Saxo Help Hadding

6.7. An aged man with only one eye* happened to take pity on the
lonely Hadding, robbed of his nurse, and brought him into friendship
with a pirate, Liser, by establishing a covenant between them. Now
our ancestors, when they meant to strike a pact, would sprinkle their
combined blood in their footprints and mingle it, so as to strengthen
the pledge of their fellowship. When this was effected and Liser and
Hadding were bonded together in closest association, they declared
war on Loker, lord of the Kurlanders. However, they were defeated
and Hadding in his flight was taken on horseback by the old man to
his home. There, after he had refreshed him with the aid of a soothing
potion, he told him that his body would become reinvigorated and
strong. He demonstrated his prophetic advice by singing:

6. 8. ‘As you go hence, your enemy, thinking you are fleeing,
will pounce, to hold you in chains or expose you to be
mangled and devoured by wild brutes’ fangs. But you
must fill the ears of your warders with varied tales,
till, finished with feasting, they are captured by deep slumber;
then strike off the shackles which bind you, the harsh fetters.
Returning, after a brief while has elapsed,
you must rise with all your strength against a hurtling
beast, which loves to toss its captives’ bodies.
Against its grim forequarters test your biceps
and probe its heart strings with your naked sword.
Straight away bring your throat to its steaming blood
and devour the feast of its body with ravenous jaws.
Then new force will enter your frame, an unlooked-for
vigour will come to your muscles, accumulation
of solid strength soak deep through every sinew.
I shall pave the way to your wishes, weakening the attendants
with sleep, to snore away through the lingering dark.’

6.9. With these words he set the young man on his horse and
brought him back to the place where he had found him. Hadding hid
trembling beneath his cloak, but in intense amazement kept casting
keen glances through the slits and saw that the sea lay stretched out
under the horse’s hoofs; being forbidden to gaze, he turned his
wondering eyes away from the terrible view of his journey.

6.10. After being captured by Loker and finding the whole course of
events happen to him exactly as prophesied, he conducted a military
attack on Handvan, king of the Hellespont, in the stronghold of
Dünaburg. Handvan was entrenched behind impregnable defence
works and used the fortifications rather than a battle line for
resistance. Since they could not surmount the parapet by assault,
Hadding caused various species of birds whose habitat was there to be
taken by skilled fowlers, and had burning fungi attached beneath their
wings; when they sought the refuge of their nests again they set the
city completely alight. The townsfolk in rushing about to extinguish
the blaze left the gates undefended. He took Handvan in the attack,
but gave him the opportunity of ransom by paying his own weight in
gold and, although he was entitled to do away with his enemy,
preferred to grant him life; thus he tempered his ferocity with mercy.


- Gesta Danorum, Book I


("The old, one-eyed man is recognizable as Odin, who gave the price of an eye for a drink at the well of the god Mimir in order to gain wisdom." - Footnote included with translation)