Halfdan the Black was driving from a feast in Hadeland, and it so
happened that his road lay over the lake called Rand. It was in
spring, and there was a great thaw. They drove across the bight called
Rykinsvik, where in winter there had been a pond broken in the ice for
cattle to drink at, and where the dung had fallen upon the ice the thaw
had eaten it into holes. Now as the king drove over it the ice broke,
and King Halfdan and many with him perished. He was then forty years
old. He had been one of the most fortunate kings in respect of good
seasons. The people thought so much of him, that when his death was
known and his body was floated to Ringerike to bury it there, the people
of most consequence from Raumarike, Vestfold, and Hedemark came to
meet it. All desired to take the body with them to bury it in their own
district, and they thought that those who got it would have good crops
to expect. At last it was agreed to divide the body into four parts. The
head was laid in a mound at Stein in Ringerike, and each of the others
took his part home and laid it in a mound; and these have since been
called Halfdan's Mounds.