In the ancient and early-medieval tales of Danish folklore and legend, it was said that a race of magical giants coexisted alongside the earliest kings of Scandinavia. As told by the storytellers, this was still the case around the reigns of the earliest Skjoldung Dynasty rulers of Denmark. In particular, giants were said to have been heavily involved in Scandinavian politics during the life of the legendary ruler, King Hadingus of Denmark (also spelled Haddingus or simplified to Hadding). According to the Danish historian, Saxo Grammaticus (c. 12th-13th centuries), a giant named Wagnhofde served as a guardian and mentor for Hadingus, who needed sanctuary during his childhood after his father, King Gram, was slain in battle by King Swipdag of the Norwegians. Wagnhofde would serve as a loyal ally for King Hadingus in the future, but the giant’s enthusiasm for Hadingus was outmatched by Wagnhofde’s daughter, a giantess named Hardgrep. Her relationship with Hadingus was curious, to say the least.
Hardgrep was a young woman when the child-king, Hadingus, arrived at Wagnhofde’s estate. The youthful king was allegedly still so young that Hardgrep had to step in and become his wetnurse. Saxo Grammaticus, in dialogue attributed to Hardgrep and directed at Hadingdus, wrote that the giantess said, “[I] gave thee the first breasts of milk in childhood, and helped thee, playing a mother’s part, duteous to thy needs” (Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, Book I, approximately pg. 6). Nevertheless, in an odd twist to their relationship, Hardgrep’s affections evolved as King Hadingus grew into adulthood. Instead of continuing her motherly role in his life, Hardgrep shifted her focus to pursuing him as a lover. She was relentless in bringing about this change, but King Hadingus resisted the advances. As told by Saxo Grammaticus, the king bluntly rejected her by saying, “the size of her body was unwieldy for the embraces of a mortal, since doubtless her nature was framed in conformity to her giant stock…” (Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, Book I, approximately pg. 6). Hardgrep, rather than feeling insulted or defeated, instead tried to get King Hadingus to reconsider by extolling the perks of having a magical giantess partner. She especially emphasized her ability to shapeshift into any form or identity that the king fancied. Hardgrep vividly enlightened Hadingus about her masterful shapeshifting talents, saying:
“Be not moved by my unwonted look of size. For my substance is sometimes thinner, sometimes ampler; now meagre, now abundant; and I alter and change at my pleasure the condition of my body…Youth, fear not the converse of my bed. I change my bodily outline in twofold wise, and am wont to enjoin a double law upon my sinews. For I conform to shapes of different figure in turn, and am altered at my own sweet will…Thus I lightly shift my body into diverse phases, and am beheld in varying wise, for changefully now cramped stiffness draws in my limbs, now the virtue of my tall body unfolds them, and suffers them to touch the cloud-tops. Now I am short and straightened, now stretch out with loosened knee; and I have mutably changed myself like wax into strange aspects…with the greater of these I daunt the fierce, while with the shorter I seek the embraces of men” (Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum, Book I, approximately pg. 6).
King Hadingus was won over by Hardgrep’s enlightening plea and their relationship, indeed, became much more intimate. On Hardgrep’s success, Saxo Grammaticus wrote, “By thus averring she obtained the embrace of Hadding; and her love for the youth burned so high that when she found him desirous of revisiting his own land, she did not hesitate to follow him…” (Gesta Danorum, Book I, approximately pg. 7). As the quote conveys, King Hadingus eventually decided to leave the sanctuary of Wagnhofde’s estate in order to press his claim to his kingdom. Wagnhofde’s daughter, Hardgrep, decided to join King Hadingus on his quest and pledged to his service the full advantage of her giant might and magical knowledge.
In many tales of folklore, legend and myth, a common theme often appears that magic, especially of the occult and forbidden kind, can be dangerous and deadly for the caster of the spell. Hardgrep, unfortunately, did not heed this warning. Instead, desiring to be useful to her beloved king’s cause, Hardgrep began to perform more complicated and controversial forms of magic. Ultimately, she even resorted to necromancy and reanimating the dead in order to glean useful information from the beyond. Saxo Grammaticus described a scene where Hardgrep and Hadingus infiltrated a funerary dwelling so that they could perform their dark arts: “[They entered] the funeral of whose dead master was being conducted with melancholy rites. Here, desiring to pry into the purposes of heaven by the help of a magical espial, she graved on wood some very dreadful spells, and caused Hadding to put them under the dead man’s tongue; thus forcing him to utter, with the voice so given, a strain terrible to hear” (Gesta Danorum, Book I, approximately pg. 7).
Unfortunately for Hardgrep and Hadingus, the spell went horribly awry. Instead of gaining knowledge from the animated soul, the pair were given only curses, both verbal and literal. Upon being awakened by the necromancy spell, the reanimated spirit berated Hardgrep and went on to utter a curse against her life. The spirit, according to Saxo Grammaticus, stated, “as ye go away from this house ye will come to the narrow path of a grove, and will be a prey to demons all about. Then she who hath brought our death back from out of void, and has given us sight of this light once more, by her prayers wondrously drawing forth the ghost and casting it into the bonds of the body, shall bitterly bewail her rash enterprise” (Gesta Danorum, Book I, approximately pg. 7).
Tragically, the spirit’s utterance turned out to be prophetic—an ironic turn of events, as knowledge about the future was exactly what Hardgrep had desired from her necromancy. In keeping with the ghost’s curse, Hadingus and Hardgrep, were indeed pursued by a malicious entity. The mysterious assailant was said to have been a corrupted giant that could use the same kind of shapeshifting tricks that Hardgrep possessed. Of all the forms the assailant could assume, it oddly chose to make its attack in the shape of an overly-large hand. As the peculiarly-shaped entity prepared for its attack, it began stalking Hadingus and Hardgrep during the dark of night.
King Hadingus had been wary ever since the necromancy incident. Therefore, he was awake and on watch when the evil shapeshifter attacked. The king, consequently, was able to alert the camp and awaken the giantess, Hardgrep, who used her own shapeshifting abilities and superhuman might to fight back against the threat. Despite the strange shape of the attacker, the assailant proved itself to be incredibly powerful. Hardgrep’s only way to save lives was for her to use all of her might to restrain the evil shapeshifter and keep it locked in place while Hadingus chopped at the creature with his weapon. This approach kept Hadingus safe, but Hardgrep sustained great injuries while restraining the evil entity. On this bizarre fight, Saxo Grammaticus wrote:
“So, while they were passing the night in the forest foretold them, in a shelter framed of twigs, a hand of extraordinary size was seen to wander over the inside of the dwelling. Terrified at this portent, Hadding entreated the aid of his nurse. Then Hardgrep, expanding her limbs and swelling to a mighty bigness, gripped the hand fast and held it to her foster-child to hew off. What flowed from the noisesome wounds he dealt was not so much blood as corrupt matter. But she paid the penalty of this act, presently being torn in pieces by her kindred of the same stock; nor did her constitution or her bodily size help her against feeling the attacks of her foes’ claws” (Gesta Danorum, Book I, approximately pg. 7).
Hardgrep, unfortunately, succumbed to her grievous wounds and died in the aftermath of the attack. Hardgrep’s father, Wagnhofde, mourned his daughter quietly, but he did not hold Hadingus responsible in any way for the death. Instead, Wagnhofde and Hadingus remained firmly allied as the king subsequently went on to reclaim his ancestral kingdom and avenge his father’s death by slaying King Swipdag of Norway.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Signe Seeks Death in the Flames of Her Bower, Wilhelm Wallander (1821 – 1888), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the National Museum of Sweden).
Sources:
- The Danish History by Saxo Grammaticus, translated by Oliver Elton (Norroena Society, 1905) and edited for reprint by Douglas B. Killings (2012).
