Heimskringla Old Man

It is said that when King Óláfr was at the banquet on Ǫgvaldsnes, an old
man, a clever talker with a hood hanging down over his face, came there
one evening. He was one-eyed. This man could tell about all lands. He got
into conversation with the king. The king found his conversation very
entertaining and asked him many things, and the guest was able to answer
all his questions, and the king sat up late into the evening. Then the king
asked whether he knew who the Ǫgvaldr had been that the ness and the farm
were named after. The guest says that Ǫgvaldr had been a king and a great
warrior, and used to worship mostly a cow, taking it with him wherever he
went, and he always used to think it wholesome to drink its milk.

‘King Ǫgvaldr fought against a king called Varinn. In the battle King
Ǫgvaldr fell. He was buried in a mound a little way from the farm and
memorial stones were set up that are still standing here. And in another place
not far from here the cow was buried in a mound.’

He also told similar things and many others about kings or other events
of long ago. And when they had been sitting long into the night, then the
bishop reminded the king that it was time to go to sleep. The king then did
so. And when he was undressed and was lying in bed, then the guest sat on
the footboard and went on talking with the king for a long time further. The
king still wanted to hear more, whatever was said. Then the bishop spoke
to the king, saying that it was time to go to sleep. Then the king did so, and
the guest went out. A little later the king awoke and asked about the guest
and asked for him to be called to him, but the guest could not then be found
anywhere. The next morning the king had the cook called to him, and the
man that looked after the drink, and asked whether any stranger had been
to see them. They say that when they were about to prepare the food, some
man had come there and said that they were cooking surprisingly poor meat
for the king’s table. Afterwards he had given them two thick and fat
sides of beef, and they had cooked them with the other meat. Then the king
says that all that food must be thrown away, saying that it could not have
been any man and it must have been Óðinn, whom heathen people had long
believed in, and said that Óðinn must not now be allowed to do anything to
deceive them.


- Heimskringla, Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar, Chapter 64