The Guests of Odin by Gavin Chappell Page A

a courageous man you would lie here until I return with my sword.”
    Sorli did so and when Hogni returned with Dainsleif, he was so impressed that he offered Sorli life, friendship, and sworn brotherhood. Sorli accepted and they made a firm pact.
    Sorli sailed away. He later died while fighting Vikings in the Baltic. When Hogni heard of this he sailed to the Baltic and harried widely, laying the kings of its shores under tribute, until twenty kings accepted him as their overlord. Later Hogni married Hervor the daughter of Hiarvard, and they had a daughter named Hild.

3. The Eternal Battle
    A king of Glommen in Norway named Hiarrandi had a son called Hedin who lived the life of a Viking, raiding widely until twenty kings paid him tribute. One winter, when Hedin was at home in the land of Glommen, he went into the forest with his retainers, and it happened that in a clearing he found a woman sitting on a chair. He asked her name and she said she was called Gondul. She asked him about his achievements and he told her of all his battles and raids. She told him that he had no equal except Hogni, king of Rugen. Hedin resolved to go and test which of them was the greater.
    That spring he set out in a dragon ship with three hundred men. When he reached Rugen, King Hogni welcomed him and arranged a feast. He asked Hedin why he had come, and Hedin replied , “I think that we should test ourselves against each other.”
    Hogni agreed, and the next day they went against each other in swimming matches and archery and other feats of prowess, and soon saw that they were equally matched. They swore brotherhood.
    Shortly afterwards, Hogni went out raiding and he left Hedin behind as his landwarden. One day, Hedin and his men were out hunting in the woods when Hedin met Gondul again in a clearing. She gave him a drink from a horn she bore, and he drank it. As soon as he had done so, he forgot their first meeting. They talked, and she asked if he had tried himself against Hogni.
    Hedin said, “I have, and we are equal in all things.”
    “Not so,” Gondul said, ‘since Hogni has a queen and you are unmarried.”
    Hedin said, “Hogni would give him his daughter if I was to ask.”
    Gondul said, “It is not the way of a man as mighty as you to beg for favours.”
    She added that he should take the girl without asking, and that he should sacrifice Hogni’s queen while he did so.
    Hedin returned to his men and they went to prepare Hogni’s ship Skrauti, since he said he was going home. Then Hedin went to the bower where Hild and her mother were, and he carried them off.
    Hild told him, “If you were to ask my father for my hand then he would gladly grant it,” but Hedin said, “I will not beg for you.”
    Then Hild said, “If you bear me away, my father will come after me and you will fight and kill each other, and yet that will not be the worst of your fate.”
    Then Hedin took Hervor, and placed her beneath the keel of his ship and launched it, killing her as they launched. They sailed across the sea and later Hedin went ashore alone, and in the forest, he met Gondul again, and she cast a spell over him so he fell asleep. When he awoke, he realised the shamefulness of his deeds and he sailed away hastily.
    When Hogni returned, he learnt the truth and he sailed angrily after Hedin. When Hedin was aware of this, he dropped anchor after the island that was later called Hedinsey (Hedin’s Isle). He spoke with Hogni when the king reached him, and told him how Gondul had bewitched him, but now he only wanted to return Hogni’s daughter and his ship.
     

    However, Hogni still wanted revenge for the killing of his queen, and he had drawn his sword Dainsleif and it thirsted for blood. So they went ashore with all their men and fought each other, and that was the beginning of the everlasting Battle of the Hiadningar. At the end of the first day, the two kings went back to their ships but Hild used witchcraft to revive the dead and they