The Gesta Danorum (Books I-IX) on Frode

The Danish History, > Books I-Ix > Political Institutions.

• attestation: King Frode's death was concealed for three years to prevent disturbance within and danger from without.

  "In the case of a great king, Frode, his death is concealed for three years to avoid disturbance within and danger from without"

The Danish History, > Books I-Ix > Statute Laws.

• attestation: Frode was the model lawgiver who eclipsed even Sciold as conqueror and legislator in Danish eyes.

  "FRODE (known also to the compiler of "Beowulf's Lay", 2025) had, in the Dane's eyes, almost eclipsed Sciold as conqueror and lawgiver"

• attestation: Frode was famous for hanging a gold arm-ring in three parts of his kingdom that no thief dared touch for many years.

  "Frode was able to hang up an arm-ring of gold in three parts of his kingdom that no thief for many years dared touch"

• attestation: Under Frode's laws, spoils were divided with gold to captains, silver to privates, and arms to champions.

  "The division of spoil shall be--gold to captains, silver to privates, arms to champions, ships to be shared by all"

• attestation: Frode's law gave women free choice or at least veto in taking husbands.

  "Women to have free choice (or, at least, veto) in taking husbands"

• attestation: Frode's law required a man to marry a girl he had seduced.

  "A man must marry a girl he has seduced"

• attestation: Wager of battle was decreed as the universal mode of legal proof under Frode's laws.

  "Wager of battle is to be the universal mode of proof"

• attestation: Deserting soldiers who bore shields against their countrymen forfeited life and property under Frode's code.

  "Deserter bearing shield against his countrymen to lose life and property"

• attestation: Frode's law required that if an alien killed a Dane, two aliens must suffer in return.

  "(q) If an alien kill a Dane two aliens must suffer"

• attestation: Frode's funerary law required free householders who fell in war to be buried with horse and arms in a barrow.

  "Every free householder that fell in war was to be set in his barrow with horse and arms"

• attestation: Earls and kings were to be burned in their own ships under Frode's law.

  "Earl or king to be burned in his own ship"

• attestation: Frode conquered the Ruthenians and required them to adopt Danish sale-marriage, abolishing capture-marriage.

  "Ruthenians must adopt Danish sale-marriage. (This involves the abolition of the Baltic custom of capture-marriage"

• attestation: Under Frode's military code, a veteran must attack one foe, stand two, face three, and retire only before four.

  "A veteran, one of the Doughty, must be such a man as will attack one foe, will stand two, face three without withdrawing more than a little, and be content to retire only before four"

• attestation: House-carles received three pieces of silver in winter-pay, hired soldiers two, and discharged soldiers one.

  "The house-carle three pieces of silver, a hired soldier two pieces, a soldier who had finished his service one piece"

• attestation: Travellers could claim a single supper under Frode's law; taking more made them a thief.

  "A traveller may claim a single supper; if he take more he is a thief"

• attestation: Frode made the Finns pay a car full of skins for every ten heads every three years as fur tax.

  "The old fur tax (mentioned in "Egil's Saga") is here ascribed to FRODE, who makes the Finns pay him, every three years, a car full or sledge full of skins for every ten heads"

The Danish History, > Books I-Ix > War.

• attestation: Frode possessed a mail-coat charmed against steel.

  "Frode has one charmed against steel"

• attestation: Frode's army was so large it was numbered by each man placing a pebble in a pile as he passed.

  "the gathered host is numbered, once, where, as with Xerxes, counting was too difficult, by making each man as he passed put a pebble in a pile"

• attestation: Frode disguised himself in women's clothes to spy on the enemy's camp.

  "Frode, who even assumed women's clothes for the purpose"

• attestation: Frode is described as the typical general, statesman, and lawgiver of archaic Denmark.

  "Frode is throughout the typical general, as he is the typical statesman and law-giver of archaic Denmark"

The Danish History, > Books I-Ix > Funeral Rites And Man'S Future State.

• attestation: Under Frode's law, only chiefs and warriors were cremated, while others received different burial rites.

  "at one time, judging from Frode's law, only chiefs and warriors were burnt"

The Danish History, > Books I-Ix > Magic And Folk-Science.

• attestation: Frode perished from attacks by a witch metamorphosed into a walrus.

  "Frode perishes of the attacks of a witch metamorphosed into a walrus"

• attestation: Frode used powdered gold as an antidote against magical poisons.

  "Frode uses powdered gold as an antidote"

• attestation: Christ's birth was synchronized with the reign of Frode, who was equated with Augustus, during a period of world peace.

  "the idea that Christ was born in the reign of Frode, Frode having been somehow synchronised with Augustus, in whose reign also there was a world-peace"

The Danish History, > Book Two

• relationship: Frode was the son and successor of Hadding as king of Denmark

  "HADDING was succeeded by FRODE, his son, whose fortunes were many and changeful"

• attestation: Frode displayed warrior prowess from a young age and deliberately avoided slothfulness

  "When he had passed the years of a stripling, he displayed the fulness of a warrior's prowess; and being loth that this should be spoilt by slothfulness, he sequestered his mind from delights"

• attestation: Frode's father's wars had emptied the treasury, forcing him to seek new sources of wealth

  "Warfare having drained his father's treasury, he lacked a stock of pay to maintain his troops"

• attestation: A countryman directed Frode to an island where a treasure-guarding serpent dwelt, advising him to use bull-hide shields and strike the serpent's soft belly

  "Not far off is an island rising in delicate slopes, hiding treasure in its hills and ware of its rich booty. Here a noble pile is kept by the occupant of the mount, who is a snake wreathed in coils"

• attestation: Frode crossed to the island alone and slew the serpent by stabbing its soft underbelly after his weapons bounced off its hard hide

  "Frode believed, and crossed alone to the island, loth to attack the beast with any stronger escort than that wherewith it was the custom for champions to attack"

• attestation: With the serpent's treasure Frode became rich and sailed to attack the Kurlanders, whose king was Dorn

  "The money which the King found made him rich; and with this supply he approached in his fleet the region of the Kurlanders, whose king Dorn"

• attestation: Frode dug concealed trenches within his camp, covered them with turf, then feigned retreat to lure the townsmen into the trap

  "commanded several trenches of unwonted depth to be made within the camp, and the earth to be secretly carried out in baskets and cast quietly into the river bordering the walls"

• attestation: The Kurlander townsmen fell into the hidden pits and were massacred under a shower of spears

  "The townsmen fell upon it, missed their footing everywhere, rolled forward into the pits, and were massacred by him under a shower of spears"

• attestation: Frode encountered Trannon, monarch of the Ruthenians, and sabotaged his fleet by boring holes in the hulls and plugging them temporarily

  "he fell in with Trannon, the monarch of the Ruthenians. Desiring to spy out the strength of his navy, he made a number of pegs out of sticks, and loaded a skiff with them"

• attestation: Frode removed the plugs during battle, causing the Ruthenian fleet to sink while simultaneously attacking, creating a double peril of sword and sea

  "he took out the plugs, thus giving instant access to the waters, and then made haste to surround the enemy's fleet with his own"

• attestation: Frode besieged the Russian town of Rotel after his envoys were treacherously murdered there

  "some envoys, whom he had sent into Russia to levy tribute, had been horribly murdered through the treachery of the inhabitants, Frode was stung by the double wrong and besieged closely their town Rotel"

• attestation: Frode diverted the river protecting Rotel into multiple channels to create fordable passages

  "he divided the entire mass of the waters by making new and different streams, thus changing what had been a channel of unknown depth into passable fords"

• attestation: Frode took the city of Paltisca by faking his own death and having a barrow raised, causing King Vespasins to relax his guard

  "He went into a dark and unknown hiding-place, only a very few being in the secret, and ordered a report of his death to be spread abroad"

• attestation: Frode aspired to the Empire of the East and attacked King Handwan's city

  "Frode, when he had taken this town, aspired to the Empire of the East, and attacked the city of Handwan"

• attestation: Frode disguised himself as a woman skilled in fighting and entered Handwan's city as a pretended deserter

  "He exchanged garments with a serving-maid, and feigned himself to be a maiden skilled in fighting; and having thus laid aside the garb of man and imitated that of woman, he went to the town, calling himself a deserter"

• attestation: Frode had his army storm the walls the next day while he ensured the gates were opened from within

  "on the next day sent out an attendant with orders that the army should be up at the walls, promising that he would see to it that the gates were opened"

• attestation: Frode fought a battle in Sweden against his sister Swanhwid and was defeated

  "Frode was thus forced to quit the wars of the East and fought a great battle in Sweden with his sister Swanhwid, in which he was beaten"

• attestation: Frode campaigned against Friesland, seeking western glory to match his eastern conquests

  "the design occurred to Frode of a campaign against Friesland; he was desirous to dazzle the eyes of the West with the glory he had won in conquering the East"

• attestation: Frode defeated the Frisian rover Witthe by ordering his men to absorb the enemy's spear barrage with shields before counterattacking

  "his first contest was with Witthe, a rover of the Frisians; and in this battle he bade his crews patiently bear the first brunt of the enemy's charge by merely opposing their shields"

• attestation: Frode explored the Rhine, conquered far parts of Germany, then destroyed the Frisian fleet stranded on shoals

  "Frode explored the Rhine in his fleet, and laid hands on the farthest parts of Germany. Then he went back to the ocean, and attacked the Frisian fleet, which had struck on shoals"

• attestation: Frode assailed Britain, defeated its king, and attacked Melbrik the Governor of Scotland

  "assailed Britain, defeated its king, and attacked Melbrik, the Governor of the Scottish district"

• attestation: Caught between the Britons and Scots, Frode ordered his men to scatter their gold across the fields to distract the enemy from combat

  "he assembled the soldiers, and ordered that they should abandon their chariots, fling away all their goods, and scatter everywhere over the fields the gold which they had about them"

• attestation: The Danish soldiers obeyed Frode's order and scattered their wealth across the fields before battle

  "the soldiers regarded the advice of their king rather than of their comrade, and thought more of the former than of the latter counsel"

• attestation: Frode marched through the forest between Scotland and Britain and routed the Scots, who fled upon seeing Danish armour

  "Frode traversed in a great march the forest which separates Scotland and Britain, and bade his soldiers arm. When the Scots beheld his line"

• attestation: Frode recovered the plunder he had scattered as a ruse, and the Britons paid for their greed with blood

  "he eagerly regained the plunder which he had cunningly sacrificed; and got back his wealth with the greater ease, that he had so tranquilly let it go"

• attestation: Frode attacked London and took it by feigning his own death; the governor Daleman accepted the Danish surrender and let them in

  "Frode attacked London, the most populous city of Britain; but the strength of its walls gave him no chance of capturing it. Therefore he reigned to be dead"

• attestation: Frode killed Hunding in a duel after being challenged at a feast hosted by Skat

  "a certain Hunding challenged him to fight. Then, though he had bent his mind to the joys of wassail, he had more delight in the prospect of a fray"

• attestation: Frode habitually sprinkled his food with powdered gold as protection against poisoners

  "Frode was wont to sprinkle his food with brayed and pounded atoms of gold, as a resource against the usual snares of poisoners"

• attestation: Frode died while attacking Ragnar King of Sweden, suffocated by the weight of his own armour and body heat

  "While he was attacking Ragnar, the King of Sweden, who had been falsely accused of treachery, he perished, not by the spears, but stifled in the weight of his arms and by the heat of his own body"

• relationship: Frode had three sons: Halfdan, Ro, and Skat, who all desired the throne

  "Frode left three sons, Halfdan, Ro, and Skat, who were equal in valour, and were seized with an equal desire for the throne"

The Danish History, > Book Four.

• attestation: Frode the Vigorous destroyed ten Norwegian captains and challenged King Froger, reputedly son of Odin, who was magically protected from all enemies except one who could pick up dust from beneath his feet

  "he was the son of Odin, and when he begged the immortal gods to grant him a boon, received the privilege that no man should conquer him, save he who at the time of the conflict could catch up in his hand the dust lying beneath Froger's feet"

• attestation: Frode tricked Froger into exchanging positions, then scooped dust from where Froger had stood and killed him

  "Frode caught up some dust from the ground whence Froger had gone, and thought that he had been granted an omen of victory"

The Danish History, > Book Five.

• attestation: Frode succeeded his father Fridleif as king of Denmark at the age of seven

  "After the death of Fridleif, his son FRODE, aged seven, was elected in his stead by the unanimous decision of the Danes"

• attestation: Guardians were appointed to govern during Frode's minority

  "they held an assembly first, and judged that the minority of the king should be taken in charge by guardians"

• attestation: Frode's comrades urged him to marry because they lacked women to mend their garments

  "the comrades of Frode, sadly lacking the help of women in the matter of the wear of their garments, inasmuch as they had no means of patching or of repairing rents, advised and urged the king to marry"

• attestation: The advisers recommended the daughter of the King of the Huns as a bride for Frode

  "when he carefully inquired of his advisers who would be a fit wife for him, they all praised the daughter of the King of the Huns beyond the rest"

• attestation: Frode initially declined the foreign match citing his father's advice against seeking alliances far afield

  "he replied that he had heard from his father that it was not expedient for kings to seek alliance far afield, or to demand love save from neighbours"

• attestation: Frode offered Gotwar a golden necklace with interlocking king-figure links as payment for serving as marriage envoy

  "proffering a golden necklace, promised it as the reward of her embassy. For the necklace had links consisting of studs, and figures of kings interspersed in bas-relief"

• attestation: The princess rejected Frode because he lacked honor and glory, valuing noble deeds above looks in a suitor

  "The princess said that she disdained Frode because he lacked honour and glory. For in days of old no men were thought fit for the hand of high-born women but those who had won some great prize of glory"

• attestation: Gotwar praised Frode's ambidexterity and skill as a swimmer and fighter to the princess

  "began to declare that Frode used his left hand as well as his right, and was a quick and skillful swimmer and fighter"

• attestation: The princess had been influenced by Gotwar's love-potion and expressed approval of Frode based on his lineage and future promise

  "She had already been drawn by the stealthy working of the draught to love her suitor, and answered that the promise of Frode, rather than his present renown, had made her expect much of his nature"

• attestation: Frode welcomed his bride and rewarded his father-in-law with gold and silver

  "Frode welcomed his bride most joyfully, and also bestowed the highest honours upon his future royal father-in-law; and when the marriage rites were over, dismissed him with a large gift of gold and silver"

• attestation: Three years of peace under Frode bred wantonness and criminal behavior among the courtiers

  "idleness brought wantonness among his courtiers, and peace begot lewdness, which they displayed in the most abominable crimes"

• attestation: The soldiers' unchecked license made Frode detested by both foreigners and his own people

  "This unbridled impudence of the soldiers ended by making the king detested, not only by foreigners, but even by his own people"

• attestation: Frode learned that Odd and his men had been killed though the perpetrator was unknown

  "Frode learnt that Odd and his men had gone down. For a widespread rumour of the massacre had got wind, though the author of the deed was unknown"

• attestation: Frode restrained Grep from military attack, arguing that caution should precede action

  "the king warned him that he should give his frenzy pause for counsel, that blind plans were commonly hurtful; that nothing could be done both cautiously and quickly at once"

• attestation: Frode left the queen's punishment to her own choice

  "doubting with what sentence he should punish the criminal, let the queen settle by her own choice the punishment which her crime deserved"

• attestation: Frode warned Erik that the striker sometimes has short joy of his stroke

  "I think it will happen to you according to the common saying, `that the striker sometimes has short joy of his stroke'"

• attestation: Frode taunted Erik with the proverb that he who fell on a hide deserves a hide

  "He who fell on a hide deserves a hide"

• attestation: Frode honored his pledge and gave Erik the maiden rather than break his word

  "The king saw his mistake in his promise, and gave him the maiden, being loth to undo his heedlessness by fickleness"

• attestation: Frode attempted to kill Erik by throwing a dagger at him but Gunwar warned Erik with a veiled saying

  "Frode intended to pierce Erik by throwing a dagger at him. But Gunwar knew her brother's purpose, and said, in order to warn her betrothed of his peril, that no man could be wise who took no forethought for himself"

• attestation: Frode gave Erik both the knife and its sheath, mollified by Erik's witty reframing of the attack as a gift

  "the king at once took the sheath from his girdle and gave it to him, being forced to abate his hatred by the self-control of his foe"

• attestation: Frode pursued Erik in his sabotaged ships which broke apart and sank, leaving Frode swimming in armor

  "The king prepared to give them chase with his mutilated ships, but soon the waves broke through; and though he was very heavily laden with his armour, he began to swim off"

• attestation: Frode delivered a despairing speech wishing to die rather than live with the shame of being captured

  "By this light, which I am loth to look on, by this heaven which I behold and drink in with little joy, I beseech and conjure you not to persuade me to use either any more"

• attestation: Frode lamented that he, conqueror of kings, had been defeated by a low-born man

  "I was all the more unhappy, because I had never been beaten by men of note, and now I let a low-born man defeat me"

• attestation: Frode declared he had lost sister, realm, treasure, and renown to Erik

  "I have lost sister, realm, treasure, household gear, and, what is greater than them all, renown"

• attestation: Frode argued that a patched reputation can never match an unimpaired one

  "Nothing that is patched up can have the lustre of the unimpaired, and rumour will recount for ages that Frode was taken captive"

• attestation: Frode admitted he would not have shown mercy had positions been reversed, confessing guilt in intention

  "I own that if I had happened to have you in my power as ye now have me, I should have paid no heed to compassion"

• attestation: Frode preferred death by his own hand if denied death by the sword

  "If ye refuse me death by the sword I will take care to kill myself with my own hand"

• attribution: Frode valued glory above all other possessions including realm and treasure

  "it is right that he should care for nothing so much as glory. If he want that, then take it that he lacks all else. For nothing about a king is more on men's lips than his repute"

• attestation: Erik argued that fortune had only tested Frode, not overthrown him

  "Fortune has tried thee to find out with what spirit thou wouldst meet adversity. Destiny has proved thee, not brought thee low"

• attestation: Frode gave Erik his sister Gunwar in marriage along with command over a hundred men

  "he had an assembly summoned, to which he called Erik, and under the pledge of betrothal gave him his sister and command over a hundred men"

• attestation: Frode desired to divorce Hanund and marry the daughter of Gotar instead

  "the queen would be a weariness to him, and that the daughter of Gotar had taken his liking. He must, therefore, have a fresh embassy"

• attestation: Frode mustered a massive fleet from the Danes and neighboring peoples for an expedition into Sclavia

  "Frode, in order to cross on an expedition into Sclavia, had mustered a mighty fleet from the Danes, as well as from neighbouring peoples"

• attestation: The smallest boat in Frode's fleet could carry twelve sailors

  "The smallest boat of this fleet could carry twelve sailors, and be rowed by as many oars"

• attestation: Frode argued that a successful first campaign would augur well for all subsequent wars

  "the man that conducted his first campaign successfully might hope for as good fortune in the rest"

• attestation: Frode tricked captured Slavs into identifying their criminals by promising rewards for thieves and plunderers

  "he proclaimed by a herald that any man among them who had been trained to theft or plunder should be speedily given up; promising that he would reward the character of such men with the highest honours"

• attestation: Frode had the self-confessed criminals executed by their own countrymen on gallows

  "straightway he ordered the executioners to seize them, and had them fixed upon the highest gallows by the hand of their own countrymen"

• attestation: Frode enacted a law code after his victory, portions of which remained in use in Saxo's time

  "resolved to remodel his army by some new laws, some of which are retained by present usage, while others men have chosen to abolish for new ones"

• attestation: Frode decreed that vanguard soldiers received larger spoil shares and generals received all captured gold

  "he decreed, when the spoil was divided, that each of the vanguard should receive a greater share than the rest of the soldiery: while he granted all gold that was taken to the generals"

• attestation: Frode forbade locking household goods, with the king's treasury compensating any losses at double value

  "he forbade that anyone should venture to lock up his household goods, as he would receive double the value of any losses from the treasury of the king"

• attestation: Frode granted women free choice in marriage to correct the abuses of Grep's era

  "he wished to amend by good measures any corruption caused by the evil practices of Grep; and therefore granted women free choice in marriage, so that there might be no compulsory wedlock"

• attestation: Frode ordained that men must marry any woman they had seduced

  "He also imposed on men the statute that they must marry any woman whom they had seduced"

• attestation: Frode decreed that all disputes should be settled by combat rather than words

  "he decided that any quarrel whatsoever should be decided by the sword, thinking a combat of weapons more honourable than one of words"

• attestation: Frode passed three years in complete peace after Gotar's defeat

  "After these exploits Frode passed three years in complete and tranquil peace"

• attestation: Frode and Erik subdued the islands between Denmark and the East before engaging the main enemy fleet

  "they fought and subdued the islands lying between Denmark and the East"

• attestation: After the battle, floating corpses and debris choked the sea so thickly that Frode's ships could barely navigate

  "the crowds of dead bodies, and likewise the fragments of shields and spears, bestrewed the entire gulf of the sea"

• attestation: Frode enacted funeral laws requiring fallen fathers of families to be buried with horse, arms, and decorations

  "any father of a family who had fallen in that war should be buried with his horse and all his arms and decorations"

• attestation: Frode ordered Russians to imitate Danish warfare and to purchase wives rather than take them freely

  "He also ordered the Russians to conduct their warfare in imitation of the Danes, and never to marry a wife without buying her"

• attestation: Frode set military pay rates: three marks of silver for native housecarls, two for common soldiers, one for retired privates

  "each native soldier and housecarl should be presented in the winter season with three marks of silver, a common or hired soldier with two, a private soldier who had finished his service with only one"

• attestation: Thirty kings followed Frode as friends or vassals

  "Thirty kings followed Frode, and were his friends or vassals"

• attestation: Twenty additional kingdoms were added to Frode's domain, giving him fifty vassal kings total

  "they had also added twenty kingdoms to the sway of Frode, whose kings, added to the thirty named before, fought on the side of the Danes"

• attestation: 170 kings surrendered to Frode in the war against the Huns

  "In that war 170 kings, who were either Huns or fighting amongst the Huns, surrendered to the king"

• attestation: Frode's realm stretched from Russia in the east to the Rhine in the west

  "the realms of Frode embraced Russia on the east, and on the west were bounded by the Rhine"

• attestation: Frode's peace was broken by this internal feud, the first violation of the king's law by his own people

  "thus the peace instituted by Frode was disturbed by intestine war, and natives were the first to disobey the king's law"

• attestation: Frode made Erik king of the conquered Swedish territories and granted him Finland and Esthonia under tribute

  "Frode straightway made him king of the nations he had subdued, and also granted to him Helsingland with the two Laplands, Finland and Esthonia, under a yearly tribute"

• attestation: Frode attacked Norway with his fleet while Erik led the land force

  "Frode gathered together a host of all his subject nations, and attacked Norway with his fleet, Erik being bidden to lead the land force"

• attestation: Frode brought his fleet to Halogaland and had his soldiers pile stones to count their number, one stone per man

  "he ordered his soldiers to pile up a hill, one stone being cast upon the heap for each man. The enemy also pursued the same method of numbering their host"

• attestation: Frode hung gold bracelets on Frode's Rock and in the district of Wik as tests of public honesty

  "he hung one bracelet on a crag which is called Frode's Rock, and another in the district of Wik"

• attestation: Frode decreed free use of oars for seafarers and free use of the nearest horse for river-crossing

  "seafarers should freely use oars wherever they found them; while to those who wished to cross a river he granted free use of the horse which they found nearest to the ford"

• attestation: Frode ordered that no household goods be locked, with triple restitution for losses from the king

  "no man should hold his house or his coffer under lock and key, or should keep anything guarded by bolts, promising that all losses should be made good threefold"

• attestation: Frode passed seven years of peace during which he fathered a son Alf and a daughter Eyfura

  "Here he passed seven most happy years of peace, begetting a son Alf and a daughter Eyfura"

• attestation: Frode accepted Arngrim as son-in-law after Erik praised his conquest of the northernmost lands

  "Frode, considering his splendid deserts, thought it was not amiss to take for a son-in-law a man who had won wide-resounding fame"

• attestation: Frode sailed to Britain with a vast fleet; the British king affected surrender to avoid combat

  "he sailed to Britain with numberless ships. But the king of that island, perceiving that he was unequal in force (for the ships seemed to cover the sea), went to Frode, affecting to surrender"

• attestation: Frode suspected treachery in the British king's overly eager submission and invitation to a feast

  "his suspicions of treachery were kept by so ready and unconstrained a promise of everything, so speedy a surrender of the enemy before fighting"

• attestation: The British king increased the guest count from 1,200 to 2,400 to encourage Frode's attendance

  "he again approached Frode, and invited him to the banquet with 2,400 men; having before bidden him to come to the feast with 1,200 nobles"

• attestation: Frode's scouts discovered a hidden British armed camp in the forest with tents covered in dark pitch-colored coverings

  "they went into the forest, and, coming upon the array of an armed encampment belonging to the forces of the Britons, they halted in doubt"

• attestation: Frode arranged a counter-ambush and set a trumpet signal for his hidden forces to come to his aid

  "he arranged a counter-ambuscade with a strong force of nobles, that he might not go heedlessly to the banquet"

• attestation: Frode sounded the trumpet to summon his ambush force, who destroyed the King of the Britons and his army

  "Then Frode bade the trumpet strike in, to summon the band that had been posted in ambush; and these, roused by the note of the clanging bugle, caught the enemy in their own trap"

• attestation: Frode defeated Kerwil (Cearbal), leader of the Irish, in battle

  "Frode was wary and not rash in his pursuit of the foe who fled so treacherously, and he routed Kerwil (Cearbal), the leader of the nation, in battle"

• attestation: Frode distributed all captured booty among his soldiers, keeping nothing for himself

  "he distributed among his soldiers the booty he had won, to show himself free from all covetousness and excessive love of wealth, and only ambitious to gain honour"

• attestation: After conquering Britain and Ireland, Frode returned to Denmark and enjoyed thirty years of peace

  "After the triumphs in Britain and the spoiling of the Irish they went back to Denmark; and for thirty years there was a pause from all warfare"

• attestation: Frode placed a golden bracelet on the Jutland highways as a test of public honesty, as he had done before in Wik

  "he ordered that in Jutland, the chief district of his realm, a golden bracelet, very heavy, should be set up on the highways (as he had done before in the district of Wik)"

• attestation: Frode's authority was so great that exposed gold went untouched as if secured by locks

  "so potent was the majesty of Frode, that it guarded even gold that was thus exposed to pillage, as though it were fast with bolts and bars"

• attribution: Saxo connected Frode's universal peace with the birth of Christ, suggesting divine providence shared the timing

  "the Author of our general salvation, coming to the earth in order to save mortals, bore to put on the garb of mortality; at which time the fires of war were quenched"

• attestation: A sorceress encouraged her son to steal Frode's exposed bracelet, promising impunity because the king was near death

  "a certain matron, skilled in sorcery, who trusted in her art more than she feared the severity of the king, tempted the covetousness of her son to make a secret effort for the prize"

• attestation: The shape-shifted sea-cow charged and gored the aged Frode with its tusk, killing him

  "the mother, who had taken the shape of the larger beast, charged at the king with outstretched tusk, and pierced one of his sides. The wound killed him"

• attestation: Frode's nobles embalmed his body and concealed his death for three years to preserve the empire

  "The nobles, when he had been disembowelled, had his body kept embalmed for three years, for they feared the provinces would rise if the king's end were published"

• attestation: Frode's corpse was carried about in a royal carriage as if he were a living infirm king to maintain the pretense

  "the lifeless corpse was carried away by them in such a way that it seemed to be taken, not in a funeral bier, but in a royal carriage, as if it were a due and proper tribute from the soldiers to an infirm old man"

• attestation: Frode was eventually buried in a barrow near Waere, a bridge of Zealand

  "they buried his body with a royal funeral in a barrow near Waere, a bridge of Zealand"

The Danish History, > Book Six.

• attestation: After Frode's death, the Danes wrongly believed his son Fridleif, who was being raised in Russia, had perished

  "After the death of Frode, the Danes wrongly supposed that Fridleif, who was being reared in Russia, had perished"

• attestation: After Fridleif's death, the twelve-year-old Frode defeated the Saxon kings Swerting and Hanef who had rebelled

  "after his father's death, while he was in his twelfth year, Swerting and Hanef, the kings of Saxony, disowned his sway, and tried to rebel openly. He overcame them in battle"

• attestation: Frode gave Starkad a ship and charged him with guarding the sea as a rover

  "he was at last given a noble vessel, and bidden to ply the calling of a rover, with the charge of guarding the sea"

• attestation: Hanef rebelled against the tribute and was killed by Frode near the village later named Hanover after him

  "Frode took his forces over the Elbe, and killed him near the village of Hanofra (Hanover), so named after Hanef"

• attestation: Starkad contrasts current luxury with Frode's habits, claiming Frode never ate fowl or picked at bird meat

  "I do not remember the Great Frode putting his hand to the sinews of birds, or tearing the rump of a cooked fowl with crooked thumb."

• attestation: Starkad declares the fates gave Frode an offspring born under adverse gods, enslaved by crime and ignoble lust

  "The fates have given Frode an offspring born into the world when gods were adverse, whose desires have been enthralled by crime and ignoble lust."

• attestation: Seven of Swerting's kin were slain in the feast as vengeance for Frode's single murder

  "we have spent seven deaths on the vengeance of one"

The Danish History, > Book Seven.

• attestation: Frode's naval campaigns failed because his sailors were newly married and preferred staying home

  "His calamity was due to his sailors being newly married, and preferring nuptial joys at home to the toils of foreign warfare."

• attestation: Frode ordered Harald secretly murdered out of jealousy, then killed the assassin to silence him

  "Frode, judging that his brother's glory was a disgrace to himself and brought him into contempt, ordered one of his household to put him to death secretly"

• attestation: Frode consulted a divination woman who identified Ragnar as the boys' guardian and revealed their dog-name disguise through spells

  "he went and inquired of a woman skilled in divination where they were hid."

• attestation: Harald's sons feigned madness when Frode attacked, causing him to abandon his assault out of shame at striking madmen

  "Harald's sons had no help for it but to feign madness. For when they found themselves suddenly attacked, they began to behave like maniacs"

• attestation: Harald's sons burned Frode to death by attacking his palace, crushing the queen with stones, and forcing Frode into a cave where he suffocated from smoke

  "they attacked the palace, and first crushing the queen with a mass of stones and then, having set fire to the house, they forced Frode to crawl into a narrow cave"

• attestation: Frode's death by suffocation in a smoke-filled tunnel is characterized as fitting punishment for a fratricide

  "Here he lurked in hiding and perished, stifled by the reek and smoke."