Berserk Revenge by Mark Coakley - HTML preview

33: SAGA'S END

A few years later, unlucky King Atli fell head-first into a barrel of Yule-mead and drunkenly drowned. His end inspired many poems.

A good king.

Halfdan was elected the next king of Sogn and Fjordane.

He ruled peacefully and justly for many years, and was beloved by all.

A great king!

This is how folk say that King Halfdan met his end: as an old man, during a forest-walk with his family near the sacred waterfall, he tripped on a tree-root and struck his head on a sharp rock. He stood -- his skull broken, globs of brains dribbling down his face -- and he sang a now-famous poem:

I've walked from place to place

With my art of poetry

Describing my heart's dreams

Pouring words for all to drink

The lovely bird of life

Flew in through a window

Flapped, bright-feathered, through my hall

Then out another window

Everywhere, folk wonder

What is death? What is life?

Life is a light burden

And death weighs even less

When he finished the still-famous poem, King Halfdan fell.

King Halfdan's body rests, even to this day, on the deck of a war-ship inside a burial-mound near Eid. It is blanketed by thick snow in winter, every summer sprouting wildflowers.

Though still a very young man, Harald the Messy-Haired was elected the next king of Sogn and Fjordane. King Harald and his well-led fighters soon forced the king of Førde into exile and took over his lands.

Over the following years, King Harald conquered Norse kingdom after Norse kingdom, from Hålogaland in the north to Oslo in the south, until he ruled all Norway. Never before had there been a unified kingdom of Norway with a single king. King Harald ended the tradition of king-elections; his oldest son Erik inherited his rule. Rule of Norway has passed from fathers to oldest sons ever since.

Every king of Norway, even to this day, has been a direct descendant of Halfdan the Black and Yngvild of Starheim.

So ends this saga.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Copyright 2010 Mark Coakley -- Free Sample Copy for Non-Commercial Use

www.scribd.com/MarkCoakley

 markcoakley<at>bell<dot>net