The Guests of Odin Read Online Free Page A

drinking.
    When he went to bed, Sifka asked him why he was unhappy. He said, “My life is at stake if my secret is not kept.”
    She said she would keep his secret. He told her, “My foster son asked me to cut down an apple from a tree and I did so with Tyrfing, but I had forgotten the curse upon the sword. I killed the boy.”
    Next day the Russian king’s wife asked Sifka, “Why is Heidrek unhappy?”
    S ifka told her the whole story. The queen was horrified but said she would not reveal the secret and she left the hall where they were drinking, grieving. Noticing this, the king asked Sifka, “Why is my wife upset?”
    Sifka told him. Angered, the king gave orders for Heidrek to be taken and put in chains. The people refused to do this, because Heidrek had become popular among them, but finally two men rose and obeyed unwillingly.
    Heidrek sent men secretly to fetch the king’s son from his hiding place.
    The king summoned all his people and told them, “I intend to hang Heidrek for killing my son.”
    But then the boy appeared and ran to him, begging him not to kill his own foster father. Heidrek was set free and the king offered him many riches, or land and property, to have his friendship again but Heidrek said he had no need of this. Then the queen whispered to the king, telling him to offer their daughter. Heidrek agreed to this settlement and took the king’s daughter home with him. When he was home, he went riding in the evening with Sifka on the same horse.
    They reached a river and she became too heavy for the horse, which collapsed and died. They walked on, and the king carried Sifka across the river until they reached a point where the current was so strong that Heidrek dropped her, and her back broke on a stone and her body drifted away downstream.
    Next Heidrek married the Russian king’s daughter at a great feast. They had a daughter called Hervor, who was fostered in England by Earl Ormar.
    Heidrek settled down and gained a reputation as a wise man and a great ruler. He had a boar reared, which was as big as a bull and had bristles of gold. He swore upon the boar that no man, whatever their wrongdoing, would fail to receive a fair trial from his twelve wise men, and they would look after the boar. Any man who did not wish to face the judgement of the wise men must devise riddles that the king could not guess.
    King Heidrek had an enemy named Gestumblindi, to whom he sent word that he should come and face judgement if he wanted to keep his life. Gestumblindi was not particularly clever, and no good at riddles, while he knew that his crimes were of such magnitude that he could not hope to prevail against the twelve wise men. So he sacrificed to Odin, the Allfather, king of the gods, promising many gifts should the god aid him.
    One evening he heard a knock at the door and found a man standing there. The man said his name was Gestumblindi. He said they should swap clothes, and they did so. Then the first Gestumblindi left the house and went into hiding while the guest lived there and everyone recognised him as Gestumblindi.
    Next day he went to the king, and said he was come to settle with him. The king asked, “Will you accept the judgement of my wise men?”
    ‘Gestumblindi’ said, “I would prefer the other option, the riddle-game.”
    Gestumblindi then asked many cryptic riddles, all of which Heidrek answered. They grew harder as the game went on, and Gestumblindi betrayed knowledge beyond most men, so Heidrek suspected he was someone other than the enemy he had known.
    Then Gestumblindi asked King Heidrek, “What was it that Odin whispered in Balder’s ear when his son lay upon the pyre [2] ?”
    Heidrek knew who his guest was: only Odin knows this secret. He attacked Odin with Tyrfing but the god became a hawk and flew out of the window, and the sword slew one of King Heidrek’s retainers instead. Before he left, Odin told Heidrek that because of this he would be killed by the lowliest of