THE SCENE: The next time you have a problem with a crazy lion, try squealing like a pig. Stops ’em dead in their tracks, apparently.
THE TEXT: When they had gone for just a short time, they saw the beast playing in the forest. The lion was showing its strength, casting its own tail in a ring around oak trees and pulling them up by the roots. Then it grabbed them with its claws and tossed them up in the air, like a cat playing with birds.
Asmund said, “How can that monster be acting like that?”
The king said, “I suppose the beast must be playing because it’s been driven crazy by drink.”
Asmund said, “I see that we’ll never get past this enemy.”
The king said, “We must try something different. Off the path here stands a tall tree trunk. There is thick forest alongside the road. You must go up the tree trunk and stand there. I’ll use you as bait for the beast, but I shall hide myself nearby. When the beast charges at you, leap into the forest, and I’ll see if I can manage to reach it. I think it’s possible that it will get itself stuck in the forest, because it’s very thick. You must squeal as loudly and as much like a pig as you can, because the beast can’t stand to hear that, and I know that that’s the only thing it’s afraid of. That’s its nature.
Asmund did as the king asked. Now it went as the king thought it would: as soon as the beast saw the man, it rushed at him with ferocity and as loudly as he could. When the beast heard this noise, it stopped still and clasped its head between its feet and pressed at its ears with its paws, for it didn’t want to hear the pig squeals. King Hrolf then rushed up and struck with his sword and cut through the beast’s back, right in front of the hips, and the beast died in its tracks.
– The Saga of Hrolf Gautreksson, 13th Century
