The Northern Saga

There was a king in Denmark who was called Rolf Kraki: he was the noblest of the kings of old, alike in valour and in mildness, and also in lowliness of mind. And of this lowliness this story is a sign, which is ofttimes told. There was a boy named Vogg, small and poor: he came to King Rolf’s court. At that time the king was young and slight of body. Vogg came in and looked up at him. ‘Why lookest thou so at me?’ said the king. ‘I had heard’, said Vogg, ‘that King Rolf of Leidra was the greatest man in all the Northern lands: and now, there sits in the high-seat a Kraki or little thin pole, and men call that their king, though round him are twelve Berserks, all mightier than he, and Bodvar Bjarki mightier by far.’ The king, no whit offended, took the lad’s words kindly, and said, ‘Now thou hast lengthened my name, and henceforth I shall be known as Rolf Kraki. But ’tis the custom at a naming-feast to give gifts: take then this ring’; and he took his ring from his hand and gave it to Vogg. Then Vogg said, ‘This oath I take, that whosoever killeth thee, of him will I be the bane’. All men laughed at the boy’s boast; but the king said, ‘A little toy makes Vogg glad’.