Starkad

[1][3][4] That is the origin of Starkad's admonishing speech to the Danish king Ingellus, son of Frotho[1][3] (see the account given in Gesta Danorum below).

[5] A version of the legend of Starkad can be found in the prologue of the U-version of Hervarar saga, and in a shortened form in the H-version of the Hauksbók.

When Vikar had grown up, he assembled a warband, including Starkad and avenged his father by killing Herþjófr with thirty of his warriors.

Thor further cursed Starkad never to feel that he had enough property, always to receive dangerous wounds in battle, never to remember his skaldic poems and ever to be hated by commoners.

In the Ynglinga saga, Snorri Sturluson tells what happened a few generations after the deaths of Alrek and Eirík.

However, when twenty-five years had passed, a Danish prince named Áli the Bold appeared and chased Aun to exile in Götaland.

The Sögubrot deals with events taking place in the 8th century, a long time after Starkad killed Áli the Bold.

The two champions were separated by the pushing throng of warriors, and Ubbi finally fell riddled with arrows from the archers of Telemark.

In Norna-Gests þáttr, the account of Starkad takes place not long after the victory at the Battle of the Brávellir.

The Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus wrote that Starkad was the son of Stórvirkr (Storwerk/Storuerkus) and saved himself from a shipwreck.

They then had the idea that they could appease the gods by performing a blót with human blood, and decided to cast lots as to whom was to be sacrificed.

Starkad made a noose of willow and put it around the king's neck in the pretense that it was only for show and not for killing.

However, the knot was so strong that the king was dying, and Starkad gave him the coup de grace with his sword.

Starkad joined the Danish Viking Bemon (Bemonus) and they had a tough discipline on their crew, forbidding them alcoholic beverages.

However the effeminate jingle of bells, the dancing and the mimes at the sacrifices (see the Temple at Uppsala) nauseated Starkad.

Hugleik wasted his riches on actors and jugglers, but was defended by Svipdag (Suibdagus) and Geigad (Gegathus), who gave Starkad the most vicious wound he had ever received.

By covering his sword with a hide, he also defeated a warlord named Wisin (Wisinnus), who lived at Anafial in Russia, and who could make a weapon blunt only by looking at it.

(It is theorized that Polish writer Theodor Narbutt picked the name of the mountain and the villain (Anafial and Wisinnus) to embellish a legend about mount Anafielas, allegedly a place of the afterlife in Lithuanian pagan mythology[12]).

Frotho's son Ingild (Ingellus) lived a wanton life and married one of Swerting's daughters.

Starkad agreed, but left Helgi with his bride in order to fight with the nine brothers himself at the moor of Roliung.

He refused the care of three lowly passers-by, but accepted the treatment of a peasant's son, and could return to Sweden.

Starkad succeeded in exciting Ingild to kill Swerting's sons and to divorce his Saxon bride.

Starkad was rewarded with 120 pounds in gold, but regretted his crime, and avenged Olo's death by killing Lennius.

Hather did not want the old warrior to lie unburied, but showed him respect by making a barrow for him on the heath of Roljung, at the same spot where Starkad's heavy body long ago had made an imprint on a stone.

[14] Later this spot was located to Rönne river, and in the 16th century, people talked of the Stones of Starkkarl at Vegeholm.

[14] The Danish folklorist Axel Olrik and Arthur Stille recorded many recent traditions about Starkad in north-western Skåne.

[14] The plot of the Science Fiction novel "Ensign Flandry" by the Danish American writer Poul Anderson takes place on a planet named "Starkad".

In The Fionavar Tapestry trilogy by the Canadian author Guy Gavriel Kay, the fortress of Starkadh is the stronghold of the evil god Rakoth Maugrim.

In The Settlers (novel) by Vilhelm Moberg, the main protagonists names the first ox he buys after emigrating to North America Starkodder.

Starkad, as Starkaðr the Mighty, is mentioned in the 2018 videogame God of War, as a late Jotunn enshrined by the Jotnar people.