



Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by the Web Archive




Source: http://www.archive.org/details/sagahalfredsigs00veitgoog






                      SAGA OF HALFRED THE SIGSKALD






                                  SAGA

                                   OF

                          HALFRED THE SIGSKALD


                     _A Northern Tale of the Tenth_
                               _Century_



                                   BY
                              FELIX DAHN.



                   TRANSLATED BY SOPHIE F. E. VEITCH.



                           ALEXANDER GARDNER,
                PAISLEY; AND 12 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
                                 1886.






                               CONTENTS.


                                                              PAGE

  CHAPTER I.,
  CHAPTER II.,
  CHAPTER III.,
  CHAPTER IV.,
  CHAPTER V.,
  CHAPTER VI.,
  CHAPTER VII.,
  CHAPTER VIII.,
  CHAPTER IX.,
  CHAPTER X.,
  CHAPTER XI.,
  CHAPTER XII.,
  CHAPTER XIII.,
  CHAPTER XIV.,
  CHAPTER XV.,
  CHAPTER XVI.,
  CHAPTER XVII.,
  CHAPTER XVIII.,
  CHAPITER XIX.,
  POSTSCRIPT,






                     Saga of Halfred the Sigskald.




                               CHAPTER I.


Nigh upon fifty winters ago, there was growing up in the North a boy
named Halfred. In Iceland, on the Hamund Fjord, stood the splendid hall
of his father, Hamund.

At that time, so the heathen people believe, elves and goblins still
moved about freely among the Northern nations. And many say that an
elf, who had been friendly to the powerful Hamund, drew near to the
shield cradle of the boy Halfred, and for his first food laid wild
honey upon his lips, and said--

           "Victory shall be thine in harping--
            Victory shall be thine in singing--
            Sigskald shall all nations name thee."

But this is a mere idle tale of the heathen people.

And Halfred grew, and was strong and beautiful. He sat often alone on
the cliffs, and listened how the wind played in rifts in the crags, and
he would fain have tuned his harp to the same strain, and because he
could not do it he was filled with fury.

And when this fury swept over his forehead the veins in his temples
swelled, and there came a red darkness before his