Heimskringla Sparrow and Sacrifice

King Dyggvi’s son, who inherited the kingdom from him, was called Dagr. He
was such a wise man that he could understand the speech of birds. He had a
sparrow which told him many things. It flew to various lands. It happened on
one occasion that the sparrow flew into Reiðgotaland to a farm called Vǫrvi. It
flew into the farmer’s field and got food there. The farmer came up and picked
up a stone and struck the sparrow, killing it. King Dagr was greatly displeased
when the sparrow did not return. Then he prepared a sacrifice of a boar to get
news and got the answer that his sparrow had been killed at Vǫrvi. Then
he called out a large army and went to Gotland. And when he got to Vǫrvi, he
went ashore with his army and raided. The people fled in all directions. King
Dagr took his army back to the ships in the evening, and had killed many
people and captured many others. But as they were crossing a river at a place
called Skjótansvað or Vápnavað, a slave workman came running out of the
woods onto the river bank and threw a pitchfork into their company, and the
missile hit the king on the head. Then he at once fell off his horse and was
killed. At that time a chieftain who went raiding was called gramr (‘angry or
fierce one’), and the warriors gramir. So says Þjóðólfr:

11. Dagr, I heard,
death’s judgement
—keen for fame—
encountered,
when to Vǫrvi came
the advancer of the sword,
sagacious one,
a sparrow to avenge.
And on eastern ways
this word
the king’s host
from combat brought:
a serving-fork
of Sleipnir’s food
it was that gave
that gramr his death.


- Heimskringla, Ynglinga Saga, Chapter 18