Historical Tales, Vol. 9 | Page 5

Charles Morris
told one of these tales in
the record of King Rolf and Princess Torborg. We have now to tell that
of Ragnar Lodbrok, a hero king of the early days, whose story is full of

magical incidents. That this king reigned and was a famous man in his
days there is no reason to doubt, but around his career gathered many
fables, as was apt to be the case with the legends of great men in those
days. To show what these tales were like we take from the sagas the
marvellous record of Ragnar and his wives.
In East Gothland in the ancient days there lived a mighty jarl, or earl,
named Herröd, who was descended from the gods. He had a daughter
named Tora, who was famed for her beauty and virtue, but proved as
hard to win for a wife as Princess Torborg had been. She dwelt in a
high room which had a wall built around it like a castle, and was called
Castle Deer, because she surpassed all other women in beauty as much
as the deer surpasses all other animals.
Her father, who was very fond of her, gave her as a toy a small and
wonderfully beautiful snake which he had received in a charmed egg in
Bjarmaland. It proved to be an unwelcome gift. The snake was at first
coiled in a little box, but soon grew until the box would not hold it, and
in time was so big that the room would not hold it. So huge did it
become in the end that it lay coiled in a ring around the outer walls,
being so long that its head and tail touched.
It got to be so vicious that no one dared come near it except the maiden
and the man who fed it, and his task was no light one, for it devoured
an ox at a single meal. The jarl was sorry enough now that he had given
his daughter such a present. It was one not easy to get rid of, dread of
the snake having spread far and wide, and though he offered his
daughter with a great dower to the man who should kill it, no one for a
long time ventured to strive for the reward. The venom which it spat
out was enough to destroy any warrior.
At length a suitor for the hand of the lovely princess was found in
Ragnar, the young son of Sigurd Ring, then one of the greatest
monarchs of the age, with all Sweden and Norway under his sway, as
the sagas tell. Ragnar, though still a boy, had gained fame as a
dauntless warrior, and was a fit man to dare the venture with the great
snake, though for a long time he seemed to pay no heed to the princess.

But meanwhile he had made for himself a strange coat. It was wrought
out of a hairy hide, which he boiled in pitch, drew through sand, and
then dried and hardened in the sun. The next summer he sailed to East
Gothland, hid his ships in a small bay, and at dawn of the next day
proceeded toward the maiden's bower, spear in hand and wearing his
strange coat.
There lay the dreaded serpent, coiled in a ring round the wall. Ragnar,
nothing daunted, struck it boldly with his spear, and before it could
move in defence struck it a second blow, pressing the spear until it
pierced through the monster's body. So fiercely did the snake struggle
that the spear broke in two, and it would have destroyed Ragnar with
the venom it poured out if he had not worn his invulnerable coat.
The noise of the struggle and the fierceness of the snake's convulsions,
which shook the whole tower, roused Tora and her maids, and she
looked from her window to see what it meant. She saw there a tall man,
but could not distinguish his features in the grey dawn. The serpent was
now in its death throes, though this she did not know, and she called
out:
"Who are you, and what do you want?"
Ragnar answered in this verse:
"For the maid fair and wise I would venture my life. The scale-fish got
its death wound From a youth of fifteen!"
Then he went away, taking the broken handle of the spear with him.
Tora listened in surprise, for she learned from the verse that a boy of
fifteen had slain the great monster, and she marvelled at his great size
for his years, wondering if he were man or wizard. When day came she
told her father of the strange event, and the jarl drew out the broken
spear from the snake, finding it to be so heavy that few
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