THE SCENE: Here’s hoping your Yuletime eve does not involve a disappearing feast, a magical Finn, and some very unseasonable torture.
THE TEXT: King Halfdan was entertained at a Yuletide banquet in Hathaland. Then on Yule eve there occurred a strange incident: when they had sat down to the table – and a very large number were assembled there – all food and all ale disappeared from the tables. With a heavy heart the king remained sitting, but all the others went to their homes. Now in order to find out what had caused the event, the king ordered a Finn to be seized who was reputed to be skilled in many hidden things, to make him confess the truth. He tortured him, yet got nothing out of him. The Finn turned to the king’s son Harald for help, and Harald asked the king for mercy, but in vain, then Harald let him escape, braving the king’s anger, and accompanied him himself. They came to some chieftain’s house where a great feast was being celebrated, and they were to all appearances welcomed there. And when they had remained there till spring, one day this chieftain said to Harald, “A mighty great affront your father thinks it that I took some food from him, this winter; but I shall reward you with some joyful news: your father is dead now, and you must return home. Then you have as you own all the realms he rules, and all of Norway besides.”
– The Saga of Halfdan the Black, Snorri Sturluson, 13th Century AD
