Fjandi-Hoskuld Skallagrimsson

Hoskuld Skallagrimsson (815-875) was a Norwegian nobleman.

## Biography

### Early Life

Hoskuld was born in AD 815 in the petty kingdom of Rogaland, in Norway, presumptive heir of King Skallagrim "the Tall" Halfsson and Queen Rannveig Olvirsdottir. He was the eldest of three brothers, followed by Sulke in AD 820, and Frodi in AD 825. He, like his father, grew to be tall and strong. He accompanied King Skallagrim on his last great voyage of AD 832-834. In his youth, before he earned the epithet Fjandi-Hoskuld, he was called Black Hoskuld for his dark hair.

In AD 835 Queen Rannveig died and King Skallagrim, then sixty, quickly resolved to take a new pretty young wife to comfort him in his old age. He dispatched messengers to the king's halls of many lands to find the fairest maiden that could be found and offer an enormous bride-price (the greater part of a fortune from a lifetime of plunder) for her hand. The search concluded after four years when all the messengers had returned and agreed on the same candidate; Princess Ingrid "the Fair" of Denmark, daughter of King Horik and widely regarded as the most beautiful woman in that part of the world at that time.

In AD 840 Hoskuld was dispatched to Denmark to retrieve his father's bride. On the voyage back, however, the two fell in love. On their return to Rogaland Ingrid was promptly married to King Skallagrim, but the love between her and Hoskuld had not abated. They carried on an affair four four years. During that time, In AD 843, Hoskuld sired a son on her, called Skallagrim, though King Skallagrim supposed the child to be his own.

### Disgrace and Exile

After four years of being unknowingly cuckolded by his own son, in AD 844 Skallagrim and his two other sons (Sulke and Frodi) at last discovered Hoskuld and Ingrid *in flagrante delicto* in his own bed. In a jealous rage, Olaf at once drew his sword, split open Ingrid's skull, and castrated Hoskuld before Sulke and Frodi restrained him from dealing the final death blow. Once his murderous ire abated, Skallagrim summoned Ingrid's maid Thorkatla to demand, on pain of death, what she knew of the affair. The maid confessed that she hade known of the affair and knew the true parentage of Ingrid's son. King Skallagrim then pronounced his son Fjandi-Hoskuld (literally "Hoskuld the Fiend").

Hoskuld was then stripped of his princely possessions and forced to sleep in a shack that had once been a kennel, sleeping on straw not often changed and subsisting on gruel barely thicker than rainwater in a mud puddle. He was confined there for the winter, tended to by Thorkatla, who had also become like a mother to his son. They remained there for the winter while Hoskuld healed from his grievous injury. The following spring Hoskuld, Thorkatla, and the infant Skallagrim were escorted to the border of the kingdom and sent on their way.

The exiles went to the court of King Halfdan the Black of Agder, Hoskuld's second cousin by virtue of their mutual ancestor King Halfdan "the Mild" Halfdansson of Vestfold and Romerike, and Hoskuld was accepted into the king's service as a huskarl.

Over the next twenty-four years Hoskuld's reputation for bravery in battle and loyalty to his master were well remarked upon. By the time that King Halfdan died and was succeeded by his son Harald Fairhair, Hoskuld had been elevated to the rank of Thane and was one of the most senior commanders of the royal household.

In AD 875 King Harald Fairhair went to war with a coalition of rulers which had formed against his rise to power, among them Hoskuld's brothers, by that time King of Rogaland and Earl of Haugaland respectively. Although Hoskuld was reluctant at first to do battle with his brothers, he was convinced by King Harald on the following two points, firstly that the coalition were the aggressors in this case, and secondly that if Harald triumphed he would restore to him and his heirs the birthright which had been taken from hm.

### Death

King Harald's forces met those of the coalition at the battle of Hafrsford. At first Hoskuld fought valiantly, leading his men to clear the decks of many enemy ships, but upon encountering his brothers Frodi and Sulke, he despaired. Caught between the three bad options of killing his brothers and becoming a kinslayer (worse still since they had saved his life), letting his brothers kill him, or disobeying King Harald, Hoskuld instead exchanged a few parting words with his brothers before throwing himself upon his own sword. The following was his death poem reported after the fact:

> *" Foul are fates in finding foemen,*
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> *when brothers are in battle bound;*
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> *to shed the blood in sea of strife,*
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> *of they who shared the womb's waters.*
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> *In debt am I for love and life,*
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> *to you who stayed a father's wrath.*
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> *Oaths I owe, rings have I taken,*
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> *my King the blood of kin demands.*
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> *Torn asunder is my blood-hammer,*
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> *like one lashed between Sleipnir's kin.*
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> *No way of worth before me lies,*
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> *but down upon my bloody blade.*
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> *Look for me not in hanged-god's hall,*
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> *the raven-riders bear me not.*
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> *In hall of Hel my heart is held,*
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> *I go to lie with love long dead."*
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Greatly moved by his sacrifice, Sulke and Frodi fought on like lions, slaying a great many foemen before they themselves were overcome and slain.

In the aftermath of the battle the lands of the members of the coalition were all conquered and Harrald Fairhair became the first King of a united Norway. News of the victory was borne to Skallagrim "the Wise" Frodisson by his cousin, Skallagrim Hoskuldsson, he who had been born of incest and adultery to Ingrid the Fair and raised in exile by Thorkatla. The cousins met and parted on amicable terms, Frodi's son and his family departing for Iceland soon after, and Hoskuld's son being named Thane of a diminished portion of Rogaland.