HALFDAN THE BLACK SAGA.
 
 
 
 PRELIMINARY REMARKS.
 
 Of this saga there are other versions found in "Fagrskinna" and
 in "Flateyjarbok".  The "Flateyjarbok" version is to a great
 extent a copy of Snorre.  The story about Halfdan's dream is
 found both in "Fagrskinna" and in "Flateyjarbok".  The
 probability is that both Snorre and the author of "Fagrskinna"
 must have transcribed the same original text. -- Ed.
 
 
 
 1. HALFDAN FIGHTS WITH GANDALF AND SIGTRYG.
 
 Halfdan was a year old when his father was killed, and his mother
 Asa set off immediately with him westwards to Agder, and set
 herself there in the kingdom which her father Harald had
 possessed.  Halfdan grew up there, and soon became stout and
 strong; and, by reason of his black hair, was called Halfdan the
 Black.  When he was eighteen years old he took his kingdom in
 Agder, and went immediately to Vestfold, where he divided that
 kingdom, as before related, with his brother Olaf.  The same
 autumn he went with an army to Vingulmark against King Gandalf. 
 They had many battles, and sometimes one, sometimes the other
 gained the victory; but at last they agreed that Halfdan should
 have half of Vingulmark, as his father Gudrod had had it before.
 Then King Halfdan proceeded to Raumarike, and subdued it.  King
 Sigtryg, son of King Eystein, who then had his residence in
 Hedemark, and who had subdued Raumarike before, having heard of
 this, came out with his army against King Halfdan, and there was
 great battle, in which King Halfdan was victorious; and just as
 King Sigtryg and his troops were turning about to fly, an arrow
 struck him under the left arm, and he fell dead.  Halfdan then
 laid the whole of Raumarike under his power.  King Eystein's
 second son, King Sigtryg's brother, was also called Eystein, and
 was then king in Hedemark.  As soon as Halfdan had returned to
 Vestfold, King Eystein went out with his army to Raumarike, and
 laid the whole country in subjection to him.
 
 
 
 2. BATTLE BETWEEN HALFDAN AND EYSTEIN.
 
 When King Halfdan heard of these disturbances in Raumarike, he
 again gathered his army together; and went out against King
 Eystein.  A battle took place between them, and Halfdan gained
 the victory, and Eystein fled up to Hedemark, pursued by Halfdan.
 Another battle took place, in which Halfdan was again victorious;
 and Eystein fled northwards, up into the Dales to the herse
 Gudbrand.  There he was strengthened with new people, and in
 winter he went towards Hedemark, and met Halfdan the Black upon a
 large island which lies in the Mjosen lake.  There a great battle
 was fought, and many people on both sides were slain, but Halfdan
 won the victory.  There fell Guthorm, the son of the herse
 Gudbrand, who was one of the finest men in the Uplands.  Then
 Eystein fled north up the valley, and sent his relation Halvard
 Skalk to King Halfdan to beg for peace. On consideration of their
 relationship, King Halfdan gave King Eystein half of Hedemark,
 which he and his relations had held before; but kept to himself
 Thoten, and the district called Land.  He likewise appropriated
 to himself Hadeland, and thus became a mighty king.
 
 
 
 3. HALFDAN'S MARRIAGE
 
 Halfdan the Black got a wife called Ragnhild, a daughter of
 Harald Gulskeg (Goldbeard), who was a king in Sogn.  They had a
 son, to whom Harald gave his own name; and the boy was brought up
 in Sogn, by his mother's father, King Harald.  Now when this
 Harald had lived out his days nearly, and was become weak, having
 no son, he gave his dominions to his daughter's son Harald, and
 gave him his title of king; and he died soon after.  The same
 winter his daughter Ragnhild died; and the following spring the
 young Harald fell sick and died at ten years of age.  As soon as
 Halfdan the Black heard of his son's death, he took the road
 northwards to Sogn with a great force, and was well received.  He
 claimed the heritage and dominion after his son; and no
 opposition being made, he took the whole kingdom.  Earl Atle
 Mjove (the Slender), who was a friend of King Halfdan, came to
 him from Gaular; and the king set him over the Sogn district, to
 judge in the country according to the country's laws, and collect
 scat upon the king's account.  Thereafter King Halfdan proceeded
 to his kingdom in the Uplands.
 
 
 
 4. HALFDAN'S STRIFE WITH GANDALF'S SONS. 
 
 In autumn, King Halfdan proceeded to Vingulmark.  One night when
 he was there in guest quarters, it happened that about midnight a
 man came to him who had been on the watch on horseback, and told
 him a war force was come near to the house.  The king instantly
 got up, ordered his men to arm themselves, and went out of the
 house and drew them up in battle order.  At the same moment,
 Gandalf's sons, Hysing and Helsing, made their appearance with a
 large army.  There was a great battle; but Halfdan being
 overpowered by the numbers of people fled to the forest, leaving
 many of his men on this spot.  His foster-father, Olver Spake
 (the Wise), fell here.  The people now came in swarms to King
 Halfdan, and he advanced to seek Gandalf's sons.  They met at
 Eid, near Lake Oieren, and fought there.  Hysing and Helsing
 fell, and their brother Hake saved himself by flight.  King
 Halfdan then took possession of the whole of Vingulmark, and Hake
 fled to Alfheimar.
 
 
 
 5. HALFDAN'S MARRIAGE WITH HJORT'S DAUGHTER.
 
 Sigurd Hjort was the name of a king in Ringerike, who was stouter
 and stronger than any other man, and his equal could not be seen
 for a handsome appearance.  His father was Helge Hvasse (the
 Sharp); and his mother was Aslaug, a daughter of Sigurd the worm-
 eyed, who again was a son of Ragnar Lodbrok.  It is told of
 Sigurd that when he was only twelve years old he killed in single
 combat the berserk Hildebrand, and eleven others of his comrades;
 and many are the deeds of manhood told of him in a long saga
 about his feats.  Sigurd had two children, one of whom was a
 daughter, called Ragnhild, then twenty years of age, and an
 excellent brisk girl.  Her brother Guthorm was a youth.  It is
 related in regard to Sigurd's death that he had a custom of
 riding out quite alone in the uninhabited forest to hunt the wild
 beasts that are hurtful to man, and he was always very eager at
 this sport.  One day he rode out into the forest as usual, and
 when he had ridden a long way he came out at a piece of cleared
 land near to Hadeland.  There the berserk Hake came against him
 with thirty men, and they fought.  Sigurd Hjort fell there, after
 killing twelve of Hake's men; and Hake himself lost one hand, and
 had three other wounds.  Then Hake and his men rode to Sigurd's
 house, where they took his daughter Ragnhild and her brother
 Guthorm, and carried them, with much property and valuable
 articles, home to Hadeland, where Hake had many great farms.  He
 ordered a feast to be prepared, intending to hold his wedding
 with Ragnhild; but the time passed on account of his wounds,
 which healed slowly; and the berserk Hake of Hadeland had to keep
 his bed, on account of his wounds, all the autumn and beginning
 of winter.  Now King Halfdan was in Hedemark at the Yule
 entertainments when he heard this news; and one morning early,
 when the king was dressed, he called to him Harek Gand, and told
 him to go over to Hadeland, and bring him Ragnhild, Sigurd
 Hjort's daughter.  Harek got ready with a hundred men, and made
 his journey so that they came over the lake to Hake's house in
 the grey of the morning, and beset all the doors and stairs of
 the places where the house-servants slept.  Then they broke into
 the sleeping-room where Hake slept, took Ragnhild, with her
 brother Guthorm, and all the goods that were there, and set fire
 to the house-servants' place, and burnt all the people in it. 
 Then they covered over a magnificent waggon, placed Ragnhild and
 Guthorm in it, and drove down upon the ice.  Hake got up and went
 after them a while; but when he came to the ice on the lake, he
 turned his sword-hilt to the ground and let himself fall upon the
 point, so that the sword went through him.  He was buried under a
 mound on the banks of the lake.  When King Halfdan, who was very
 quick of sight, saw the party returning over the frozen lake, and
 with a covered waggon, he knew that their errand was accomplished
 according to his desire.  Thereupon he ordered the tables to be
 set out, and sent people all round in the neighbourhood to invite
 plenty of guests; and the same day there was a good feast which
 was also Halfdan's marriage-feast with Ragnhild, who became a
 great queen.  Ragnhild's mother was Thorny, a daughter of
 Klakharald king in Jutland, and a sister of Thrye Dannebod who
 was married to the Danish king, Gorm the Old, who then ruled over
 the Danish dominions.
 
 
 
 6. OF RAGNHILD'S DREAM. 
 
 Ragnhild, who was wise and intelligent, dreamt great dreams.  She
 dreamt, for one, that she was standing out in her herb-garden,
 and she took a thorn out of her shift; but while she was holding
 the thorn in her hand it grew so that it became a great tree, one
 end of which struck itself down into the earth, and it became
 firmly rooted; and the other end of the tree raised itself so
 high in the air that she could scarcely see over it, and it
 became also wonderfully thick.  The under part of the tree was
 red with blood, but the stem upwards was beautifully green and
 the branches white as snow.  There were many and great limbs to
 the tree, some high up, others low down; and so vast were the
 tree's branches that they seemed to her to cover all Norway, and
 even much more.
 
 
 
 7. OF HALFDAN'S DREAM. 
 
 King Halfdan never had dreams, which appeared to him an
 extraordinary circumstance; and he told it to a man called
 Thorleif Spake (the Wise), and asked him what his advice was
 about it.  Thorleif said that what he himself did, when he wanted
 to have any revelation by dream, was to take his sleep in a
 swine-sty, and then it never failed that he had dreams.  The king
 did so, and the following dream was revealed to him.  He thought
 he had the most beautiful hair, which was all in ringlets; some
 so long as to fall upon the ground, some reaching to the middle
 of his legs, some to his knees, some to his loins or the middle
 of his sides, some to his neck, and some were only as knots
 springing from his head.  These ringlets were of various colours;
 but one ringlet surpassed all the others in beauty, lustre, and
 size.  This dream he told to Thorleif, who interpreted it thus:
 -- There should be a great posterity from him, and his
 descendants should rule over countries with great, but not all
 with equally great, honour; but one of his race should be more
 celebrated than all the others.  It was the opinion of people
 that this ringlet betokened King Olaf the Saint.
 
 King Halfdan was a wise man, a man of truth and uprightness --
 who made laws, observed them himself, and obliged others to
 observe them.  And that violence should not come in place of the
 laws, he himself fixed the number of criminal acts in law, and
 the compensations, mulcts, or penalties, for each case, according
 to every one's birth and dignity (1).
 
 Queen Ragnhild gave birth to a son, and water was poured over
 him, and the name of Harald given him, and he soon grew stout and
 remarkably handsome.  As he grew up he became very expert at all
 feats, and showed also a good understanding.  He was much beloved
 by his mother, but less so by his father.
 
 
 ENDNOTES:
 
 (1)  The penalty, compensation, or manbod for every injury, due
      the party injured, or to his family and next of kin if the
      injury was the death or premeditated murder of the party,
      appears to have been fixed for every rank and condition,
      from the murder of the king down to the maiming or beating a
      man's cattle or his slave.  A man for whom no compensation
      was due was a dishonored person, or an outlaw.  It appears
      to have been optional with the injured party, or his kin if
      he had been killed, to take the mulct or compensation, or to
      refuse it, and wait for an opportunity of taking vengeance
      for the injury on the party who inflicted it, or on his kin.
      A part of each mulct or compensation was due to the king;
      and, these fines or penalties appear to have constituted a
      great proportion of the king's revenues, and to have been
      settled in the Things held in every district for
      administering the law with the lagman. -- L.
 
 
 
 8. HALFDAN'S MEAT VANISHES AT A FEAST
 
 King Halfdan was at a Yule-feast in Hadeland, where a wonderful
 thing happened one Yule evening.  When the great number of guests
 assembled were going to sit down to table, all the meat and all
 the ale disappeared from the table.  The king sat alone very
 confused in mind; all the others set off, each to his home, in
 consternation.  That the king might come to some certainty about
 what had occasioned this event, he ordered a Fin to be seized who
 was particularly knowing, and tried to force him to disclose the
 truth; but however much he tortured the man, he got nothing out
 of him.  The Fin sought help particularly from Harald, the king's
 son, and Harald begged for mercy for him, but in vain.  Then
 Harald let him escape against the king's will, and accompanied
 the man himself.  On their journey they came to a place where the
 man's chief had a great feast, and it appears they were well
 received there.  When they had been there until spring, the chief
 said, "Thy father took it much amiss that in winter I took some
 provisions from him, -- now I will repay it to thee by a joyful
 piece of news: thy father is dead; and now thou shalt return
 home, and take possession of the whole kingdom which he had, and
 with it thou shalt lay the whole kingdom of Norway under thee."
 
 
 
 9. HALFDAN S DEATH. 
 
 Halfdan the Black was driving from a feast in Hadeland, and it so
 happened that his road lay over the lake called Rand.  It was in
 spring, and there was a great thaw.  They drove across the bight
 called Rykinsvik, where in winter there had been a pond broken in
 the ice for cattle to drink at, and where the dung had fallen
 upon the ice the thaw had eaten it into holes.  Now as the king
 drove over it the ice broke, and King Halfdan and many with him
 perished.  He was then forty years old.  He had been one of the
 most fortunate kings in respect of good seasons.  The people
 thought so much of him, that when his death was known and his
 body was floated to Ringerike to bury it there, the people of
 most consequence from Raumarike, Vestfold, and Hedemark came to
 meet it.  All desired to take the body with them to bury it in
 their own district, and they thought that those who got it would
 have good crops to expect.  At last it was agreed to divide the
 body into four parts.  The head was laid in a mound at Stein in
 Ringerike, and each of the others took his part home and laid it
 in a mound; and these have since been called Halfdan's Mounds.