Denmark -- History -- To 1241; Folklore -- Scandinavia
When Ring heard that Harald was dead, he gave the signal to his men to
break up their line and cease fighting. Then under cover of truce he
made treaty with the enemy, telling them that it was vain to prolong the
fray without their captain. Next he told the Swedes to look everywhere
among the confused piles of carcases for the body of Harald, that the
corpse of the king might not wrongfully lack its due rights. So the
populace set eagerly to the task of turning over the bodies of the
slain, and over this work half the day was spent. At last the body was
found with the club, and he thought that propitiation should be made to
the shade of Harald. So he harnessed the horse on which he rode to the
chariot of the king, decked it honourably with a golden saddle, and
hallowed it in his honour. Then he proclaimed his vows, and added his
prayer that Harald would ride on this and outstrip those who shared his
death in their journey to Tartarus; and that he would pray Pluto, the
lord of Orcus, to grant a calm abode there for friend and foe. Then he
raised a pyre, and bade the Danes fling on the gilded chariot of their
king as fuel to the fire. And while the flames were burning the body
cast upon them, he went round the mourning nobles and earnestly charged
them that they should freely give arms, gold, and every precious thing
to feed the pyre in honour of so great a king, who had deserved so nobly
of them all. He also ordered that the ashes of his body, when it was
quite burnt, should be transferred to an urn, taken to Leire, and there,
together with the horse and armour, receive a royal funeral. By paying
these due rites of honour to his uncle's shade, he won the favour of the
Danes, and turned the hate of his enemies into goodwill. Then the Danes
besought him to appoint Hetha over the remainder of the realm; but, that
the fallen strength of the enemy might not suddenly rally, he severed
Skaane from the mass of Denmark, and put it separately under the
governorship of Ole, ordering that only Zealand and the other lands
of the realm should be subject to Hetha. Thus the changes of fortune
brought the empire of Denmark under the Swedish rule. So ended the
Bravic war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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