8. HALFDAN'S MEAT VANISHES AT A FEAST
King Halfdan was at a Yule-feast in Hadeland, where a wonderful thing happened one Yule evening. When the great number of guests assembled were going to sit down to table, all the meat and all the ale disappeared from the table. The king sat alone very confused in mind; all the others set off, each to his home, in consternation. That the king might come to some certainty about what had occasioned this event, he ordered a Fin to be seized who was particularly knowing, and tried to force him to disclose the truth; but however much he tortured the man, he got nothing out of him. The Fin sought help particularly from Harald, the king's son, and Harald begged for mercy for him, but in vain. Then Harald let him escape against the king's will, and accompanied the man himself. On their journey they came to a place where the man's chief had a great feast, and it appears they were well received there. When they had been there until spring, the chief said, "Thy father took it much amiss that in winter I took some provisions from him,—now I will repay it to thee by a joyful piece of news: thy father is dead; and now thou shalt return home, and take possession of the whole kingdom which he had, and with it thou shalt lay the whole kingdom of Norway under thee."
9. HALFDAN S DEATH.
Halfdan the Black was driving from a feast in Hadeland, and it so happened that his road lay over the lake called Rand. It was in spring, and there was a great thaw. They drove across the bight called Rykinsvik, where in winter there had been a pond broken in the ice for cattle to drink at, and where the dung had fallen upon the ice the thaw had eaten it into holes. Now as the king drove over it the ice broke, and King Halfdan and many with him perished. He was then forty years old. He had been one of the most fortunate kings in respect of good seasons. The people thought so much of him, that when his death was known and his body was floated to Ringerike to bury it there, the people of most consequence from Raumarike, Vestfold, and Hedemark came to meet it. All desired to take the body with them to bury it in their own district, and they thought that those who got it would have good crops to expect. At last it was agreed to divide the body into four parts. The head was laid in a mound at Stein in Ringerike, and each of the others took his part home and laid it in a mound; and these have since been called Halfdan's Mounds.
Harald Harfager's Saga
1. HARALD'S STRIFE WITH HAKE AND HIS FATHER GANDALF.
2. KING HARALD OVERCOMES FIVE KINGS.
3. OF GYDA, DAUGHTER OF EIRIE.
6. KING HARALD S LAWS FOR LAND PROPERTY.
8. HARALD SEIZES NAUMUDAL DISTRICT.
9. KING HARALD'S HOME AFFAIRS.
11. FALL OF KINGS ARNVID AND AUDBJORN.
12. KING VEMUND BURNT TO DEATH.
13. DEATH OF EARLS HAKON, AND ATLE MJOVE.
14. HARALD AND THE SWEDISH KING EIRIK.
15. HARALD AT A FEAST OF THE PEASANT AKE.
16. HARALD'S JOURNEY TO TUNSBERG.
20. HARALD SUPREME SOVEREIGN IN NORWAY.
21. HARALD'S MARRIAGE AND HIS CHILDREN.
22. KING HARALD'S VOYAGE TO THE WEST.
23. HARALD HAS HIS HAIR CLIPPED.
24. ROLF GANGER DRIVEN INTO BANISHMENT.
25. OF THE FIN SVASE AND KING HARALD.
26. OF THJODOLF OF HVIN, THE SKALD.
27. OF EARL TORFEINAR'S OBTAINING ORKNEY.
28. KING EIRIK EYMUNDSON'S DEATH.
29. GUTHORM'S DEATH IN TUNSBERG.
30. EARL RAGNVALD BURNT IN HIS HOUSE.
32. HARALD AND EINAR RECONCILED.
33. DEATH OF GUTHORM AND HALFDAN THE WHITE.
35. HARALD DIVIDES HIS KINGDOM.