"Stolt Herr Alf" ("Proud Lord Alf", SMB 206, TSB E 58) or "Álvur kongur" (CCF 14) is a medieval Scandinavian ballad with Swedish and Faroese variants,[1] based on the same legendary material as the Icelandic legendary saga Hálfs saga ok Hálfsrekka,[2] from pre-Christian times. There are two different manuscripts of this ballad in the National Library of Sweden, and some dialectal words indicate that the ballad was current in south-western Sweden before its documentation.[3]
The Norse god Odin is appealed to with an epithet which has aroused scholarly interest, and he is called Oden Asagrim, meaning "Odin, leader of the Æsir". The suffix -grim is a virtually unique word for "leader" which is otherwise only attested in the runestone Sö 126, but in the earlier form grimR. It is not attested as a noun in the sense "leader" in West Norse sources. In Old Norse, the basic meaning of the adjective Norse, Old: grimmr is "heartless, strict and wicked", and so Norse, Old: grimmr is comparable in semantics to Old Norse Norse, Old: gramr which meant both "wrath", "king" and "warrior".[4]
The ballad tells that Lord Alf's wife woke up from a nightmare. She informed her husband that she had dreamt that she had seen a stone and brick house at her father's estate in which her husband had been burnt to death with his retinue.[3]
Lord Alf told his wife that she must not worry and instead go to sleep again. The next day Lord Alf rode to his father-in-law, King Asmund, with his retinue and asked the king for a house where they could sleep during the night. King Asmund told them that they could sleep in a house at the orchard.[5]
The king then appealed to Odin:
Hielp nu Odin Asagrim Jagh tränger nu til tig kalla, At jagh må vinna her stolten Alf, At jagh blir uten skade.[6] | Odin, leader of the Æsir, I need to call upon you now, That I may defeat proud lord Alf, With no harm to myself.[7] |
Odin responded that King Asmund should bar the door of Lord Alf's house and set its gables aflame. In that way, he could defeat Lord Alf without incurring any harm.[8]
Toward the end of the ballad, the people decide to take vengeance and slay King Asmund because he refused to pay weregild - usual punishment, according to medieval Scandinavian laws when a killer refuses to pay weregild[8] (as in the story) or commits quickfire.[9]