the islands that fringe the Swedish coast. He therefore returned with seventy ships, double the number he had sailed out with. Trophies of victory in Orkney went to Ønef, Glomer, Hithin, and Høgni. These carried home ninety vessels. The revenues brought in from far and wide and gathered by plunder were now amply sufficient to meet the costs of nourishing the troops. Frothi had added twenty countries to his empire, and their thirty kings, besides those mentioned above, now fought on the Danish side.
7. (sometimes chapter 7.12) Relying in this way on his powers, he joined battle with the Huns. The first day saw a crescendo of such savage bloodshed that three principal Ruthenian rivers were paved with corpses, as though they had been bridged to make them solid and passable. Furthermore, you might have seen an area stretching the distance of a three days’ horse-ride completely strewn with human bodies. So extensive were the traces of carnage. When the fighting had been protracted for seven days, King Hun fell. His brother of the same name saw that the Huns’ line had given way and lost no time before surrendering with his company. In that war a hundred and seventy kings, either from the Huns or who had served with them, capitulated to the Danish monarch. These Erik had specified in his earlier account of the standards, when he was enumerating the host of Huns in answer to Frothi’s questions.
8. (sometimes chapter 7. 13) Summoning these kings to a meeting Frothi imposed on them a prescription to live under one and the same law. He made Olimar regent of Holmgård, Ønef of Kønugård, assigned Saxony to Hun, his captive, and Orkney to Revil. A man named Dimar was put in charge of the provinces of the Hälsings, the Jarnbers, the Jämts, and both of the Lapp peoples; the rule of Estland was bequeathed to Dag. On each of them he laid fixed obligations of tribute, demanding allegiance as a condition of his liberality. Frothi’s domains now embraced Ruthenia to the east and were bounded by the River Rhine in the west.
Chapter 9
1. Meanwhile certain slanderers brought to Høgni a trumped-up charge that Hithin had dishonoured his daughter before the espousal ceremony by enticing her to fornication, an act which in those days held among all nations to be monstrous. Høgni lent credulous ears to the lying tale and, as Hithin was collecting the royal taxes among the Wends, attacked him with his fleet; when they came to grips Høgni was defeated and made for Jutland. So the peace which Frothi had established was shaken by a domestic feud; they were the first men in his own country who spurned the king’s law. Frothi therefore sent officers to summon them both to him and enquired painstakingly into the reason for their quarrel. When he had leamt this, he pronounced judgement according to the terms of the law he had passed. However, seeing that even this would not reconcile them as long as the father obstinately demanded back his daughter, he decreed that the dispute should be settled by a sword fight. It seemed the only way of bringing their strife to an end. After they had commenced battle, Hithin was wounded by an exceptionally violent blow; he was losing the blood and strength from his body when he found unexpected mercy from his opponent. Although Høgni had the opportunity for a quick kill, pity for Hithin’s fine appearance and youthfulness compelled him to calm his ferocity. He held back his sword, loth to destroy a youngster shuddering with his last gasps. At one time a man blushed to take the life of one who was immature or feeble. So consciously did the brave champions of ancient days retain all the instincts of shame. His friends saw to it that Hithin, preserved by his foe’s clemency, was carried back to the ships. Seven years later they fell to battle again on the island of Hiddensee and slashed each other to death. It would have been more auspicious [meaning ‘wiser’] for Høgni had he exercised cruelty instead of kindness on the one occasion when he overcame Hithin. According to popular belief Hild yearned so ardently for her husband that she conjured up the spirits of the dead men at night so that they could renew their fighting.
Book VI
Chapter 1
1. After Frothi had expired, the Danes wrongly believed that Frithlef, who was being brought up in Ruthenia, had died; the kingdom now seemed crippled for want of an heir and it looked impossible for it to continue under the royal line; they therefore decided that the man most suitable to take up the sceptre would be someone who could attach to Frothi’s new burial mound an elegy of praise glorifying him, one which would leave a handsome testimony of the departed king’s fame for later generations. Hiarni, a bard expert in Danish poetry, was moved by the magnificence of the prize to adorn the man’s brilliance with a distinguished verbal memorial and invented verses in his rude vernacular. I have expressed the general sense of its four lines in this translation:
Because they wished to extend Frothi’s life, the Danes long carried his remains through their countryside. This great prince’s body, now buried under turf, is covered by bare earth beneath the lucent sky.
Chapter 2
1. At the same time Erik, who held the governorship of Sweden, died of an illness. His son Halfdan took over his father’s powers, but was alarmed by frequent clashes with twelve brothers who originated in Norway, for he had no means of punishing their violence; he therefore took refuge with Frithlef, who was still living in Ruthenia, hoping to derive some assistance from that quarter. Approaching with a suppliant’s countenance, he brought to him the sad tale of his injuries and complained of how he had been pounded and shattered by a foreign foe. Through this petitioner Frithlef heard the news of his father’s death, and accompanying him with armed reinforcements made for Norway.
Chapter 5
2. It is definitely recorded that he [Starkath son of Storværk] came from the region which borders eastern Sweden, that which now contains the wide-flung dwellings of the Estlanders and other numerous savage hordes. But a preposterous common conjecture has invented details about his origin which are unreasonable and downright incredible. Some folk tell how he was born of giants and revealed his monster kind by an extraordinary number of hands; they assert that the god Thor broke the sinews which joined four of these freakish extensions of overproductive Nature and tore them off, plucking away the unnatural bunches of fingers from the body proper; with only two arms left, his frame, which before had run to a gargantuan enormity and been shaped with a grotesque crowd of limbs, was afterwards corrected according to a better model and contained within the more limited dimensions of men.
9. When they had devastated whole provinces, their lust for domination also made them invade Ruthenia; the natives had little confidence in their fortifications and arms as means of stopping the enemy’s inroads and so they started to cast unusually sharp nails in their path; if they could not check their onset in battle, they would impede their advance by quietly causing the ground to damage their feet, since they shrank from resistance in the open field. Yet even this kind of obstacle did not help rid them of their foes. For the Danes were cunning enough to foil the Ruthenians‘ endeavours. They at once fitted wooden clogs on their feet and trod on the spikes without injury. Those pieces of iron were each arranged with four prongs, so fashioned that on whatever side they happened to land they immediately stood balanced on three feet. Striking into pathless glades where the forests grew thickest, they rooted out Flokk, the Ruthenian leader, from the mountain retreat into which he had crept. From this stronghold they claimed so much booty that every single man regained his ship laden with gold and silver.
14. Later Starkath together with Vin, chief of the Wends, was assigned to curb a revolt in the East. Taking on the combined armies of the Kurlanders, Samlanders, Semgalli, and finally all the peoples of the East, he won glorious victories on many fronts. A notorious desperado in Ruthenia called Visin had built his hideout on a cliff known as Anafial, from which he inflicted all kinds of outrage on regions far and near. He could blunt the edge of any weapon merely by gazing on it. With no fear of being wounded he combined his strength with so much insolence that he would even seize the wives of eminent men and drag them to be raped before their husbands’ eyes. Roused by reports of this wickedness Starkath journeyed to Ruthenia to exterminate the villain. Since there was nothing which Starkath thought it difficult to subdue, he challenged Visin to single combat, counteracted the help of his magic, and dispatched him. To prevent his sword being visible to the magician he wrapped it in a very fine skin, so that neither the power of Visin‘s sorcery nor his great strength could stop him yielding to Starkath.
15. Afterwards at Byzantium, relying on his stamina, he [Starkath] wrestled with and overthrew a supposedly invincible giant, Tanna, and compelled him to seek unknown lands by branding him an outlaw. As no cruelty of fate had hitherto managed to cheat this mighty man [Starkath] of his conquests, he entered Polish territory and there fought in a duel and defeated a champion called by our people Vaske, a name familiar to the Teutons under the different spelling of Wilzce.
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