Saxo Lend Assistance

10. 13. Once Brodér had been delivered from mischief, Bikki, fearing
he would pay for his denunciation, made it his busines to inform the
Hellespontines that Svanhild had been brutally murdered by her
husband. As they set sail to revenge their sister, Bikki returned to
Jarmerik and revealed that the Hellespontines were intending war.
Reckoning he had a better chance if he fought from within his walls
rather than on the battlefield, the king retreated into the stronghold
he had erected. There he filled the inner recesses with supplies and
the battlements with men at arms in order to withstand a siege.
Shields and small bucklers glittering with gold were hung decoratively
round the topmost circle of the building.

10. 14. It so happened that before the Hellespontines shared out their
booty, they killed a large number of their own fellows who had been
accused of embezzlement. Because this intestine massacre had
annihilated so sizable a proportion of their forces and they believed
the storming of the royal castle too ambitious for their strength, they
consulted a witch named Guthrun. By her magic the king’s defenders
were suddenly robbed of sight and turned their weapons against one
another. Perceiving this, the Hellespontines seized the approaches to
the gates by coming up under a mantlet of shields. Next, after tearing
out the doorposts and bursting into the building, they chopped down
the blind platoons of their foes. In the mélée Odin appeared, seeking
the very thick of the fighting, and by his divine power counteracted the
sorcery to restore the Danes’ stolen vision, for he had always fostered
them with a fatherly affection. Although the Hellespontines habitually
used charms to toughen their bodies against weapons, he taught the
Danes how to pound them severely with a hail of stones. In this way
each band was destroyed in the mutual slaughter. Jarmerik’s mutilated
body, with hands and both feet lopped off, rolled among the dead. His
successor was Brodér, one who was ill-suited to the throne.

11. i. Sigvald reigned after him. While Sigvald was growing old, his
son Snio undertook vigorous acts of piracy and thereby not only
saved his country’s depressed fortunes, but revived its ancient
character.


- Gesta Danorum, VIII