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This story occurs as an episode in the long Saga of Olaf Tryggvason—to be distinguished from the shorter Saga of Olaf Tryggvason contained in the Heimskringla and translated by Morris and Magnússon in the Saga Library¹. The best known manuscript (F) of the longer saga is the Flateyjarbók which comes from the island of Flatey in Breithifjörth off the west of Iceland, and was written between 1386 and 1394. The second (S) is the Codex Arn. Magn. 62 in the Royal Library (at Copenhagen), which, like the former, contains a fragment only of the Saga of Olaf Tryggvason, but includes the Tháttr of Nornagest. This ms. dates, in all probability, from shortly after the middle of the fourteenth century. Finally, besides several paper mss. (comparatively late and unimportant), there is a ms. A (number 2845 of the Royal Library at Copenhagen) dating from the fifteenth century, in which the tháttr stands by itself.

Rafn², in his edition of the Fornaldarsögur, based his text of the tháttr on A; but subsequent examination has rendered it probable that this ms. is hardly independent of F which gives an earlier and better text. As regards mss. F and S, the latter frequently gives a better reading than the former³. For this reason it was followed by Bugge⁴ who believed it to be the better source. Wilken⁵ however held that F represents the 'Vulgate' of the tháttr, while S gives a corrected and edited version. In his edition, therefore, he chiefly followed F, though he made use of S throughout, and also (for the poems) the Codex Regius of the Older Edda. His example has been followed by later editors, including Valdimar Ásmundarson⁶, from whose version the following translation has been made. The differences between all three mss. appear to be very slight, but Ásmundarson's edition approximates more closely to Wilken's than to Rafn's. Indeed the variations between the texts of Wilken's second edition⁷ and Ásmundarson are negligible. For a full bibliography of texts, translations, and literature relating to this saga the reader is referred to Islandica, Vol. v, p. 32.

The saga itself dates from about 1300⁸. It is derived from tradition, mainly Icelandic; but the various stories contained in it differ greatly from one another in their historical value. This episode is probably to be regarded as legendary in part; and it would seem also to contain a good deal of conscious fiction.

The tháttr falls naturally into three parts. The framework of the story—the arrival of Guest at the hall of Olaf Tryggvason, his inclusion in the King's retinue, and his baptism—forms a whole in itself and contains nothing inherently improbable save the manner of his death, where the folk-tale element creeps in. The first 'story within a story,' the account that Guest gives of his wanderings and more especially of the adventures of Sigurth, is legendary—or perhaps rather made up from old legends with the help of the Edda poems. As in the case of the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsith—and indeed to a much greater extent—the persons who figure in the stranger's stories lived in reality in widely different ages. Sigurth and his brothers-in-law belong to the early part of the fifth century, Harold the Fairhaired and the sons of Lothbrok to the latter part of the ninth century. Other characters such as Guthmund of Glasisvellir who is mentioned in the first chapters are probably mythical.

The third part, which is perhaps the most interesting part of the tháttr, is the passage in which Guest explains how he came by his name. There can be no doubt that here we are in the region of pure folk-tale. The story of the visit of the Norns shows a very remarkable resemblance to the Greek legend of Althaea and Meleager. The same motif appears to some extent in the mediaeval French romances of Ogier the Dane, and is familiar to everyone in a slightly different form as the first part of the German folk-tale, Sleeping Beauty, where the reference to spinning should be noted.

The poetry contained in this tháttr, unlike that in the Hervarar Saga, is all taken from the Older Edda. One of the poems, the Hellride of Brynhild, is given almost complete and there are long extracts from Reginsmál. There are, however, some references to poems which no longer exist⁹.

In many respects the story of Nornagest is among the most interesting of the Romantic Sagas. It gives a vivid picture of life in a northern court—the naïveté and friendliness of the conversation; the personal interest that the King took in his men; the intimacy and directness and simplicity of the intercourse between them. There is something, too, of the same boyish indulgence—e.g. in King Olaf's attitude towards the wager—which one notices in Hrolf Kraki's talk with Vögg¹⁰. Yet combined with the amiability of both kings is a certain natural dignity which is very convincing.

Footnote 1: An abridged translation of the longer saga by J. Sephton is published in the Northern Library, Vol. ii (London, 1898).

Footnote 2: Fornaldarsögur Northrlanda (Copenhagen, 1829), Introduction, pp. xix, xx.

Footnote 3: Wilken, Die Prosaische Edda nebst Völsungasaga und Nornageststháttr (Paderborn, 1877), p. lxxxv ff.

Footnote 4: Norrøne Skrifter af Sagnhistorisk Indhold (Christiania, 1873).

Footnote 5: Op. cit., p. lxxxviii.

Footnote 6: See Fornaldarsögur Northrlanda (Reykjavík, 1891), Vol. i, pp. 247–266.

Footnote 7: The second edition follows the Codex Regius in the text of the poems included in the Tháttr more closely than did the first edition.

Footnote 8: Cf. Finnur Jónsson, Den Oldnorske og Oldislandske Litteraturs Historie, Vol. ii, p. 847; also Mogk, Norwegisch-Isländischen Literatur (Strassburg, 1904), p. 822.

Footnote 9: Cf. p. 19 below and note (p. 222).

Footnote 10: Cf. Skáldskaparmál, ch. 3; also Hrólfs Saga Kraka, ch. 42.

THE THÁTTR OF NORNAGEST°

I.° The story goes that on one occasion when King Olaf Tryggvason was living at Trondhjem, it chanced that a man came to him late in the day and addressed him respectfully. The King welcomed him and asked him who he was, and he said that his name was Guest.

The King answered: "You shall be guest here, whatever you are called."

Guest said: "I have told you my name truly, Sire, and I will gladly receive your hospitality if I may."

The King told him he could have it readily. But since the day was far spent, the King would not enter into conversation with his guest; for he was going soon to vespers, and after that to dinner, and then to bed and to sleep.

Now on that same night King Olaf Tryggvason was lying awake in his bed and saying his prayers, while all the other men in the hall were asleep. Then the King noticed that an elf or spirit of some kind had come into the hall, though all the doors were locked. He made his way past the beds of the men who were asleep there, one after another, and at last reached the bed of a man at the far end.

Then the elf stopped and said: "An empty house, and a mighty strong bolt on the door! People say that the King is the wisest of men. If he were as clever in things of this kind as they say he would not sleep so soundly."

After that he vanished through the door, locked as it was.

Early next morning the King sent his servant to find out who had occupied that bed over night, and it proved to have been the stranger. The King ordered him to be summoned before him and asked him whose son he was.

He answered: "My father's name was Thorth. He was a Dane and was called 'The Contentious,' and lived at a place called Groening in Denmark."

"You are a well set-up man," said the King.

Guest was bold of speech, and bigger in build than most men. He looked strong but was somewhat advanced in years. He asked the King if he might stay for a while in his retinue. The King asked if he were baptised. Guest said that he had been prime-signed but not baptised. The King said that he was free to remain in his retinue, but added:

"You will not remain long unbaptised with me."

The reason for the elf's remark about the bolt was that Guest had crossed himself, that evening like other men, but was in reality still a heathen.

The King said: "Can you do anything in the way of sport or music?"

He replied that he could play the harp and tell stories which people enjoyed.

Then said the King: "King Svein has no right to let unbaptised men leave his kingdom and wander about from one country to another."

Guest replied: "You must not blame the King of the Danes for this, for it is a long time since I left Denmark. In fact it was a long time before the Emperor Otto burnt the Dane-work and forced King Harold Gormsson and Earl Haakon the Heathen to become Christians."

The King questioned Guest about many subjects and he always gave him good and intelligent answers. Men say that it was in the third year of King Olaf's reign that Guest came to him.

In this year also there came to him two men called Grim who were sent by Guthmund from Glasisvellir. They brought to the King as a present from Guthmund two horns which were also called 'Grim.' They had also some further business with the King which we will return later.

As for Guest, he remained with the King, and had a place at the far end of the visitors' seats. He was a man of breeding and had good manners, and was popular and much respected by everyone.

II.° A little before Yule, Ulf the Red and his following came home. He had been engaged on the King's business all summer, for he had been appointed to guard the coasts of 'The Bay' against Danish raids. He never failed to be with King Olaf at mid-winter.

Ulf had many fine treasures to bring to the King, which he had got during the summer, and one gold ring in particular which was called Hnituth. It was welded together in seven places and each piece had a different colour. It was made of much finer gold than rings usually are. The ring had been given to Ulf by a landowner called Lothmund, and before that it had belonged to King Half, from whom the Halfsrekkar take their name. The ring had come to them as forced tribute from King Halfdan Ylfing. Lothmund had asked Ulf in return for it that he would guard his home with the support of King Olaf, and Ulf had promised to do so.

Now King Olaf was keeping Yule in magnificent style at his court in Trondhjem; and it was on the eighth day of Yule that Ulf gave him the gold ring Hnituth. The King thanked him for the gift as well as for all the faithful service which he had constantly rendered him.

The ring was passed round the building in which the drinking was going on.—As yet no halls had been built in Norway. Now each man showed it to his neighbour and they thought that they had never seen such fine gold as that of which the ring was made. At last it came to the guest-table, and so to the guest who had just arrived. He looked at the ring and handed it back on the palm of his hand—the hand in which he had been holding his drinking horn. He was not much impressed with the treasure, and made no remarks about it, but went on jesting with his companions. A serving-man was pouring out drink at the end of the guest-table.

"Do you not like the ring?" he asked.

They said; "We all like it very much except the new-comer. He can't see anything in it; but we think he can't appreciate it simply because he doesn't care for things of this kind."

The serving-man went up the hall to the King and told him exactly what the guests had said, adding that, the new-comer had taken little note of the treasure, valuable as it was, when it was shown to him.

Then the King remarked: "The new-comer probably knows more than you think: he must come to me in the morning and tell me a story."

Now he and the other guests at the farthest table were talking among themselves. They asked the new-comer where he had seen a better ring or even one as good as this.

"Since you evidently think it strange," said he, "that I make so little of it, I may say that I have certainly seen gold which is in no way inferior, but actually better."

The King's men now laughed heartily and said that that promised good sport, adding:

"Will you agree to wager with us that you have seen gold as good as this, and prove it? We will stake four marks in current coin against your knife and belt; and the King shall decide who is in the right."

Then said Guest: "I will neither be made a laughing-stock for you nor fail to keep the wager which you offer. And I will certainly lay a wager with you on the spot, and stake exactly what you have suggested, and the King shall judge who is in the right."

Then they stopped talking, and Guest took his harp and played it well till far into the evening, so that it was a joy to all who heard him. What he rendered best was The Harping of Gunnar; and last of all he played the ancient Wiles of Guthrun, neither of which they had heard before. And after that they went to sleep for the night.

III. In the morning the King rose early and heard Mass; and after that he went to breakfast with his retinue. And when he had taken his place in the high seat, the guests came up to him, and Guest with them; and they told him all about their agreement and the wager which they had made.

"I am not much taken with your wager," replied the King, "although it is your own money that you are staking. I suspect that the drink must have gone to your heads; and I think you would do well to give it up, especially if Guest agrees."

"My wish is," replied Guest, "that the whole agreement should stand."

"It looks to me, Guest," said the King, "as if it was my men rather than you whose tongues have got them into trouble; but we will soon put it to the test."

After that they left him and went to drink; and when the drinking tables were removed, the King summoned Guest and spoke to him as follows:

"Now is the time for you to produce the gold if you have any, so that I can decide your wager."

"As you will, Sire!" replied Guest.

Then he felt in a pouch which he had with him, and took out of it a fob which he untied, and then handed something to the King.

The King saw that it was a piece of a saddle-buckle and that it was of exceedingly fine gold. Then he bade them bring the ring Hnituth; and when they did so, the King compared the ring and the piece of gold and said:

"I have no doubt whatever that the gold which Guest has shown us is the finer, and anyone who looks at it must think so too."

Everybody agreed with the King. Then he decided the wager in Guest's favour, and the other guests came to the conclusion that they had made fools of themselves over the business.

Then Guest said: "Take your money and keep it yourselves, for I don't need it; but don't make any more wagers with strangers, for you never know when you may hit upon someone who has both seen and heard more than you have.—I thank you, Sire, for your decision!"

Then the King said: "Now I want you to tell me where you got that gold from, which you carry about with you."

Guest replied: "I am loth to tell you, because no-one will believe what I have to say about it."

"Let us hear it all the same," said the King, "for you promised before that you would tell us your story."

"If I tell you the history of this piece of gold," replied Guest, "I expect you will want to hear the rest of my story along with it."

"I expect that that is just what will happen," said the King.

IV.° "Then I will tell you how once I went south into the land of the Franks. I wanted to see for myself what sort of a prince Sigurth the son of Sigmund was, and to discover if the reports which had reached me of his great beauty and courage were true. Nothing happened worth mentioning until I came to the land of the Franks and met King Hjalprek. He had a great court around him. Sigurth, the son of Sigmund, the son of Völsung, and of Hjördis, the daughter of Eylimi, was there at that time. Sigmund had fallen in battle against the sons of Hunding, and Hjördis had married Alf the son of King Hjalprek. There Sigurth grew up together with all the other sons of King Sigmund. Among these were Sinfjötli and Helgi, who surpassed all men in strength and stature. Helgi slew King Hunding, thereby earning the name Hundingsbani. The third son was called Hamund. Sigurth, however, outstripped all his brothers, and it is a well-known fact that he was the noblest of all warrior princes, and the very model of a king in heathen times.

At that time, Regin, the son of Hreithmar, had also come to King Hjalprek. He was a dwarf in stature, but there was no-one more cunning than he. He was a wise man, but malign and skilled in magic. Regin taught Sigurth many things and was devoted to him. He told him about his birth and his wondrous adventures.

And when I had been there a little while, I entered Sigurth's service like many others. He was very popular with everybody, because he was friendly and unassuming, and generous to all.

V.° It chanced one day that we came to Regin's house and Sigurth was made welcome there. Then Regin spoke these verses: