Ragnar Lodbrok Saga: Chapter 2 & 3
Chris Van Dyke Translation
Chapter II
There was an earl, Herrud, who was mighty and famous in Gautland. He was married. His daughter was called Pora, and she was the most beautiful of all women in appearance, and was most courteous in all things which were better to have than not to have. It was her nickname that she was called Borgarhjort, since stood out from all woman in beauty as the hart does from all other animals. The earl loved his daughter very much. He had a bower made for her a short ways from the kings hall, and about the bower was a wooden fence. The earl made it his custom to send his daughter something everyday for her amusement, and he said that he would go on with this custom. This is said about that, that he had his daughter sent a little heather-snake one day, which was excessively beautiful; the snake seemed good to her, and she kept it in an ashen box and placed gold under it.
It was there but a short while before it grew large, as did the gold under it. It came about that the snake did not have room in the ashen box, and then lay outside of it in a ring about the box. And it afterwards came about that it did not have room in the bower, and the gold grew beneath it precisely as the snake itself did. then it lay outside around the bower, so that it's head and tail could touch together, and it became hard to deal with. No man dared to come to the bower on account of this snake except one who brought it food, and needed an ox as it's meal. To the earl this seemed a great harm and he spoke this vow: that he would give his daughter to that man, whoever he might be, who k**ed the snake, and that gold which was under him would be her dowry.
These tidings became known throughout the land, but nevertheless no one trusted himself to overpower the great snake.
Chapter III
At that time Sigurd Hring had power over Danmork. He was a powerful king, and was famous from that one war, when he battled with Harold Hilditon at Bravella and Harold fell before him, as has become known throughout all of the northern regions. Sigurd had one son, who was called Ragnar. He was a large man, fair in appearence and with good intelligence, generous with his men, but stern with his foes. Soon after he had come of age, he got himself troops and warships, and he became one of the greatest warriors, so that hardly anyone was his match. He heard what Earl Herrud had spoken, but he gave it no heed and let on as if he did not know about it. He had made himself garments in a wondrous fashion: they were shaggy-breeches and fur-coat, and when they were done, he had them boiled in pitch afterwards he kept them stored away.
One summer he took his war host to Gautland, and he anchored his ships in a hidden creek, which was a short distance from where the earl ruled. And when Ragnar had been there one night, he woke early in the morning, rose up and took the same armor which was mentioned before, put on the armor and took a great spear in his hand and went off the ship alone, And there, where the sand was, he rolled in the sand. And before he went on his way, he took the nail holding the spear-head to the shaft out of his spear and then went from the ship to the earl's gate and came there early in the day, so that when he came, all the men were still asleep. Then he turned towards the bower.
And when he came to the wooden fence where the snake was, he attacked it with his spear; he thrust the spear at it and then pulled it back to himself, and then he attacked again. That thrust struck the snake's spine, and then he twisted the spear so that the spearhead came off the shaft; there was such a great din at the snake's d**h-throes that all the bower shook.
And then Ragnar turned away. Then a jet of blood came and struck him between his shoulders, but that did not harm him, since his clothes that he had made protected him. And those who were in the bower woke with the din and went out of the bower and asked him his name and whom he wanted to find. He stopped and spoke this verse:
I have risked my famous life, beautiful woman;
fifteen winter old
And I vanquished the earth fish.
Near Misfortune, a swift
d**h for me-save
I have pierced well to the heart
The ringed salmon-of-the-heath.
And then he went on his way and did not speak more with her. And the spear-head stood in the wound afterwards, but he had the shaft with him. When she had heard this verse, she understood what he had said to her about his errand and thus how old he was. And then she wondered to herself who he might be, and she thought she did not know whether he was a human being or not, since it seemed to her that his growth was a large as it said about monsters at the age that he was. Then she turned into the bower and went to sleep. And when men came out in the morning, they became aware that the snake was dead, and it was stabbed with a large spear, and the spearhead stood fast in the wound.
Then the earl had the spearhead removed, and it was so large that few could have used it as a weapon. Then the earl considered what had said about that man who k**ed the snake and he thought he didn't know whether a human being had done this or not, and he then discussed with his friends and daughter how he should search after him; it seemed likely, that the man who had won it would afterward seek to have the reward. She advised him to have a large Thing summoned-“And command those who do not want to have the earl's anger and are in anyway able to attend the Thing to come here. If any is the man who gave the snake its d**h wound, he shall then have the spear-shaft which goes with the spearhead.”
That seemed promising to the earl, and then he had a Thing called. And when the day came when the Thing was to take place the earl came an many other chieftains. Many men came.