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Poetic Edda

  Hyndla spake:12.[1] "Thou art, Ottar,  the son of Instein,And Instein the son  of Alf the Old,Alf of Ulf,  Ulf of Sæfari,And Sæfari's father  was Svan the Red.
13. "Thy mother, bright  with bracelets fair,Hight, methinks,  the priestess Hledis;Frothi her father,  and Friaut her mother;—Her race of the mightiest  men must seem.
14.[2] "Of old the noblest  of all was Ali,Before him Halfdan,  foremost of Skjoldungs;Famed were the battles  the hero fought,To the corners of heaven  his deeds were carried.
15. "Strengthened by Eymund,  the strongest of men,Sigtrygg he slew  with the ice-cold sword;His bride was Almveig,  the best of women,And eighteen boys  did Almveig bear him.

  1. Instein: mentioned in the Halfssaga as one of the warriors of King Half of Horthaland (the so-called Halfsrekkar). The others mentioned in this stanza appear in one of the later mythical accounts of the settlement of Norway.
  2. Stanzas 14-16 are clearly interpolated, as Friaut (stanza 13, line 3) is the daughter of Hildigun (stanza 17, line 1). Halfdan the Old, a mythical king of Denmark, called by Snorri "the most famous of all kings," of whom it was foretold that "for three hundred years there should be no woman and no man in his line who was not of great repute." After the slaying of Sigtrygg he married Almveig (or Alvig), daughter of King Eymund of Holmgarth (i.e., Russia), who bore him eighteen

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