Free The Guests of Odin by Gavin Chappell Page B

every day to look for food. One day they encountered three trollwives. One, who wore a red kirtle, had the form of a human, while the other two did not.
    The trollwife in the red kirtle said, “I am delighted to see the people from the ships. Surely you are a prince, boy?” She introduced herself as Brana, and her two sisters were Mold and Mana.
    Halfdan spoke insultingly of her ugly sisters and they fought, wrestling for a long time, while Sigurd and Sigmund fought the sisters. Brana mocked Halfdan for his youth but then he threw her.
    She told him, “I helped you in Sleggja’s cave by pulling the trollwife’s feet from under her.”
    Halfdan told her to bend down while he attended to her sisters. He went to where they were fighting the brothers and he flung the trollwives one after the other down a crevasse. Brana was grateful for this, since her sisters had worked great shame, and she offered to give Halfdan a ship if he would accompany her back to her cave while the brothers returned to the rest. Halfdan did as he was asked, and several days later, the brothers came to Brana’s cave. Brana asked Halfdan to kill her father, Jarnhauss, and Halfdan agreed. Brana ensured that Jarnhauss and his fellow trolls were all drunk and then Halfdan and the two brothers entered the cave bearing iron-shod clubs and laid about them. Many two-headed trolls died there, and then they came to Jarnhauss. The trio attacked him but he grabbed Sigurd and lifted him into the air.
    Halfdan knocked the troll down , but he did not know how to kill him, so Brana hacked off his head with a knife. Then she disposed of the other troll corpses by throwing them down a trapdoor the led to the sea. She asked Halfdan to remain with her that winter and he did so, accompanied by Hild, Ingibjorg and the twins.
    There was a day when Brana set out in the morning and did not return until dusk. Another day, she asked Halfdan how long it was until summer, and he told her that six weeks remained.
    She told him, “You should leave on the first day of summer. I will not be lonely since soon I will bear your son.”
    Halfdan said, “ Send the child to me if you have a son, but keep it if it is a girl.”
    Brana agreed and told Halfdan that he should sail to England, where a king called Olaf ruled. Brana told Halfdan about Olaf’s daughter Marsibil, who was the most beautiful woman alive, and said that Halfdan should marry her. She gave Halfdan some magic grass . “Give this to Marsibil while visiting her in the guise of a merchant. If the princess lays her head upon it, she will love you eternally.”
    Brana also gave Halfdan magical clothes that would make him invulnerable to all edged weapons apart from his own knife, and would ensure that he never tired while swimming. She also gave him a ring named Hnitud, which was in three parts. It would show him if his enemies were near and when they intended to kill him. “If it turns red,” she explained, “then they will attack you with weapons, but if it goes black then they intend to poison you.”
    Next, she took him down to the strand where he saw a large dragonship. Brana said this was his also, that she had made it during the winter, and that he would always get a favourable wind when he sailed in it. The name of the ship was Skrauti. Halfdan thanked her for her gifts, and she told him that from now on he would be known as Halfdan, Brana’s Fosterling. She went on to warn him about King Olaf’s counsellor, a man named Aki who was skilled in sport and exercises, and would betray Halfdan if he could. Halfdan thanked her again, and they returned to the cave for the night.
    Next day Halfdan and his men went to the ship Skrauti, which Brana had prepared for him. Halfdan bade Brana farewell, and his foster-brothers helped him carry his box of gold onto the ship. Brana pushed the ship out into the surf and they sailed away.
    They had a good wind, which Brana brewed with her magic, and it took them to the Hladey