The Sagas of Ragnar Lodbrok by Waggoner Ben

Author:Waggoner, Ben [Waggoner, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: azw
ISBN: 9781941136232
Publisher: The Troth
Published: 2018-11-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter XIX

It so happened in a distant land that a certain king had two sons. He became ill and expired, and his sons wanted to hold a funeral feast in his honor. They invited everyone who heard this news over the next three years to come to the feast. The news was heard far and wide throughout the land. For three years they prepared for this feast.

When that summer came, and the appointed time came for the drinking of the inheritance ale52, there was such a great multitude of men that no one could tell how many there were. There were many great halls fitted out, and many tents outside. And when the first evening had mostly passed, one man came to these halls. This man was so large that no one there was as large. They saw from his dress that he was a man of high birth. When he came into the hall, he went before the brothers and greeted them, and asked where they meant for him to sit. They were well pleased with him and told him to sit at the highest bench. He took up enough space for two men. And as soon as he had sat down, he was brought drink like the other men, and no horn was so large that he couldn’t drink it down in one draught. It seemed to everyone that he thought there was no worth in any of the others.

Then it happened that another man came to this feast. He was even larger than the first man. These men had long hoods. And when this man came before the high seat of the young kings, he addressed them elegantly and asked them to direct him to a seat. They said that this man should sit closer in on the upper bench. Now he took his seat, and together they both were so large that five men had to stand up to give them room. But the one who arrived first was the lesser man at drinking; the second one drank so swiftly that he nearly guzzled every horn, and yet men couldn’t tell that he was drunk. He behaved rather disagreeably to his benchmates and turned his back on them.

The one who had come first asked that they should have a game together—“and I will go first.” He thrust out his hand towards the second man and spoke a verse:

Speak to us of your honor,

let’s settle this, I ask you:

have you seen the raven shiver,

sated with blood, on its perch?

More often you sat at feasts,

sprawled upon the high-seat,

than you carved bloody carrion

for corpse-birds in the valley.

Now it seemed to the one who sat on the outside, that the one who had addressed him had challenged him, and he spoke a verse in response:

Be silent, you sluggard!

Shabby wretch, what have you done?

You have dared no deeds that

outdo my own glory;

you didn’t sate the sun-seeker,53

the bitch, at the sword’s game;

you refused to give gore

to the giantess’s steed.

Now the one who

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