THE REDDENING OF THE ALTARS WITH BLOOD 365 



and those of King Harald, and there pronounce thy decision 

 about thy son. Then thou shalt ask how they will reward thee 

 if thou allowest him to be sacrificed. Say that thou art a 

 foreigner, and that thou wilt lose thy land and people if this 

 is to take place. Then thou shalt make it a condition that one- 

 half of the men of King Harald present at the Thing shall 

 become thy men or else thou wilt not give up thy son, and this 

 shall be confirmed by oaths. If thou dost get this I need 

 not give thee advice as to what thou shalt do thereafter.' 

 Heidrek thereupon took leave of his father and mother, and 

 sailed away from Eisaland. When Heidrek returned to 

 Beidgotalaud he summoned a Thing, to which he spoke thus : 

 ' It is the decision of my father, King Hofund, that my son is t he 

 foremost here in the land, and is to be chosen for sacrifice ; but 

 in return for this, I want to have power over one-half of those of 

 King Harald's men who have come to this Thing, and you must 

 pledge me this.' That was done, and they came into his host; 

 then the boendr asked that he should deliver his son to them, 

 and thus improve their season. But after the hosts had been 

 divided, Heidrek asked his men to take oaths of allegiance. 



~ 



This they did, and swore that they would follow him out of the 

 land and in the land to wherever he wanted. Then he said : 

 ' I think that Odin gets the value of a boy if, instead of him, 

 he gets King Harald and his son and his entire host.' He bid 

 them raise his standard to attack King Harald and slay him and 

 all his men. The war horns were sounded and the attack made. 

 The battle soon turned against King Harald and his men, for 

 they had far fewer men and were unprepared. But when they 

 saw there was no escape they fought with great valour, and cut 

 down the men of King Heidrek so fiercely that it seemed 

 uncertain which would be defeated. When Heidrek saw his 

 men fall thus in heaps, he rushed forth with the sword Tyrfiu-g 

 and killed one after the other ; at last King Harald and his son 

 and a great part of their men fell there, and Heidrek became 

 the slayer of his father and brother-in-law. This was reckoned 

 to be the second nitliings-deed committed with Tyrfing accord- 

 ing to the spell of the Dvergar. King Heidrek reddened the 

 temple-altars with the blood of King Harald and Halfdan, and 

 gave Odin all the dead men who had fallen there, in the place 

 of his son Angantyr, in order to improve the season. When 

 Queen Helga heard of the death of her father she was so affected 

 that she hanged herself in the disar-liall l of the temple " 

 (Hervarar Saga, c. 11 & 12). 



1 Disar = genii. 



