King Halfdan was at a Yule-feast in Hadeland, where a wonderful thing
happened one Yule evening. When the great number of guests assembled
were going to sit down to table, all the meat and all the ale
disappeared from the table. The king sat alone very confused in mind;
all the others set off, each to his home, in consternation. That the
king might come to some certainty about what had occasioned this event,
he ordered a Fin to be seized who was particularly knowing, and tried to
force him to disclose the truth; but however much he tortured the man,
he got nothing out of him. The Fin sought help particularly from Harald,
the king's son, and Harald begged for mercy for him, but in vain. Then
Harald let him escape against the king's will, and accompanied the man
himself. On their journey they came to a place where the man's chief had
a great feast, and it appears they were well received there. When they
had been there until spring, the chief said, "Thy father took it much
amiss that in winter I took some provisions from him,--now I will repay
it to thee by a joyful piece of news: thy father is dead; and now thou
shalt return home, and take possession of the whole kingdom which he
had, and with it thou shalt lay the whole kingdom of Norway under thee."