Saxo Bludgeon

4.8. Harald, now an old man without sight, heard the dejected
mutterings of his men clearly and understood that Fortune had
smiled more cheerfully on his enemies. Riding as he was in his scythed
chariot, he asked Bruni, who had craftily taken over as his driver, to find
out what system Ring was using in the formation of his army. The
other, his face relaxing into a little smile, answered that Ring had
entered battle with a crescent-shaped line. Hearing this, the king grew
frightened and demanded in great amazement who could be responsible
for instructing Ring to draw up an army in such fashion, especially as
Odin was the teacher and inventor of these tactics, and no one but he,
Harald, had learnt this novel pattern of warfare from him.

4.9. When Bruni stayed silent, it entered the king’s mind that here
was Odin, a deity once his friend and at the moment disguised under
this change of shape in order to grant or withhold his help. Soon
Harald started to beseech him intently, begging him, as he had
previously acted kindly towards the Danes, to give them also this final
victory and let the completion of his bounty match its beginning; as a
gift he promised that he would dedicate to Odin the souls of the slain.
But Bruni was completely unmoved by the suppliant’s prayers; he
suddenly jerked the king from the chariot, dashed him to the ground,
snatched his mace as he fell and, whirling it at his head, dispatched
him with his own weapon. Innumerable corpses lay round the king’s
chariot, a ghastly heap, which rose above the tops of the wheels. In
fact the piled bodies even came up to the level of the shaft. Almost
twelve thousand of Ring’s noblemen lost their lives upon this
battlefield; but on Harald’s side about thirty thousand nobles fell,
not counting the slaughter of the common folk.

5. i. When Ring learnt of his opponent’s death, he gave his men a
signal to slacken formation and ordered them to cease fighting. Then,
under cover of truce, he struck a treaty with his enemies, having advised
them that it would be folly to prolong the engagement without a leader.
After this he instructed the Swedes to search everywhere among the
strewn mounds of carcases for Harald’s body, lest the departed
monarch should be cheated of his due funeral rites. The people eagerly
set about the work of rolling the corpses on to their backs. This task
consumed half a day. Finally, after the body had been found together
with the mace, Ring, believing that propitiation must be rendered to
Harald’s ghost, attached to the royal chariot the horse which he was
riding himself, laid a handsome golden saddle upon it, and dedicated it
to the king’s honour.


- Gesta Danorum, Book VIII