Introduction: there are three written versions of Hervar's and king Heidrek's saga; one from the 14th century, one from the 15th century (which is believed to be based on the oldest versions of the saga), and one from the 17th century.
The saga gives an interesting view on the old heathen culture and what makes it even more special is that the main character is a strong woman, which is a good example of the emancipation in Germanic society.
The following translation of the saga has been written by Stian Farstad and is a simplified version of the Hervarar saga ok Heidreks konungs supplemented with some information from the Hlöðskviða, although he made it a bit easier to read he also tried to keep the translation as close to the original text as possible, I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.
Original title: Hervarar saga ok Heidreks konungs
Translated by Stian Farstad.
It was said that king Svarvlarme in Garðariki (1) was the grandson of Óðinn. One time he was hunting, he rode after a deer and got lost. Near a big stone he saw two dwarves. With the help of runes he bound spells on them and swung his sword over them. The dwarves called themselves Durin and Dvalin and asked to buy themselves free. Svarvlame asked them to smith a sword in return. It should neither rust nor brake, it should be able to cut through stone and iron and grant victory each time it was used.
The dwarves promised him this. At the time they had promised they met Svarvlame near the stone and had with them the most beautiful and best sword anyone had ever seen. Then they disappeared into the stone again, first Durin and then Dvalin. Dvalin turned against the king and put a curse on the sword. A niding's deed (2) would be done three times with the sword. Each time it was drawn, it would be a mans bane. One day also the king himself would fall for it. The king swung his sword after the dwarf, but he disappeared. The sword only cut deep into the stone. Then the king gave the sword the name Tyrving. It gave him victory in many battles.
(1) Garðariki is the Old Norse name for Russia.
(2) a "niding's deed" is a cowardice act.
One day king Svarvlame met the bersherk (3) Arngrim from Bolm in battle. The king stuck his sword through the bersherks shield, but the edge got stuck in the ground. Before the king managed to pull it up again, Arngrim chopped off his hand. He took the sword from the king and killed him with it. Arngrim took many riches.
Svarvlamis daughter, Eyfura, was taken home to Bolm by him where he had a wedding with her. Together they got 12 sons, all wild bersherks. They often went in viking (4) and were known for their wildness, it were few that dared to stand in their way. The oldest one was named Angantyr and the second oldest Hjorvard.
(3) a bersherk is the same as a berserker.
(4) "going in viking" is an Old Norse expression for undertaking a plunder-raid.
During one Jól (5) the brothers made promises by the Bragi glass (6), after an old costum. Hjorvarð swore that he would marry the Swedish king Yngve's (7) beautiful daughter Ingeborg. The brothers went to Uppsala (in Sweden) and Hjorvarð went to the king with his message. King Yngve (Frey) didn't know what to answer to the bersherk. The king's hirdman (8) Hjalmar reminded the king that he (Hjalmar) had helped the king with expanding and defending the borders of the kingdom. Hjalmar also asked for the kingsdaughter and claimed it was better that she was married to a heatherly giant than with a rumoured bersherk. King Yngve asked Ingeborg to choose herself, and she chose Hjalmar without hesitating. Then Hjorvarð challenged Hjalmar to holmgang (9) on the island of Samsey (Samsø in Denmark) and said that he should be called everyman's niding if he did not show up. Then the bersherks went back home to Bolm.
(5) Jól is the Germanic solstice celebration that coincided with modern Christmas.
(6) the Bragi glass is a special cup dedicated to the god Bragi, it played an important role in swearing oaths.
(7) Yngve is an Old Norse name for the god Ingwaz/Frey.
(8) a "hirdman" is a member of the king's bodyguard.
(9) a holmgang is a rule-bound duel that was fought between two rivals.
Angantyr (the oldest brother of Hjorvarð) married Svava, the daugther of his father's friend earl Bjartmar. After the wedding the brothers went to Samsey. When they arrived at the island the bersherks rage came over them. They did as bersherks used to, and directed their fury on the trees around them. Angantyr had the sword Tyrving with him. Hjalmar had also arrived at Samsey, he had two ships with him and resided on the other side of the island. He went a shore with his friend Orvar Odd(edge), but left his men on the ships.
The Bershersks found Hjalmar's ship while he was ashore searching for them. They attacked and killed all of his men, two hundred fourty (120x2) warriors.
When the bersherks went a shore on the island again everybody except Angantyr believed that Hjalmar was amongst those who had had fallen in the battle. Hjalmar and Odd saw the bloody bersherks come a shore and didn't expect to survive. But they would not flee. When they saw that Angantyr's sword glew, they knew it was Tyrving. Odd had a shirt that made him invulnerable, and because of that he wanted to go against Angantyr (fight him). But Hjalmar him self wanted to fight with the leader of the bersherks. While he (Hjalmar) fought with Angantyr, Odd fought with his (Angantyr's) eleven brothers. Each of them met him alone, man against man. First came Hjorvarð and it didn't last long before he fell. The others fell in turn, Odd won over them all. When he came to the place where Angantyr and Hjalmar had fought, he found Hjalmar badly wounded. He had killed Angantyr and asked Odd to give the golden ring he wore around his arm to Ingeborg. Then he died.
Odd woke over the dead in the night. The day thereafter he asked the farmers on the island to rise grave haugs (10), on there he buried the bersherks and their weapons (11). Hjalmar's corpse he brought with him on the ship and sailed back home. When he got home and told about the battle Ingeborg's heart crushed of sorrow (she died from grief). She was buried in the same haug as Hjalmar.
(10) a haug is a gravemound.
(11) burying a deceased with his weapons is a heathen custom, it was believed that one needed those weapons in the afterlife.
Svava was expecting children (she was pregnant of Angantyr) and gave birth to a beautiful and large girl. She was in deep sorrow about the loss of Angantyr. Many said she should set out the new born baby (12), but her father, earl Bjartmar, wanted it to live.
He believed that Svava's and Angantyr's daugther would later be the mother of strong men. the child was named Hervor and grew up with earl Bjartmar.
(12) instead of performing an abortion (which was difficult and dangerous in that time) a mother often chose to leave a child somewhere outside to expose it to the elements.
Hervor grew up and was soon as big and strong as a man. She liked most to train with weapons and did more harm than good. One time Bjartmar's men wanted to capture her, because she killed and plundered people, but she killed several of them. One day she messed with a træll (13), who told her that she had a swineguarder of a father. Hervor went to Bjartmar who told her that Angantyr was her father. When she heard this she went to Samsey at once.
(13) a "træll" or "thrall" is a slave.
Hervor disguised herself as a man and called herself Hervarð. Then she joined with a flock of vikings and became their leader. They travelled around working for the army and at the end of that they came to Samsey. Hervor wanted to go ashore but the men would not follow her because they were afraid of the haugs there at Samsey. Hervor didn't gave up but rowed ashore alone. She reached the beach in the sunset, and over the haugs there was a fire burning. She went towards the light and arrived at the haugs of the bersherks.
There she found the grave of her father and asked him to wake up. She demanded the sword Tyrving that lay there with him. He warned her and asked her to leave the sword because it would be a curse on her family. But hervor didn't stop. Then the haug opened itself and it lit up as though it were on fire. The sword was thrown out to her, and then it closed itself again. She grabbed it and went back to the beach.
But the men of Hervor had fled when they say the glowing flames on the island. She went to the old king Gudmund on the Glasvang (14). Here she told him she was a man. One time Hervor came for helping the king to win a game he was playing, Tyrving lay on her stool.
One of the king's men drew the sword. Everybody was astonished by the glowing kling and its gilded hilt.
When Hervor saw what happened, she went over to the man, took the sword away from him, and killed him.
The men wanted to seize her, but the king forbade them this. He suspected that she was a women, and it would cost them many more men to revenge the one that had fallen.
(14) because her men were gone she couldn't leave the island and stayed with king Gudmund for some time.
Hervor went home to earl Bjartmar. Soon she started to sew and and act as a women should do. After a while she got word on her to be a beautiful and mild woman. Hovund, king Gudmund's son, asked for her hand and married her. He got a kingsname and kingdom after his father.
Hervor and Hovund got the two sons Angantyr and Heidrek. Angantyr reminded of his father, and had a friendly mind. Heidrek was evilminded and liked his mother the most. He grew up with the wise Gissur and stayed there until he was 18 years old. One time king Hovund held a gild (meeting) without asking Heidrek to come. Heidrek showed up anyway and was welcomed by his mother and brother, who asked him to sit next to them, even though the king didn't welcome him.
King hovund went to bed early, but the others were sitting long over their glasses (they drank for a long time). The evening ended with Heidrek starting a fight that ended in a man's death.
The day thereafter Heidrek was convicted as "fridlaus" (peaceless) by the king. He refused to bend himself for (give in to) Hervor's begging to save her son, but he agreed to give him some living-rules (rules to live by) on the way. he had no faith that this would help the son; but let Hervor give him them:
Never help a man who betrayed his master.
Never give a man peace when he murdered his friend.
Do not let your wife visit her relatives too often, even though she asks for it.
Never reveal your inner thoughts to your temptress.
Do not ride your best horse when you are in a hurry.
Take never a better man's son as foster son.
Never brake the promises of peace you have once given.
Never have to many trælls in your housing.
Heidrek said that these were evil advices that the king had given him. In secret Hervor gave him the sword Tyrving, and Angantyr followed him a bit on the way.
When they took farwell with each other, Heidrek wanted to look at the sword and drew it. The he was forced to give his brother his banesore (kill him). this was the first niding's deed of Tyrving.
The king had deep sorrows over the loss of Angantyr. he sent men to find Heidrek, but they didn't find him. Heidrek wandered along the roads. One day he met a crew who had a chained man with them. the man would die because he had betrayed his master. Heidrek remembered his fathers advice, and bought him free and let him go. After this he met some other men who had a murderer with them, who was going to be killed. Heidrek bought him free too.
Then heidrek came to king Harald in Hreiðgautaland (15), and he went in his service. Here he won the friendship of the king and got his daughter Helga and half the kingdom. Heidrek and Helga got a son named Angantyr. Soon it became an unyear (bad year) and need came to the kingdom. The goði's and gydja's (heathen priests) said that the gods demanded one of the most noble yndling's (favourite/popular person) in the country as a sacrifice. The choice was between Angantyr (the son of Heidrek and Helga) and the old king's young son, Halvdan. King Harald claimed it had to be Angantyr who was the most noble one, while Heidrek claimed it was Halvdan. On the þing (the heathen court) a descision would be taken, but no one would stand forth and say their opinion. Then one person decided that king Hovund, Heidrek's father, should judge in the case.
Heidrek seeked his father, but when king Hovund saw his son, he wanted to kill him. But Hervor managed to make peace between father and son.
King Hovund declared that Angantyr was the most noble of the yndling's in Hreiðgautaland. He also told Heidrek to seek a reimbursement, since he was sacrificing his son for allsbest. He should also demand half of Harald's men for this case. They should swear loyality to Heidrek.
Harald called together a þing, and everything went as king Hovund had said. When half of Harald's men had sworn and taken oath on loyality to Heidrek, Heidrek spoke, and he said that he believed that Óðinn would be satisfied if he got both Harald and his son instead. Then he attacked Harald, and killed both him and his son. This was the second niding's deed of Tyrving.
(15) Hreiðgautaland, wich means "Nest of the Goths - land", was a country in what is now northern Poland that was settled mostly by Swedes.
Heidrek conquered the whole kingdom and become a mighty king, but Helga hung herself when she heard about the treason commited by her husband.
Later Heidrek defeated the Hunnic king Humle (Bumblebee).
He won great riches and brought Humle's daughter Sifka home with him. After a while she was going to give birth to a child, but then he send her home again.
There she gave birth to a son named Hlod. The boy grew up with his grandfather Humle, who had saved his life by fleeing from Heidrek.
Later Heidrek married Olof. She was daughter of king Åke in Sachsen (Saxony) and often asked to go home to her parents. Heidrek didn't want to follow in his fathers footsteps so, and let her do so. When she traveled she always had Angantyr with him.
At night Heidrek came to Åke's farm as a surprise, he found Olof in bed with another man, and Angantyr slept in a bed in the same room as them. Heidrek didn't wake them, but he cut off a piece of the mans yellow hair. Then he took the son with him and left as unseen as he had come.
When Olof woke up the next day and saw that Angantyr was missing, she got both sad and scared. She buried a dog and said that Angantyr were dead.
When Heidrek arrived at the king's farm shortly thereafter, he asked for his son. Olof showed him the grave, but Heidrek ordered it to be opened. When they saw the dead dog, be brought forth Angantyr. Then he told how the queen had betrayed him. The yellow-haired man was found in the kitchen. He was one of the trælls and had a tie around his head to hide his hair, but when he removed it, everybody could see that the hair piece Heidrek had matched. Heidrek satisfied with only chasing the træll out of the country and by leaving the queen. Then he brought Angantyr with him and traveled back to his own kingdom.
When he did armywork in Finland, he found a girl named Sifka, the same as Humle's daughter, and he brought her with him home. At this time king Rollaug ruled Garðariki. He was both more powerful and higher acknowledged than Heidrek. His son Herlaug was ten years old, while the daughter Hergerd was older.
In a guild by king Rollaug Heidrek saw the children. He asked Rollaug to raise Herlaug (16), and it went so that he brought him with him home. When he went out in war, he always brought Sifka and Herlaug with him. Five years later he came back to Rollaug, and the king held a party for him. Heidrek let two third of his men wait in the forest near the ships.
He wanted to test the loyalty of Sifka. In secret he sent Herlaug away. He pretended that he was very upset, and he told her that he had killed Herlaug while they were on hunt, he said, forced by the curse of the sword Tyrving.
Sifka promised him silence, but went straight to the queen and told what she had heard. The king commanded that the men who had followed Heidrek to the royal farm were to be killed, and soon thereafter Heidrek was seized. But the men who chained him were the ones Heidrek had bought free earlier. King Rollaug wanted to burn Heidrek on a bonfire, but the men who had waited in the forest near the ships, ran to them and freed him.
Then Heidrek gathered an large army and went against Rollaug, who found out that the son lived and wanted to make peace. Later Heidrek got to marry his daugther who had the name Hervor after her dead grandmother. She was raised by earl Ormar. After this Heidrek lived in peace.
(16) it was a custom among Germanic nobles to raise eachother's children to increase their friendly relationships with eachother.
The mighty chief Gest ("guest") refused to pay taxes to Heidrek. Heidrek therefor sent a bid on Gest, and demanded that the þing and judges would judge in this case. But Gest bloted (made an offering) to Óðinn for help. When the evening came, there was knocking on the door. Outside stood a stranger who also called himself Gest. He promised to go to the king and solve the problem for him. Then they swapped appearances. The stranger travelled to the king, who thought that he had the right man in front of him. He wanted to judge at once, but Heidrek's law said that the man who was smarter than the king should go free of punishment, and when Gest asked, the king promised him that he would let him go if he could answer a riddle he him self couldn't solve.
Gest started to ask the king one riddle after another, but the king answered all of them correctly. Finally Gest asked the king what Óðinn had wispered in the ear of Baldur, when he was carried onto the funeral pile (17). Then Heidrek realized who this man really was, only Óðinn himself knew what he had wispered in his dead son's ear. Heidrek pulled the sword Tyrving and hit for the head of the stranger, but he took the shape of a falcon and flew away from the sword. Then Óðinn spoke that Heidrek would fall for his own trælls, and flew away.
(17) this is almost identical to the Vafþrúðnismál in the Poetic Edda, in which Odin gives the same riddle to the Giant Vafþrúðnir.
Shortly thereafter Heidrek travelled around in his kingdom. He would have to travel a long way before he could sleep, and therefor he found his best horse. He rode so fast that no other than his 9 trælls could keep up with him. When the king slept at night, the trælls stood up and killed his guards. After this they entered his tent and found the sword Tyrving, wich they used to kill him. This was the sword's third and final niding's deed.
The morning after the rest of Heidrek's followers came and found everybody dead. Angantyr ordered a mighty grave haug to be built near the mountains, there he buried his father with the others that had died with him (18). After this he became the new king of the land. Angantyr traveled around and searched for the trælls, he wanted to revenge his father. One day he came to a river were some men sat and fished from a boat. When one of them got a pike, he cut off its head with a sword, and Angantyr reconized Tyrving. When the evening came, the men came ashore and went to sleep. Angantyr had hidden himself in the forest and he killed all nine. He took Tyrving and went home and held gravøl (19) for his father.
While he held this guild, Hlod came, the son who Heidrek had begotten with Humle's daughter Sifka. He had heard about the death of his father and that Angantyr had become king, he wanted them both to inherit the kingdom and split it between them. Angantyr didn't want to split the kingdom in two, but he offered him a third. Heidrek's fosterfather, the wise Gissur, agreed with Angantyr.
A third was more than enough for the son of a træll. Hlod got furious when he heard this. He took his men and went back to Humle.
When the winter was over Humle and Hlod gathered a great army against Angantyr. But along the way they came to the city where Hervor, Hlod and Angantyr's sister lived together with her fosterfather Ormar. When she saw knights coming from the forest, she gathered her men and sent Ormar against the Hunnic army. Many of Hervor's men fell in the hard battle. Hervor challenged her brother to tvekamp (20), but he didn't want to fight his sister. He commanded his men to take her as a prisoner, but Hervor struggled and fought all until she fell dead off her horse's back. Ormar, who was wounded from the battle, ran hard and reached Angantyr and told him what happened.
Hlod ordered a big grave haug to be built and buried his sister in it. After this he went towards Angantyr. They met at Dunheiðir (dunheeds). Hlod's army was seven times the size of Angantyr's, but Angantyr had send a bid for men, and now they ran to the battlefield.
After several days of fighting the Gauts (Goths) ran out of willpower, but then Herlaug, Heidrek's fosterson, came to Angantyr with his army. On the 10th day of the battle Ormar and Humle met. Ormar fell, Gissur was hit and he fell off his horse. Then Hlod rode forth and killed Gissur with a mighty blow. Then he fought Angantyr. After a long struggle Hlod fell, and Angantyr offered peace to the Huns. There were only 300 wounded men left of their large army, so they accepted it.
Angantyr laid Hlod in a haug there where he had fallen. He complained about his own sad fate as his brother's baneman (killer). Then Angantyr ruled Hreiðgautaland until his death.
(18) it was a custom to bury an important man with his followers so they could serve him in the afterlife.
(19) gravøl ("gravebeer") is a costumn that still lives in scandinavia today. It is a feast with drinking after a funeral. One drinks for the one who has died as a sign of honour.
(20) a tvekamp "two-fight", is a duel between two rivals, but unlike the holmgang it had no rules.
