THE SCENE: When the Viking champion Hialti’s lovemaking session was interrupted by the distant sound of fighting, Hialti decides to leap into action. The author of his tale, on the other hand, makes it clear that he himself would likely have remained in the bed.
THE TEXT: As it chanced, during the silence of that night Hialti, a warrior who surpassed all the other nobles of the court in his proven worth, had gone off to the country to the embraces of a wanton. When the crashes that arose from the distant fighting fell to his amazed ears, he preferred to set bravery before lust and to seek the deadly test of war rather than wallow in the smooth enticement of love. Can we guess what affection for his monarch burned in this soldier, who reckoned it better to risk his safety in obvious danger rather than save himself for pleasure. Yet he could have pretended ignorance and put forward the excuse of his absence.
– Gesta Danorum, Saxo Grammaticus, 12th Century AD
