Grim Aegir Blinding Mist / Curse

The evening after the battle, King Eirek had gone into the fort to bind the wounds of his men. He had suffered heavy casualties and had lost all his champions: of all of those who had come with Grim and Thord, Sorli Longnose alone had survived. Many men from the provinces came to the king, night and day. King Eirek and Grim thought that they had Hrolf and his men well in hand, thanks to their superior numbers. Grim prepared himself with many spells through the night, as did Brynjolf. The arm wound that King Eirek took from Mondul’s arrow began to swell badly, and his hand was crippled.

Early in the morning, King Eirek rode out of the fort with all his host. He formed his ranks, and a shield-castle formed up around him. Brynjolf was to defend the shield-castle, but a man named Snak carried the standard, with Grim Aegir and Sorli Longnose on the other flank. The forces were so unequally matched that Eirek had six men for each of Hrolf’s.

When Hrolf saw that, he said to his men that they should not form ranks. “We will charge in detachments of thirty or forty in a group, so that we can’t be surrounded by their superior numbers. I will face Grim Aegir, and Stefnir and Torfi will face King Eirik. Dwarf Mondul, I expect you to counter Grim’s magic, so that he can’t murder our men with his sorcery.”

Mondul came forth. He’d come in a black cloak, and no part of him was exposed. Under one arm he had a large bag; the inside was made of animal skin, but the outside was gold cloth. He had a bow and a quiver in the other hand. Everyone found his outfit strange.

Grim went to where the slain men were lying, and rolled the dead men over and wanted them to rise up—but he couldn’t do it.[71] His appearance grew so terrifying that most men didn’t dare to look at him, because his eyes were like fire, and black smoke and the foulest stench billowed from his nostrils and mouth.

Soon after that, both sides screamed their battle cries and charged each other. Grim bellowed so loudly that his howling could be heard above all the battle cries. He rushed forward ahead of his ranks, shaking a sack and driving a black mist out of it at Hrolf’s men. When Mondul saw that, he advanced and shook his bag, and strong winds blew out against the mist, driving the mist back into the eyes of Grim’s men.[72] This struck them blind at once, and they fell on their faces and were trampled to death by their own men. Grim was enraged. He nocked an arrow on the string and shot at Mondul, but Mondul shot back, and their arrows hit each other, right on their points, and fell down. This happened three times.

At the same moment, fierce fighting broke out, as each man encouraged another with crashes and shouts, because Hrolf’s men were so bold that they held nothing back and acted as if victory was certain.

[...]

Hrolf saw Mondul come running. He seized a sword that lay on the field and swung at Grim’s leg with both hands, but it didn’t cut any more than if it had hit a stone. Mondul dashed back to the slain bodies and found Hreggvid’s Gift. He smeared his spittle on the edge and dragged the sword to where they were wrestling, because he couldn’t manage to carry or swing the sword on account of its weight. He managed to drag the sword onto Grim’s calves from behind, severing the tendons in his legs, and Grim fell. The dwarf said, “Hold him, Hrolf, so that he can’t get loose.”

Grim struggled hard and forced his way down into the earth, but Hrolf used his strength and held him back. Then Grim said, “You’ve got great luck, Hrolf, and you’ll become famous for killing me and for the mighty deeds that you’ve accomplished in Russia. A mound must be raised after me and set facing the sea, and all who dock there when they reach land will find certain death. I’ve set many deadly traps for you, because my heart warned me for a long time about what has happened now. I sent Vilhjalm to you to betray you, but you were destined to live longer. You wouldn’t have beaten me if that wicked dwarf hadn’t been there to guide you.”

Mondul rushed up and stuck a thick stick into Grim’s mouth so that it stuck fast. Then Mondul said, “If Grim had been able to talk longer, he would have cursed you and most of the others so badly that you would have rotted into pieces and become nothing but dust.[76] You must kill him quickly and run your sword through his chest. But don’t dismember him, because everything that is cut from him will turn into poison. And no one must come before his eyes as he dies, because that’s deadly.”

Hrolf took Hreggvid’s Gift and ran Grim through the chest, so that the sword stuck out from his back. The dwarf took a shield and laid it in front of Grim’s face. And as unlikely as it might seem, it’s said that the shield crumbled and melted like snow in a fire and turned completely to dust. Thus Grim laid down his life, with savage death-struggles and wild thrashings of his arms, and Hrolf lay on top of him until he was dead. Hrolf was on the brink of fainting from his struggles with Grim Aegir.

The tall masked man turned back to the battlefield once he had chased the fleeing host for a while. He came to where Stefnir and Brynjolf were lying, as we mentioned before. He wanted to help Stefnir, and he loosened Brynjolf’s hand from him, but he wasn’t able to do that until he had broken every one of his fingers. Then they bashed him into Hel with clubs. Stefnir had become so stiff from his grappling bout that he could hardly walk by himself with the other men.

Now this huge battle was over, and there had been such a huge slaughter that men had scarcely heard of the like. Headless bodies lay so thickly all over the field that it wasn’t possible to walk on the ground, on account of the great slaughter. Most of King Eirek’s men had fallen. Hrolf and Stefnir had lost all their men except for eight hundred survivors, most of them wounded. There was no shortage of weapons or treasures which the dead had owned. Hrolf and Stefnir went to their tents. Mondul the dwarf bandaged men’s wounds, and they all praised his wisdom and helpfulness. Mondul said that if Grim had caught him when he plunged down into the earth, that would have been the death of him. “I benefited from the fact that my friends were more numerous than his,” he said.


- The Saga of Hrolf the Walker (Göngu-Hrólfs saga), Chapter 33


("[71] A sorceress raises those killed in battle to fight in Hrólfs saga kraka (ch. 51) and in Sörla þáttr; this is evidnetly what Grim has in mind." - Footnote included with the translation)

("[72] The motif of a magic bag of winds or gases is common in folklore, best known from the Odyssey. Magic bags with various properties appear in the riddarasögur; see Matyushina, “Magic Mirrors, Monsters, Maiden-Kings”, for an overview." - Footnote included with the translation)

("[76] The idea that a dying man can put a curse on his adversary with his last words is a common trope in Norse romances (Schauch, Romance in Iceland, pp. 129-130). Thorstein stops the dying ogre Faxi from speaking his last words in Þórsteins saga Víkingssonar ch. 23, probably to stop him from speaking a curse." - Footnote included with the translation)