The Gesta Danorum (Books I-IX) on Erik

The Danish History, > Book Five.

• attestation: Erik counseled Gotar against invading Denmark, arguing that internal divisions heal when a foreign enemy approaches

  "though the Danes now seem divided in counsel, yet they will soon be of one mind to meet the foe. The wolves have often made peace between the quarrelling swine"

• attestation: Erik advised Gotar to risk subordinates rather than his own person in war

  "Let the soldiers first try the fortunes of their king. Provide in peace for thine own safety, and risk others if thou dost undertake the enterprise: better that the slave should perish than the master"

• attestation: Erik and Roller were sons of Ragnar the champion, born of different mothers

  "Erik and Roller were the sons of Ragnar, the champion, and children of one father by different mothers"

• attestation: Gotar gave Erik a ship which the oarsmen named Skroter

  "The king gave him a ship, and the oarsmen called it "Skroter.""

• attestation: Erik swapped the dishes, taking the black portion with stronger magical properties for himself and giving Roller the weaker whitish part

  "Erik, judging the feast not by the colours but by the inward strengthening effected, turned the dish around very quickly, and transferred to himself the part which was black but compounded of stronger juices"

• attestation: Erik disguised his dish-switching with a nautical metaphor about prow becoming stern

  "to avoid showing that the exchange was made on purpose, he said, "Thus does prow become stern when the sea boils up.""

• attestation: The enchanted meal granted Erik supreme human wisdom, including the ability to understand animal speech

  "the potency of the meal bred in him the fulness of all kinds of knowledge to an incredible degree, so that he had cunning to interpret even the utterances of wild beasts and cattle"

• attestation: Erik also gained extraordinary eloquence from the magical pottage

  "He was also gifted with an eloquence so courteous and graceful, that he adorned whatsoever he desired to expound with a flow of witty adages"

• attestation: Erik sent two Danish-speaking spies to Odd's fleet who learned he planned a dawn attack with stone-laden ships

  "he bade two men who could speak the Danish tongue well, to go to them unclothed, and, in order to spy better, to complain to Odd of their nakedness"

• comparison: Erik bored holes in Odd's ships using an auger, a technique also used by Hadding and Frode

  "he bored the planks (a device practiced by Hadding and also by Frode), nearest to the water, and soon made good his return"

• attestation: Erik retreated to the island of Lesso after the battle and sent spoils home on two ships

  "Erik, when the massacre was accomplished, made a rapid retreat, and put in at the isle Lesso"

• attestation: Erik's men slaughtered cattle on Zealand to stave off famine

  "he put in to Zealand, and the sailors ran about over the shore, and began to cut down the cattle: for they must either ease their hunger or perish of famine"

• attestation: Erik hid the stolen cattle carcasses underwater tied with ropes to deceive the pursuing Zealanders

  "he took care that the carcases of the slaughtered cows should be tied with marked ropes and hidden under water"

• attestation: Erik interpreted his stumble on disembarking as an omen of good fortune

  "the moment that he stepped out of the ship, tripped inadvertently, and came tumbling to the ground. He found in the slip a presage of a lucky issue"

• attestation: Erik declared his father was Ragnar and proclaimed his love of wisdom and virtue

  "Ragnar is my father; eloquence clothes my tongue; I have ever loved virtue only. Wisdom hath been my one desire"

• attestation: Erik accused Grep of treachery using veiled animal metaphors about wolves

  "As soon as we espy the sinister ears of the wolf, we believe that the wolf himself is near. Men think no credit due to him that hath no credit, whom report accuses of treachery"

• attestation: Erik warned that those who betray their lord bring ruin upon themselves

  "He who betrays his lord, he who conceives foul devices, will be as great a snare to himself as to his friends"

• attestation: Erik countered the horse-head sorcery with a verbal charm that caused the pole to fall and crush its bearer

  "On the bearer fall the ill-luck of what he bears! May a better issue attend our steps! Evil befall the evil-workers!"

• attestation: Erik instructed his men to remain silent to avoid giving any opening to the sorceries

  "he bade his men keep silent and behave warily; no man was to be rash or hasty of speech, lest by some careless outburst they might give some opening to the sorceries"

• attestation: Erik brought a piece of ice wrapped in his robe as a gift to King Frode

  "he carefully wrapped up in his robe a piece of ice which he happened to find, and managed to take it to the king by way of a present"

• attestation: The king's slaves laid a slippery hide on the threshold to trip Erik as he entered

  "the slaves of the king, in order to receive him with mockery as he entered, had laid a slippery hide on the threshold"

• attestation: Erik deliberately dropped the ice gift into the fire through Koll's hands, making it appear Koll lost a royal present

  "he purposely let it go into the fire, as though it had slipped from the hand of the receiver. All present saw the shining fragment, and it seemed as though molten metal had fallen into the fire"

• attestation: Erik and Frode engaged in a riddling dialogue where Erik concealed his voyage in kenning-like metaphors

  "I came from Rennes Isle, and I took my seat by a stone"

• attestation: Erik's riddling dialogue with Frode continued with references to dolphins and tree trunks as kennings for places visited

  "After a dolphin I went to a dolphin"

• attestation: Erik revealed that his riddle about a spear-point shaken from a shaft referred to his killing of Odd

  "under the name I gave before of `spear-point' I signified Odd, whom my hand had slain"

• attestation: Both the queen and Frode awarded Erik the prize for eloquence, and Frode gave him a bracelet from his arm

  "when the queen also had awarded him the palm of eloquence and the prize for flow of speech, the king straightway took a bracelet from his arm, and gave it to him as the appointed reward"

• attestation: Erik remarked that kinsmen's aid is best for the helpless after Roller saved him

  "The service of kin is best for the helpless"

• attestation: Erik justified slaying Grep as an act of self-defense rather than aggression

  "The man must not be impeached whose deed justice excuses. For my work is as far as from that of Grep, as an act of self-defence is from an attack upon another"

• attestation: Erik requested three days to prepare and asked for a freshly slain ox-hide

  "I ask three days' space to get ready, provided that I may obtain from the king the skill of a freshly slain ox"

• attestation: Erik fashioned sandals from the ox-hide smeared with tar and sand for traction on ice

  "Erik, when the hide was given him, made some sandals, which he smeared with a mixture of tar and sand, in order to plant his steps the more firmly"

• attestation: Erik chose the frozen sea as the battlefield, claiming to be unskilled in land combat

  "he said that he was unskilled in combat by land and in all warfare--he demanded it should be on the frozen sea"

• attestation: Frode pardoned Queen Hanund after Erik argued that women's errors must often be forgiven

  "Erik added, that woman's errors must often be forgiven, and that punishment ought not to be inflicted, unless amendment were unable to get rid of her fault. So the king pardoned Hanund"

• comparison: Erik favorably compared Gotar's court customs to Frode's, noting that guests received appointed seating

  "With Gotar, not only are rooms provided when the soldiers are coming to feast at the banquet, but each is appointed a separate place and seat where he is to lie"

• attestation: Erik wasted food deliberately by discarding barely-tasted portions, exploiting Frode's custom against reusing leftover food

  "Erik, knowing well the courtesy of the king, which made him forbid them to use up any of the meal that was left, cast away the piece of which he had tasted very little, calling whole portions broken bits of food"

• attestation: Erik tricked Frode into granting him Gunwar by seizing her hand along with a goblet the king offered as a gift

  "Erik caught hold of her right hand and of the goblet she offered at the same time, and said: "Noblest of kings, hath thy benignity granted me this present?""

• attestation: Erik threatened to cut off Gunwar's hand if denied her entirely, since the hand at least was given with the cup

  "Erik, feigning that he would cut off the girl's hand with his sword, as though it had been granted under the name of the cup"

• attestation: Erik and his men defeated Grep's brothers on the frozen sea thanks to their tar-and-sand sandals giving traction

  "Erik and his men went on to the sea, then covered near with ice; and, thanks to the stability of their sandals, felled the enemy, whose footing was slippery and unsteady"

• attestation: Erik defeated Westmar in the rope-wrestling and then broke his neck and back

  "straightway, thrusting his foot forth, he broke the infirm neck and back of the old man, and crushed him"

• attestation: Erik dodged the thrown knife, then asked for the sheath as well, turning the assassination attempt into a gift

  "Gifts should be handed to friends, and not thrown; thou hadst made the present acceptable if thou hadst given the sheath to keep the blade company"

• attestation: Erik sabotaged Frode's beached fleet by boring into the hulls and patching them to hide the damage

  "cutting away part of the sides, he made it unseaworthy, and by again replacing some laths he patched it so that the damage might be unnoticed"

• attestation: Erik and Roller rescued the drowning Frode, pulling him from the water after waves had covered him three times

  "Erik and Roller saw this they instantly flung themselves into the deep water, spurning danger, and by swimming picked up the king, who was tossing about. Thrice the waves had poured over him"

• attestation: Erik delivered a lengthy persuasive speech urging Frode to abandon his desire for death

  "I pray that the gods may turn thee from the folly of thy purpose; turn thee, I say, that thou mayst not try to end a most glorious life abominably"

• attestation: Erik declared that self-killing was forbidden by the gods

  "the gods themselves have forbidden that a man who is kind to others should commit unnatural self-murder"

• attestation: Erik offered to restore Frode's treasure, wealth, and goods, and to return Gunwar's hand if desired

  "I restore thy treasure, thy wealth, thy goods. If thou thinkest thy sister was betrothed to me over-hastily, let her marry the man whom thou commandest; for her chastity remains inviolate"

• attestation: Erik offered to serve and fight for Frode, submitting to whatever sentence the king might pass

  "if thou wilt accept me, I wish to fight for thee. Beware lest thou wrongfully steel thy mind in anger"

• attestation: Erik assured Frode that his sovereignty was intact and that he held the same power as in his own palace

  "Thou shalt see that I am obeying, not commanding thee. I agree to any sentence thou mayst pronounce against my life. Be assured that thou art as strong here as-in thy palace"

• attestation: Erik argued that adversity teaches the self-control needed to properly enjoy prosperity

  "No man behaves with self-control in prosperity who has not learnt to endure adversity. Besides, the whole use of blessings is reaped after misfortunes have been graciously acknowledged"

• attestation: Erik shamed Frode by asking whether the grandson of a famous man would be too weak to endure a slight adversity

  "Shall the grandson of a famous man, and the child of the unvanquished, be too weak to endure a slight gust of adversity?"

• attestation: Erik proposed that Roller should marry the divorced queen Hanund

  "he declared that it would be better to marry the queen, when she had been put away, to Roller, of whom his sovereignty need have no fears"

• attestation: Erik and Roller held their weddings simultaneously, one marrying the king's sister and the other his divorced queen

  "the brethren celebrated their marriages together, one wedding the sister of the king, and the other his divorced queen"

• attestation: Erik and Roller returned to Norway with their wives

  "Then they sailed back to Norway, taking their wives with them"

• attestation: Erik devised a plan for Gunwar to pretend consent to Gotar's suit while delaying the wedding until Erik received Gotar's daughter

  "When he has committed the theft, pretend it is done with thy goodwill; yet put off the wedding till he has given me his daughter in thy place"

• attestation: Erik staged a feigned flight to draw Gotar out, then turned his ship about

  "he fled in his ship with his wife and all his goods, in order to tempt the king out, pretending panic"

• attestation: Erik secretly removed a lath from the party wall between his and Gotar's banquet rooms, creating a passage

  "he gradually drew a lath out of the wall, and made an opening large enough to allow the passage of a human body"

• attestation: Erik sat between Kraka and Alfhild at the feast while Gunwar sat by Gotar

  "Gunwar sat by Gotar, but Erik sat close between Kraka on the one side and Alfhild on the other"

• attestation: Erik kept Alfhild apart and slept with Gunwar, preserving Alfhild's chastity for Frode

  "Erik suffered Alfhild, who was destined for Frode, to lie apart, and embraced Gunwar as usual, thus outwitting the king"

• attestation: Erik repaired the wall hole during the night so that inspection found no trace of tampering

  "Erik, early in the night, had patched up the damage of the broken wall, that his trick might not be detected"

• attestation: Erik invoked Kraka's name when attacked and his shield fell from the rafter to protect him

  "called out the name of his stepmother, (Kraka), to which long ago he had been bidden to appeal when in peril, and he found a speedy help in his need. For his shield, which hung aloft from the rafter, instantly fell and covered his unarmed body"

• attestation: Erik cut off one assassin's feet with his sword while Gunwar killed the other with a spear

  "snatching his sword, lopped off both feet of the nearest of them. Gunwar, with equal energy, ran a spear through the other: she had the body of a woman, but the spirit of a man"

• attestation: Erik was commissioned with eight ships to suppress a Slavic incursion since Frode lacked military experience

  "Erik was commissioned to suppress it with eight ships, since Frode as yet seemed inexperienced in war"

• attestation: Erik camouflaged his ships with tree branches to look like a wood, then ambushed the Slavic pirates

  "he sailed up to them with only one of his own, ordering the rest to be girt with timber parapets, and covered over with pruned boughs of trees"

• attestation: Erik encountered and destroyed a pirate ship grounded on shallows while sailing to report to Frode

  "he happened to see a pirate ship aground on some shallows"

• attestation: Erik greeted Frode by hailing him as the maker of a most prosperous peace, which Frode took as prophetic

  "Hail to the maker of a most prosperous peace! The king prayed that his word might come true, and declared that the spirit of the wise man was prophetic"

• attestation: Erik fought a battle in which Strunik and the bravest of the Slavic race were slain

  "he fought a furious battle, slew Strunik with the bravest of his race, and received the surrender of the rest"

• attestation: Erik scouted the enemy and found Olmar's fleet near Russia while the King of the Huns led the land forces

  "Erik, whom he had sent to spy out the array of the enemy, found Olmar, who had received the command of the fleet, not far from Russia; while the King of the Huns led the land forces"

• attestation: Erik identified himself to the King of the Huns as the man who comes everywhere and is found nowhere

  "Erik said he was the man who came everywhere and was found nowhere"

• attestation: The King of the Huns suspected Erik was the man who had accused his daughter Hanund of adultery

  "Here, perchance, is that Erik who, as I have heard, accused my daughter falsely"

• attestation: Erik reported to Frode that the enemy had six kings with five thousand ships each, each ship holding three hundred rowers

  "he said that he had seen six kings each with his fleet; and that each of these fleets contained five thousand ships, each ship being known to hold three hundred rowers"

• attestation: Erik encouraged the outnumbered Frode with the maxim that boldness helps the righteous

  "Boldness helps the righteous; a valiant dog must attack the bear; we want wolf-hounds, and not little unwarlike birds"

• attestation: Erik persuaded Frode to attack a small Ruthenian detachment, arguing advantage should be counted before honour

  "he showed him that advantage must be counted before honour"

• attestation: Erik described the Hunnic army in verse: fifteen standards each with a hundred lesser standards, each with twenty more beneath

  "I saw fifteen standards flickering at once; each of them had a hundred lesser standards, and after each of these could have been seen twenty"

• attestation: Erik advised Frode to retreat home and let the Hunnic army perish from its own hugeness

  "Erik instructed him that he must return home and suffer the enemy first to perish of their own hugeness"

• attestation: Erik and Skalk the Skanian reinforced Gestiblind and first attacked Alrik's son Gunthion

  "He soon received the aid of Skalk, the Skanian, and Erik, and came back with reinforcements"

• attestation: Erik fought and killed Alrik in single combat on behalf of the aged Gestiblind, but was severely wounded

  "Then they fought without delay: Alrik was killed, and Erik was most severely wounded; it was hard to find remedies"

• attestation: Erik was the first Swedish king to bear the name Erik, which then passed to subsequent kings

  "None of the Swedish kings before him was called by the name of Erik, but the title passed from him to the rest"

• attestation: Erik's Swedes broke open Aswid's barrow expecting treasure, and Asmund emerged alive from it

  "Erik, who had crossed the uplands with his army, happened to draw near the barrow of Aswid; and the Swedes, thinking that treasures were in it, broke the hill open with mattocks"

• attestation: Erik arrived overland and advised Frode to renew the battle at daybreak

  "Erik, who had come across the land, came up and advised the king to renew the battle"

• attestation: Erik advised Arngrim to win Frode's favor by conquering Egther of Permland and Thengil of Finmark

  "Erik advised him to win Frode's goodwill by some illustrious service, and to fight against Egther, the King of Permland, and Thengil, the King of Finmark"

The Danish History, > Book Six.

• attestation: Erik, governor of Sweden, died of disease, and his son Halfdan succeeded him

  "Erik, who held the governorship of Sweden, died of disease; and his son Halfdan, who governed in his father's stead"

The Danish History, > Book Seven.

• attestation: Erik, grandson of the Swedish king and son of Halfdan's uncle Frode, had a champion named Hakon who could blunt swords with spells

  "he heard that Erik's champion, Hakon, was skillful in blunting swords with his spells"

• attestation: Erik attacked Halfdan's territories including Denmark in retaliation, seeking to recover his losses from defeat

  "Erik, in his desire to repair the losses incurred in flight, attacked the districts subject to Halfdan. Even Denmark he did not exempt from this harsh treatment"

• attestation: Erik refused to accept life under servitude when captured, choosing death over enslavement, and was put in chains and banished to a place of wild beasts

  "he rejected the life, which was offered him under condition of thraldom. He could not bear to think more of the light of day than liberty, and chose to die rather than serve"