/tg/Station 13

Dróttinn.
F.æ. JJ og GB
14. OF KING FJOLNE'S DEATH.

Fjolne, Yngve Frey's son, ruled thereafter over the Swedes and
the Upsal domains. He was powerful, and lucky in seasons and in
holding the peace. Fredfrode ruled then in Leidre, and between
them there was great friendship and visiting. Once when Fjolne
went to Frode in Sealand, a great feast was prepared for him, and
invitations to it were sent all over the country. Frode had a
large house, in which there was a great vessel many ells high,
and put together of great pieces of timber; and this vessel stood
in a lower room. Above it was a loft, in the floor of which was
an opening through which liquor was poured into this vessel. The
vessel was full of mead, which was excessively strong. In the
evening Fjolne, with his attendants, was taken into the adjoining
loft to sleep. In the night he went out to the gallery to seek a
certain place, and he was very sleepy and exceedingly drunk. As
he came back to his room he went along the gallery to the door of
another left, went into it, and his foot slipping, he fell into
the vessel of mead and was drowned. So says Thjodolf of Kvine:
--

"In Frode's hall the fearful word,
The death-foreboding sound was heard:
The cry of fey denouncing doom,
Was heard at night in Frode's home.
And when brave Frode came, he found
Swithiod's dark chief, Fjolne, drowned.
In Frode's mansion drowned was he,
Drowned in a waveless, windless sea."