Mondul Counterspell

They had entered Russia before Winternights. Mondul the dwarf said, “You must carry our stores from the ships into the tent, and finish the job in three days. Then you must go into the tent and not look outside before I tell you to.” Everything was done according to his instructions. Finally, Mondul went inside, but before he did that, he walked all around the tent.

A little later they heard the wind beginning to rise, roaring outside the tent. They felt it was a wonder. One man was so curious that he loosened the tent and looked outside, but when he came back in, he had lost his mind and his speech, and in a short time he was dead. The wind kept up for three nights.

Mondul said, “We won’t all come back to Denmark if Grim Aegir has anything to say about it, because he was the walrus that destroyed our ships. He would have treated all our ships the same way if I had not gone last, because he couldn’t come any closer than that stick which I was dragging behind me. He’s sent an ice storm at you, so that all of you would have met your deaths if the tents hadn’t saved you. Now twelve men have come down into the forest a short way from here, whom Grim has sent to King Eirek. They have come down from Ermland and are now working sorcery.[60] They must be intending to use sorcery against you, Hrolf and Stefnir, to make you kill each other yourselves. Seven of us must go out to face them together and see what happens.”

They set out until they entered the forest, where they saw a single house. They could hear evil howls as the men worked their sorcery. They went into the house and saw a high platform there, held up by four pillars.[61] Mondul went underneath the platform and carved counterspells on the pillars, with a charm to trap the sorcerers themselves. They went right out into the forest and stayed there for a while. But the sorcerers were affected so powerfully that they smashed the platform down and charged out of the house shrieking, each in a different direction. Some leaped into swamps or the sea, and some over crags and cliffs, and all of them killed themselves in this fashion.[62]

Hrolf’s men went right back to their ships, which were in good shape. They saw that the storm had reached no farther than a circle around the ships and tents.

Mondul said, “Hrolf, it’s come to this. I won’t go into battle, because I don’t have the valor or bravery. But you’d be short of men if you had seen to this alone. You and Stefnir were meant to die as those sorcerers died, as you see now.”

They thanked him for his stratagems, and prepared themselves to land.


- The Saga of Hrolf the Walker (Göngu-Hrólfs saga), Chapter 28


("[60] Seiðr (translated as “sorcery” here) could encompass several kinds of magical effect, but often it involved altering others’ mental states, creating illusions or desires. Seiðr usually has a wicked reputation in the sagas, and it is said to be especially degrading for men to use (Ynglinga saga ch. 7 in Hollander, Heimskringla, pp. 10-11). Thus the presence of no fewer than twelve male seiðmenn in this episode is especially outrageous." - Footnote included with translation)

("[61] Seiðr is commonly worked from a high place, sometimes a roof, but often a specially-built platform or scaffolding, the seiðhjallr or hásæti (e.g. Eiríks saga rauða ch. 4; Friðþjófs saga ch. 5). See Heide, “Spinning Seiðr,” p. 166." - Footnote included with translation)

("[62] In the Eddic poem Hávamál (stanza 151; transl. Orchard, The Elder Edda, p. 37), the god Odin states that if someone tries to cast a harmful spell on him, he can turn the spell to strike its caster. The poem implies that Odin carves rune letters to work this and other magic spells that he knows; evidently Mondul is doing much the same thing." - Footnote included with translation)