The Gesta Danorum (Books I-IX) on Swanhwid
The Danish History, > Book Two
relationship: Swanhwid was a daughter of Hadding who journeyed to Sweden with her sisters to rescue the noble youths
"Swanhwid, daughter of Hadding, wished to arrest by woman's wit the ruin of natures so noble; and taking her sisters to serve as retinue, journeyed to Sweden"
attribution: Swanhwid warned her sisters of supernatural monsters, ghosts, fauns, satyrs, and furies blocking the path through the nighttime fields
"Monsters I behold taking swift leaps and flinging themselves over the night places. The demon is at war, and the unholy throng, devoted to the mischievous fray, battles in the mid-thoroughfare"
attestation: Swanhwid recognized Ragnar's royal blood from his comely features despite his servile disguise
"Swanhwid gazed intently, and surveying his features, which were very comely, admired them ardently"
attribution: Swanhwid identified Ragnar as being of royal blood by reading nobility in his eyes and features
"The radiant flashing of thine eyes is eloquent that thou art of kingly and not of servile stock. Beauty announces blood, and loveliness of soul glitters in the flash of the eyes"
attestation: Swanhwid revealed her true beauty by dispelling the mist that shrouded her face
"Swanhwid marvelled at the young man's steadfastness, and cast off the cloud of mist which overshadowed her, dispelling the darkness which shrouded her face"
attestation: Swanhwid pledged herself to Ragnar and gave him a magical sword capable of diverse kinds of battle
"promising that she would give him a sword fitted for diver's kinds of battle, she revealed the marvellous maiden beauty of her lustrous limbs. Thus was the youth kindled, and she plighted her troth with him"
attestation: Swanhwid fought monsters all night and at dawn found the semblance of Thorhild among the fallen phantom corpses
"she passed all the night in combat against the foulest throngs of monsters; and at return of daybreak she perceived fallen all over the fields diverse shapes of phantoms"
attestation: Swanhwid burned the phantom corpses on a pyre and won the Swedish throne for Ragnar, whom she married
"she won the throne of Sweden for Ragnar, and Ragnar for her husband"
attestation: Swanhwid reminded Frode he had given her freedom to marry as she chose before the Russian war, and persuaded him to make peace with Ragnar
"she reminded her brother of the freedom he had given her long since, and went on to ask him that he should allow her full enjoyment of the husband she had taken"