THE SCENE: King Hrolf Kraki, in a desperate bid to delay the pursuing army of King Adils, throws a legendary ring (Svinagris) to the ground. When Adils stoops to pick it up, Hrolfs inflicts a wound that is as humiliating as it is horrifying.
THE TEXT: Adils, wanting above all else to retrieve the ring Svinagris, reached out with the shaft of his spear to the spot where the ring lay. He bent down over his horse and guided his spear through the hole of the ring. Seeing what Adils was doing, Hrolf turned his horse around and said, “I have made the greatest of the Swedes stoop like a swine.” Then, just as King Adils was pulling the spear shaft with the ring on it back towards him, King Hrolf galloped up and sliced off both his buttocks right down to the bone. King Hrolf then told King Adils to endure this shame for a time. King Adils, suffering a great loss of blood, grew faint. He was forced to turn back, and the worse for the encounter. Meanwhile, King Hrolf recovered the ring Sviagris. There the two kings parted, and it is not told whether they ever met again.
– The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, 14th Century AD
