The Saga of Hrolf Kraki/Quotes

"''[And the berserks] go thus up to each man in the hall, and last of all they come to those two comrades [Bodvar and Hjalti,] and the leader of the berserks asks Bodvar if he considers himself as brave as him.

No, says Bodvar, he isn't as brave: he's braver, however they cared to test it, and no need to go on about it like an old sow, there, "you stinking son of a mare," and he leaps at the berserk and lunges in under him, where he stood in all his armour, and throws him down with such a terrible crack, as if his very bones were broken, and there he lay.''"

- Chapter 37: Of the Berserks and Hjalti's New Temperament

"Bodvar Bjarki ploughed into them now, hacking two handed, his only thought to do as much damage as he could before he fell. And now they fall in heaps before him, one on top of another, and both his arms are bloodied to the shoulder, and he felled so many, the dead were stacked all about him. He stormed on as if he was insane."

- Chapter 51: Of Skuld's Battle

"“Vast is the host of Skuld, and I suspect now that the dead move here and rise up again and fight against us, and it won’t be easy to fight with zombies, and however many limbs may be cloven, and shields shivered, helm and hauberk hacked apart, and however many chiefs we cut down, these dead ones are the grimmest to contend with, and we haven’t the power to combat this, but where is that champion of King Hrolf, who most questioned my courage and kept challenging me to come out, till I answered him? I don’t see him now, and I’m not one to criticise people.”"

- Bodvar Bjarki, chapter 51: Of Skuld's Battle

""Here have many men assembled against us, nobles and commoners, who press from all sides, so that shields can hardly hold them back, but I can't spot Odin here yet. I have a strong suspicion he'll be lurking round here somewhere, dirty treacherous devil that he is, and if anyone could point him out to me, I'd squeeze him like any other miserable measly little mouse, and I'll have some none too reverent sport with that nasty venomous creature, if I get a hold of him.""

- Bodvar Bjarki, chapter 51: Of Skuld's Battle

"There came on now such a storm of spells that the champions began to fall, one on top of the other, and King Hrolf found himself outside the shield-wall and was near enough laid low with weariness. No need to spin it out with words: there fell King Hrolf and all his champions with good glory, but what blows they dealt out there, words cannot describe."

- Chapter 52: The Fall of King Hrolf and His Champions