''Ásmundar saga kappabana'' is the saga of Asmund the Champion-Killer, a
legendary saga from
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...
, first attested in the manuscript Stockholm, Royal Library, Holm. 7, 4to, from the first half of the fourteenth century.
[Ciklamini, M., ‘The Combat Between Two Half-Brothers; A Literary Study of the Motif in Ásmundar saga kappabana and Saxonis gesta Danorum’, Neophilologus, 50 (1966), 269–279, 370–79 DOI 10.1007/BF01515206, 10.1007/BF01515217.] It is essentially an adaptation of the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
''
Hildebrandslied'', but it has assimilated matter from the
Tyrfing Cycle.
Synopsis
The saga relates that
Hildebrand, the king of the
Huns
The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
had a son named Helgi, who was married to Hild, the daughter of the Swedish king
Budli. Helgi and Hild had a son who was raised by his grandfather and named Hildebrand after him.
Hildebrand became a great warrior and was called the ''Hunnish champion''. When his father Helgi had fallen in a war, his maternal grandfather, the Swedish king Budli, was killed by a Danish king by the name Alf. This Alf took Hildebrand's mother Hild captive and gave her to the champion Aki with whom she had the son Asmund.
When Hildebrand learnt of his father's death, he went to
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
and slew Aki. However, Alf had a daughter to whom Asmund proposed for marriage. The princess promised to marry Asmund, if he avenged her father and killed Hildebrand.
In order to slay Hildebrand, Asmund went to
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a ...
, which was plagued by Hildebrand and his berserkers. During a series of
holmgangs which took several days, Asmund defeated all Hildebrand's warriors.
When Hildebrand heard of this, berserker-rage came over him and in his rage he killed his own son. Then he went up the Rhine to meet Asmund and when they met they started to fight. They fought well for a long time, until Hildebrand was severely wounded and his sword broke. Then Hildebrand sang to Asmund that they were half-brothers and asked him to be buried in his clothes.
In
Gesta Danorum
''Gesta Danorum'' ("Deeds of the Danes") is a patriotic work of Danish history, by the 12th-century author Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Literate", literally "the Grammarian"). It is the most ambitious literary undertaking of medieval Denmark an ...
7:IX.2-X.1,
Saxo Grammaticus tells an essentially identical saga, but all the names have been changed and Hildebrand is called ''Hildiger''.
References
External links
Ásmundar saga kappabanaan
index to ''Fornaldarsögur Norðurlanda''in Old Norse from ''Kulturformidlingen norrøne tekster og kvad'', Norway.
Sources
Legendary sagas
Sources of Norse mythology
{{saga-stub