Seeress on Platform

They take no heed of that. King Frodi starts up about how he’ll go after Halfdan’s sons, and he says he’ll grant great favours to whoever can bring word of them.

A certain seeress was there, a volva called Heid. Frodi asked her to have a go with her skills and see if she could find out anything about the boys. He had a magnificent feast prepared for her and set her up on a high seid-stand.

Then the king asks if she could see anything of note, “because,” he said, “I know that many things will now appear before you, and I see now great luck upon you, I have a good feeling about this, so answer me quick, seid-woman.”

She throws open her jaws and gives a great yawn, and then a verse came to lips:

There’s two inside,
(I trust neither),
sitting by the fire,
fine fellows both.

The king said, “Is that the boys, or those who harboured them?”

She answers:
“Those lads who concealed
themselves on the island,
Vivil’s hounds,
Hopp and Ho.”

And at that moment, Signy tossed her a gold ring. She liked the present and wants to break off now. “How did that happen?” she said, “This is just lies, what I’m saying, and now all my powers are getting very confused.”

The king said, “You’ll be tortured till you speak, if you don’t get it right. I know no more now than before, in this pack of people, what you’re trying to say, and why is Signy not in her seat? Can it be that wolves are plotting with wargs here?”

The king was told that Signy had felt ill from the smoke that hung over the hearth.

Jarl Saevil begged her to sit up and act brave, “as it could well save the boys’ lives, if that’s what will be. So let no one see what you’re thinking, because we can’t lift a finger to help them as things stand.”

King Frodi urges on the seeress now, and demands she tell the truth, if she doesn’t want to be tortured. She gapes wide, but the vision is hard, but eventually she chants a verse:

“Sitting there, I saw them,
sons of Halfdan,
Hroar and Helgi,
hale and well.
Now Frodi’s life
lies theirs for the taking...

“...unless they’re quickly thwarted, but that can’t happen,” she said. And after this, she skips down off the seid-platform and called:

“Baleful the gaze
of Ham and Hrani;
warlords the both,
wondrously brave.”

After that, the boys ran out to the forest, deadly afraid. Regin, their foster father, recognised them, and really felt for them. And the volva gave them this sound advice: “Save yourselves!” – as she ran from the hall. And now the king tells his men to be up and after them. Regin snuffs all the lights in the hall, and some men grab hold of others, because some wanted them to get away, and so they made it to the wood.

The king said, “They came close then, but I’ll warrant there’s many in here plotting and conspiring with them, and that will be grimly avenged as soon as there’s time. But now we can drink all evening, as they’ll be so glad to have got away, and their first thought will be to save themselves.

[...]

“Big deal,” said the king’s men who were inside, “So what if it’s raining out there, or the royal smiths are hammering away, be it nails or whatever they’re making.”

The king said, “You think that’s no big deal? We disagree. Now Regin’s told us of some danger, and he’s given me some words of warning, and most likely he’s being sly and tricky with us.”

Then the king goes to the hall door and sees that enemies are outside. Now the whole hall is ablaze. King Frodi asks who ordered the fire. They said that it was Helgi and his brother Hroar. The king offers a deal to the boys and asks them to set the terms for themselves, “and it’s not right, this feuding among family, or for one kinsman to wish death on another.”

Helgi says, “No one can trust you. Are you going to betray us any less than you did our father? And now you’ll pay for that.”

Then King Frodi turned from the hall door and made for the entrance to his underground tunnel, hoping to escape down there to the wood. But when he enters the tunnel, there’s Regin waiting for him, and not looking too friendly. The king turns back then and burns inside with many of his followers. Sigrid burnt in there too, the boys’ mother, Helgi’s and Hroar’s, because she wouldn’t come out.

The brothers thanked their kinsman Jarl Saevil well for his help, and Regin their foster father too, and all their followers, and gave many good gifts and took command of the whole kingdom and with it much wealth which had been King Frodi’s, lands and riches. They were quite different in mood, those brothers. Hroar was easy-going and good-natured, but Helgi a great warrior, and generally seemed the greater of the two. And that’s how it was then, for a while.

And here ends the Thread of Frodi, and the Thread of Hroar and Helgi, Halfdan’s sons begins.


- The Saga of Hrolf Kraki and his Champions (Hrólfs saga kraka), Part 1, Chapters 3 and 5