There are a number of fornaldars@gur who are interesting in connection with presumed individual initiations, namely the sagas about Víkarr, Haralðr híldit@nn, Ívarr viðfamði and Haddingr. I will shortly recapitulate the content and give comments where suitable.
Haraldr Hílðit@nn
For example Saxo (Saxo Grammaticus, 13th c.) tells of a Danish king called
Harald hyldetan, who by us is known as Haraldr híldit@nn. Haraldr’s parents were in Saxo’s version Haldanus (Halfdan) and the Danish princess Guritha. Since Guritha seemed to be infertile Halfdan went to “Uppsala” and called for Óðinn’s help against this. When Halfdan died in young age Óðinn himself took care of the son and made him invulnerable, and he became a mighty king who won many battles and restored the unity of Denmark. In return Haraldr prom- ised that all men he killed should belong to Óðinn. When Haraldr was old and rich of victories there was enmity between him and his nephew Sigurðr hringr, who was his petty king in Sweden. A grand battle was fought at a place called Brávalla. Haraldr’s second in command was called Bruno but he was in fact Óðinn himself. S@gubrot tells among else about Haraldr’s preparations before this battle:
Haraldr konungr dregr nú saman her um allt Danaveldi, ok mikill her kom ór Austrríkí ok allt ór Kænugarði ok af Saxlandi—á Selund, ok yfir til Skáneyrar af Landeyri…” (Mundt, Fornaldarsögur Norðrlanda, 1993, p.94)
In the battle Bruno was driver of the king’s battle-chariot. Before the battle had started for real the king asked Bruno about the formation of the enemy forces. Bruno answered that they stood in svinfylking (a triangular boar-formation where the leader goes first and acts like the leading boar in the attack). Since Haraldr himself had learnt this formation from Óðinn, and beleived he was the only one having this knowledge, he realized who Bruno were and asked for vic- tory. Bruno did not answer but instead he pushed Haraldr out of the chariot chrushing his head with a club. In this way he secured himself a fighter for his Einherjar in Valhall, because Haraldr was already from the beginning initiated and promised to Óðinn by his father Halfdan.
What Haraldr concerns might be remarked that it is still not clear if he really was a Óðinn-warrior. The story indicates indeed he is initiated to Óðinn but the name of híldit@nn still gives troble in Swedish. Hild is the valkyrie leading the Hadjings-the
fighters of Freja—and in the same time the name is also interpreted as ‘fight, battle’. This gives a hint that Haraldr might have connections to fertility and cultic fighting. In that case it is a parallel to among else the Hundings above. The Hundings, how- ever, are connected with H@ðr and hence the myth of Balðr. Since Balðr is regarded as the son of Óðinn it is maybe still feasible to suppose he is a Óðinn-warrior. To the inclination of fertility cult contributes also the fact it deals with a teriomorph mask and, as remarked, the name Hild—the valkyrie commanding the Hadjings under Freja. She appears however also in the Helgikviðae dealing with the cultic battles between Ylfings and Hundings within the cult of Balðr. The name of Halfdan also hints that the father of Haraldr is the god H@ðr (of Hadhu=Hild=fight,battle) and so naturally connected with the myth of Balðr, which impression is reinforced by Óðinns behaviour as kind of fostra ‘foster-father’. The Eddic poem Hyndluljód also says of Haraldr and his kin that: þeir vóro gumnar goðom signaðir (they were blessed by the high gods). The fight between Haraldr and his nephew hringr reminds in a way of the cultic fight between the Ylfings and the Hundings and the name by-name hringr also points towards the ring Draupnir, i.e. the sun. The saga may contain a deep lying base from the myth of Balðr having been embroidered and adjusted to the aims of the storyteller.
In the description of the Brávalla-battle, one of the leading motives of the saga, there is a detail significantly deviating from what you expect. Haraldr and the god, Bruno, are riding a battle-chariot with the god as driver. Some researchers have assumed a Celtic influence (e.g.Bugge) but Höfler connects to Mahabharata and Bhagavadgita, where Krishna fills the same function and later also Hermes, the pred- ecessor of Óðinn, acts a chariot driver—not an owner. He presumes a wander-myth but if learned or original is not resolved by him. Also Stig Wikander means(Wikander 1960, p.183 ff) that there are great similarities between the version of Saxo and Mahabharata concerning the battle of Kurukshetra. Magnus Wistrand attacks Wikander claiming there is no direct transfer of IE-myths since the similari- ties are too sparse, but labels the motive-area as “usual” within folk-lore.(Wistrand 1970, p.208 ff.) The problem is even treated by Marina Mundt (Mundt 1993,p.93 f.)who in polemics with Wikander claims a common origin of both Saxos version and S@gubrot in a Norwegian poem from, not the 12thc.as proposed by Wistrand,
but from the 11thc. that with regard to the motive might have been brought home
with the Varjags (the Varangs). It is however not possible to exclude the possibility that this story falls back on Indo-European mythic material having been planted in a Nordic milieu. You may recall the earlier suspicions that the Icelandic authors, and specially Snorre, used allegories and also that they were well aware of classical litera- ture and the Continental scholars. This is exellently demonstrated by Einar Pálsson. The historical reliability of the saga about Haralðr hilðit@nn accordingly must be regarded as very dubious.
Haddingr
A saga in many ways connected with the saga of Haraldr hilðit@nn is the story about the Danish king Haddingr. It is so similar that there often has been sus- pected it could be just another variant of the same saga, which however it hardly is, but there are indeed elements from the Haddingr-saga in the saga of Haraldr hilðit@nn like it is also in the story of Ívarr víðfamði. It means the raw material of these doubtless is the same as in the Haddingr-saga. It is dubious if it at all can be called a saga considering the criteria normally set for sagas demanding any kind of historical autencity at least what goes for the persons and their agenda in general. It is specially Saxo who tells about Haddingr.(Saxo Grammaticus)
In the saga Haddingr escapes to Sweden after his father has been slain by king Sviþdagr in Norway, and he is taken care of by a pair of giants, Vagnh@vde and Havle, and marries their daughter. The giants represent the fertility-cult and chaos-forces. Haddingr is hailed aboard his ship by an old man in a cloak. He demands to be allowed to come aboard. They are heading for a battle and the old man is allowed to join. He teaches Haddingr about fighting technics and specially he learns of the svinfylking—the battle plough. He is also told he shall not die in fight and his death shall be voluntary. He gains great honour and governs after his father Gram on Zealand. Before this he has among else killed Sviþdagr. Sviþdagr’s son Ásmundr and one of his sons die trying to revenge him, and another son, Uffe, defeats Haddingr who escapes to Helsingland (a landscape in Sweden), marries a king’s daughter and returns to Denmark. He finally slays Uffe but buries him with great splendour and makes his brother Hunding petty-king of Sweden. His son in law later spreads a rumour that Haddingr is dead and Hunding holds sumble over him but happens during the feast to drown in the meadbowl. Haddingr is moved by the sorrow of this fidel friend and means he shall not have hold sumble in vain, and so he hangs himself in front of his hird (his military personal guard). Before this he is said to have ridden the horse of Óðinn through the air, and he has also with help of Óðinn been able to visit the underworld. In a Icelandic poem discovered 1644 by Stephanus J. Stephanius his passing is described and also Gúdrunarkvíða II from the 10thc., verse 22 suggests
that Haddingr may be connected with the underworld:
Vóro i horni hvers kyn stafir
ristnir ok roðnir ráða ek ne máttak-
lyngfiskr langr, lanz Haddingia
The story of Haddingr is interesting but leaves a very mixed impression. This is not about a viking king from the 10thc., but has deeper roots than that. For a start it can be settled that the death-army of Freja is called the Hadjing-army which already from the beginning opens a cultic connection. The first Haddings were those Vandilic dioskurs from whom the Vandilic royal family, the Hasdings, claim their heritage and this also explains the connection of Haddingr with Denmark, from where the Vandili claimed to origin—whether Zealand or Skåne (Scania) is here less interesting.(Ohlmarks, Fornnordiskt lexikon). The Hasdings are also known to have had long hair as a sign og their divine heritage and with time the habit spread so that all noble warriors carried long hair—within the Suebian league it was arranged in a knot. Such long-haired warriors sometimes can be called Haddings. The long hair in itself must not nessecarily allways indi- cate an initiation to Óðinn but just simply to a deity.
I do indeed go that far that I claim that Haddingr with all probability is an original fertility-god. Haddingr’s father Gram is killed by Sviþdagr, who is a god who through his name-form and his marriage with Freja is clearly connected with fertility-cult and the vanir. In the younger myth he starts as an elfven but his ori- gin is very ancient and high. His mother is Groa and his stepmother Sif—both sun-, earth-, moon- and vegetation goddesses. Haddingr flees to the giants also related to elfvens and vanir. He fights Sviþdagr and defeats and kills him finally. After he has slain also Uffe he celebrates, in spite of the enmity, his funeral with a great feast in honour of him and puts his brother Hunding as a petty-king over Sweden. The story is in fact a divine saga about gods, but it may also suggest the possibility of factual, military controversy between chieftains basing their power on different religious ideas. Here that hint, however, is rather weak.
Which god, then, may have inspired to Haddingr? If we regard the Hjadningavig (the Hjadnings’ fight)it is H@gne, the father of Hild, who all the time fights Heðinn—meaning ‘hamr,guise,mask’, and as we already have settled is used about different teriomorph performances within the cult of Freja. Note however the simi- larity of the names Haddingr and H@gne. Still more interesting it will be looking to the brother of Balðr, H@ðr, coming of hadhu meaning ‘fight’ like also the name Hild. H@gne, H@ðr/Hadhu-Haddingr—all fathers of Hild, the valkyrie of battle. H@ðr slays Balðr—in certain versions through the cunning of Loki. With Saxo they fight about the same woman. In this case Heðinn ought to be Balðr. H@ðr accordingly fights himself, his own dualistic half, in the eternal fight between winter and summer and the moon-goddess/earth-goddess Nanna/Freja-Hild- takes care of the rebirth of sun every year to a new plantcycle. H@ðr is the winter fighting the summer—the dualistic half of Balðr- but he can also be regarded as an intrigator and rebel. There is accordingly a strong connection between H@ðr/Haddingr and Óðinn. In the version of Saxo H@ðr succeeds to defeat Balðr, and to take his woman, through stealing his
power-food (and maybe using henbane as a variant of mistle?). Besides he had to undertake a journey to the underworld in order to get a sword from the troll Minning and also a magical ring that would help him to defeat Balðr.(Cf. Sviþdagr gets Tirfing and Óðinn’s Draupnir is retrieved from the underworld!) During the time he was gone from Ásgárðr before his banning was ended and he found reconsil- iation, he lived with rimtursar and resar, i.e. giants. Through letting Hunding (H@ðr) drown in the mead he also succeeded to get associations of both vanir and asir cult. You think of Kvasir, of whose body the gods made kvass@l ‘simple beer’ after having drowned him in the mead-bowl, of Balðr (and through him H@ðr) having been born from the bowl of the scaldic mead—Oðr@rer—and of Óðinn who got his poetic ability and the ability to sing galders from the same source. In this story Balðr is rep- resented also by the sun-god Sviþdagr being killed by Haddingr/H@ðr. Uffe might well be ÚllR, earlier replaced as sun-god by Balðr, since the dualistic relationship of H@ðr and his brother ought to have included also the earlier sun-god, even if his name wasn’t the same. The father of Haddingr, Gram, is the famous sword of Sigmund in the V@lsungasaga, and it is given by Óðinn. The shamanistic connection through the scaldic mead is an important detail in the story and it also connects to, except the vanir, the antique gods of fertility (Dionysos et c.). Since Balðr and H@ðr are the same god and also brethren, and Hunding is the brother of a beaten enemy, so does this mean that Haddingr in fact also can be Balðr in part of the story. In that case the underground journey might be connected with the earlier related cult of Frejr in connection with his symbolic funeral. He is in any case either of these dual- istic halves. Saxo accordingly has suceeded with the artistery to compose a relatively understandable, however fragmentaric and contradictionary story which both describes the old mythology, the cult of Óðinn and, possibly, the assumed conflict betwen the cults. The earlier related tendency to allegories continues to pop up also in this saga.
Víkarr
Hálfssaga tells of king Víkarr: King Alrek in H@rðraland was engaged with a king’s dauhter by the name Sígny. There was however another beutiful woman, Geirhild, who he also found attractive when he arrived to fetch his bride. To Geirhild came a man called H@ttr/Hottr—quite simply ‘hat’. It was Óðinn him- self in disguise. H@ttr held out the prospect for her she could get Alrek for her husband if she was loyal to him. The king promised to choose the wife who could brew the best beer. Sígyn then asked Freja for help while Óðinn put his spear into Geirhilds brew and asked as a price to get what was between herself and the beer cauldron. She found it reasonable that he got her dress, which was the only thing
there between. She was however a little confused. At this occasion Alrek uttered a word of warning:
Geirhildr, gættu! gott er @l þetta, ef þvi andmarkar @ngvir fylgja; ek sé hanga á hám gálga son þinn, kona! seldan Óðni.
She got the king, but soon afterwards she gave birth to a son she had carried already when Óðinn paid his visit, and he was the one he had asked to get for a price. This son accordingly was already initiated to Óðinn and he was called Víkarr. In due time king Víkarr should depart with his fleet, but the wind was lacking and they were in a hurry. Víkarr then let himself be symbolically hanged in honour of Óðinn in a snare that thin it should burst, and he was stung with a reed-shaft instead of a spear. Óðinn however saw to it that the snare held and the reed turned into an iron spear and Víkarr died and came to Valhall. The name Víkarr is of the same type as Óðinnkarr and means the one with the sacred hair. Höfler has made a thorough examination and has shown that the nameform is of Danish origin, not Norwegian as suggested by the milieu, and hence also the saga of Víkarr must be Danish. This fits well with the fact the Haruds lived in both Danish and Norwegian areas. (Höfler 1952, p.159 f.) Further may be remarked that the reed-shaft intended to symbolise a spear, but who turned into a real one, clearly reminds of Mistilteinn in the myth of Balðr, but together with the other details the story seems to contain a reliable description of a sacrifice and/or initi- ation to Óðinn. Here also the god himself fetches his initiated hero to Valhall in full compliance with the standard protocol.