Denmark -- History -- To 1241; Folklore -- Scandinavia
It chanced that in these days Arngrim, a champion of Sweden, who had
challenged, attacked, and slain Skalk the Skanian because he had once
robbed him of a vessel, came to Frode. Elated beyond measure with his
deed, he ventured to sue for Frode's daughter; but, finding the king
deaf to him, he asked Erik, who was ruling Sweden, to help him. 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, since they alone seemed to repudiate the Danish rule, while all
men else submitted. Without delay he led his army to that country.
Now, the Finns are the uttermost peoples of the North, who have taken a
portion of the world that is barely habitable to till and dwell in. They
are very keen spearmen, and no nation has a readier skill in throwing
the javelin. They fight with large, broad arrows; they are addicted to
the study of spells; they are skilled hunters. Their habitation is not
fixed, and their dwellings are migratory; they pitch and settle wherever
they have caught game. Riding on curved boards (skees or snow-skates),
they run over ridges thick with snow. These men Arngrim attacked, in
order to win renown, and he crushed them. They fought with ill success;
but, as they were scattering in flight, they cast three pebbles behind
them, which they caused to appear to the eyes of the enemy like three
mountains. Arngrim's eyes were dazzled and deluded, and he called back
his men from the pursuit of the enemy, fancying that he was checked by a
barrier of mighty rocks. Again, when they engaged and were beaten on
the morrow, the Finns cast snow upon the ground and made it look like
a mighty river. So the Swedes, whose eyes were utterly deluded,
were deceived by their misjudgment, for it seemed the roaring of
an extraordinary mass of waters. Thus, the conqueror dreading the
unsubstantial phantom of the waters, the Finns managed to escape. They
renewed the war again on the third day; but there was no effective
means of escape left any longer, for when they saw that their lines were
falling back, they surrendered to the conqueror. Arngrim imposed on them
the following terms of tribute: that the number of the Finns should be
counted, and that, after the lapse of (every) three years, every ten of
them should pay a carriage-full of deer-skins by way of assessment. Then
he challenged and slew in single combat Egther, the captain of the men
of Permland, imposing on the men of Permland the condition that each of
them should pay one skin. Enriched with these spoils and trophies,
he returned to Erik, who went with him into Denmark, and poured loud
praises of the young warrior into the ear of Frode, declaring that he
who had added the ends of the world to his realms deserved his daughter.
Then 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 by such
a roll of noble deeds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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