The Viking Saint by John Carr;

Author:John Carr;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2022-07-30T00:00:00+00:00

Ingegerd delivered the bad news to Hjalte, who tried another tack. Making sure they were out of earshot, Hjalte asked Ingegerd how she felt about becoming engaged to Olaf Haraldsson. This was skating on thin ice indeed. But Ingegerd was intrigued by the proposal, and replied that if Olaf of Norway was as good a man as Hjalte always said he was, then she would have no objection to marrying him. She begged Hjalte to keep the idea under his hat, leaking it only to the skalds Gissur and Ottar. Hjalte sent a letter from Ingeberg back to Earl Ragnvald and Ingebjorg, who received it just before Yuletide.

Meanwhile, developments were occurring on the diplomatic front. The messengers whom Hjalte had sent westward with the encouraging message from Princess Ingegerd reached the estate of Earl Ragnvald. Encouraged by the message they bore, Bjorn, the king’s marshal who had been most reluctant to travel to Sweden and who was still staying with Ragnvald, now appears to have gathered together his resolve to carry out the promise he made to the king to go to Olof’s court. Ragnvald accordingly got together a sixty-man mission, including Bjorn, which set off over the snowy wastes to Uppsala, the seat of Olof’s kingdom. After crossing the frontier Ragnvald arranged for a message to be sent to Ingegerd at her own farm at Ullraker.

Having received the message, Ingegerd secretly prepared for her trip to Ullraker. Hjalte wanted to go with her, but for this he had to justify his sudden departure to Olof. He did it with a burst of flattery, indicating that he had stayed long enough at this brilliant court, and that he would always treasure the experience and sing Olof’s praises everywhere. Snorri’s account of the exchange, however, leaves a great deal in the air. ‘Why are you leaving in such haste and where are you going?’ Olof asked.

‘I’m riding out to Ullraker with your daughter Ingegerd,’ Hjalte truthfully replied. And that, it appears, was that. We have no sign that Olof suspected anything amiss; on the contrary, he may have assumed that his daughter intended to marry and live with Hjalte on her farm, and his final words to Hjalte strongly suggest it.

At Ullraker Ingegerd laid on a lavish feast for Earl Ragnvald and his entourage. There was a discussion lasting several days, in which Ingegerd ruled out any Swedish-Norwegian rapprochement as long as her father kept up his hard line. Ragnvald asked Ingegerd delicately what her reaction would be if Olaf Haraldsson ‘paid his addresses’ to her – an unmistakable euphemism for a marriage proposal.

‘Do you think that would be advisable?’ she asked the earl cagily, although she very likely had already made up her mind. Absolutely, said Ragnvald, who went on to tell of Olaf’s recent success against the five rebellious chieftains. We are told nothing more of this meeting at Ullraker; when it was over Ragnvald and Hjalte continued on their way to Uppsala. On the way they put up

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